Supervising a student on a placement year
With the introduction of a consolidated Placement Year module for the whole University from 2026/27, personal supervisors will now continue to support their students if they take a year long work placement.
If one of the students you supervise secures a placement for the next academic year you will be informed by the Placements Team, based in Careers and Placements. The team will usually contact you between May and the end of June.
The Placements Team will let you know:
- when the student is going on placement
- who the Host Organisation will be
- the role that the student will be completing
- any special arrangements you may need to know such as the student moving between host organisations during the placement.
Roles and responsibilities
During their placement year, students will remain in contact with both their personal supervisor and the Careers and Placements team. Each party will have different roles and responsibilities during this time, and work together to support the student whilst away from York.
Personal supervisors
During a placement year, personal supervisors are responsible for the following areas:
- Arranging two online meetings with the student in the course of the academic year; firstly in Semester 1 (September to November) and secondly in Semester 2 (February to April)
- Maintaing email contact with the student and representing the first point of contact between the student and the University, particularly for issues relating to their return to academic studies after their placement
- Updating supervision records after each meeting in e:vision, just as they would for a student on campus.
Supervisor meeting content
During the placement year, supervisor meetings are held primarily to check on the student’s wellbeing and secondarily, their progress towards the placement module’s final assessment. Should there be any issues or doubts about either of these factors the supervisor should report this to the Placements Team (careers-placements@york.ac.uk) to discuss next steps.
You might find this personal supervisor calendar/planner for supporting students on placement helpful in planning the content of your supervision sessions.
Placements team
During a student's placement year, the Placements Team will remain in touch with students (using monthly bulletins via a VLE Placement Year module). The Placements Team are responsible for the following areas:
- Interactions with the student’s host organisation
- Support and guidance with wellbeing issues
- Monthly visa compliance meetings with the student, if relevant; the Placements Team will record these on e:vision, and will flag any arising issues with personal supervisors
- Guidance on completing the formative and summative assessments for the Placement Year module; feedback on the formative assessment will be the responsibility of the Placements Team, and the Placements Team will also manage marking and feedback on the summative assessment
- Advice around the professional conduct of the student whilst on placement; pre-departure briefings on health and safety, placement assessment and communications
- Advice on the application of the student’s experiences to longer-term career development.
Exceptions
The exceptions to the cases above are where both you and your academic department have agreed that it is appropriate that you maintain close contact with the student’s employer for wider University benefit; for example, research interests with the host organisation. This should be discussed with the Placements Team at the earliest opportunity.