Advocacy & Advice

Aspire Higher Tuition also provides an advocacy and advice service. This is aimed at offering support to students who are having academic problems at university. You should try and talk through your problems with your designated university tutor first or academic registry. However, sometimes you may feel you need advice from an independent person who knows the academic system. For example, I remember having concerns during my own undergraduate studies which could have been remedied sooner if I had someone to talk to. I had problems with a seminar tutor in my first year, and my concerns were met with a certain degree of apathy by that department. They gave me the option to change tutor but in the end I dropped the subject as I wasn’t impressed by how they handled the situation and I didn’t feel comfortable. I should have gone in at first and asked to change the tutor. I also felt if someone more senior had complained, they would have taken it more seriously than a complaint by an 18 year old female. In addition, PhD students may drop out of their courses, amongst other reasons, due to issues with their PhD tutors or queries as to whether their work is of PhD ‘quality’. Before you make drastic decisions, it may be wise to seek advice on the various courses of action open to you. This also involves how to navigate different levels of the university hierarchy.

If you feel that you would like someone to act on your behalf in terms of communicating with the university, then Aspire Higher Tuition can offer such a service. Please note, however, that universities will not discuss cases with me due to data protection legislation, so university responses will be directed back to the student.