Tutors and tutorials

Among the staff of the Physics & Astronomy department some will have specific responsibilities to you as a student.

The 1st year tutors

Dr Pieter Kok (Physics) and Dr Susan Cartwright (Astronomy) and the first year Physics team are in overall charge of the administration and organisation of your physics course.

The Year Tutor is responsible for the administration and organisation of each year’s courses in Physics and Astronomy. He or she deals with organisational problems such as timetable clashes, assigns students to lab classes and academic tutors, monitors students’ attendance and academic performance, and oversees the final assignment of module grades.

Under normal circumstances you should have no need to contact the Year Tutor, except perhaps to deal with timetable problems if your assigned lab class or tutorial group meets at a time when you have lectures in another subject. You may wish to see him or her if you feel there is some general organisational problem - for example, if you consistently get three homework assignments in one week and none in the next - but you can equally well talk to your own physics, astronomy or mathematics tutor who will pass the information on to the Year Tutor and any other people involved.

The Year Tutor will ask to see you if some aspect of your progress has been reported to him or her as unsatisfactory. This probably means you have been missing labs or lectures or failing to hand in homework. If you are summoned to such a meeting, you must go, otherwise the Year Tutor will start the formal disciplinary machinery which in the worst case could lead to your exclusion from the University.

Your personal tutor

According to University guidelines, you personal tutor "is a member of academic staff in your department who is there to help you if you are having any difficulties with your studies or personal difficulties that you are worried about or that are impacting on your studies." In other words, if you are having any problems that may affect your progress, you should talk to your tutor as soon as possible (do not wait until your progress has already been affected – it may then be too late to recover). If they cannot help you, they will be able to refer you to the relevant University support services. Note that you can ask for the details of personal tutor discussions to be kept confidential (though it may be necessary to disclose some details in order to get you the help you need).

If you are a Dual Honours student and your home department is not Physics and Astronomy, your home department will assign your "official" personal tutor. However, you are still welcome to consult your Physics tutor or Astronomy problems class leader for advice on personal or academic issues.