Holding sessions
What is the personal supervisor responsible for?
In holding sessions, the personal supervisor is responsible for:
- scheduling two meetings per supervisee in each of Semesters 1 and 2 for all taught UG and PGT students;
- offering at least one meeting per semester on an in-person and individual basis: the other meeting in the semester can be delivered on an individual or group basis and may be conducted virtually (e.g. over Zoom);
- holding meetings for approximately 15 minutes;
- scheduling personal supervision meetings over the summer if required by their department / school to meet the requirements of the Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing policy;
- keeping a record of meetings in e:Vision, with records made not later than two weeks after the scheduled meeting.
Holding regular sessions with students is intended to support the following outcomes:
- Contributing to a sense of belonging and community by establishing relationships between supervisors and students based on mutual respect, kindness and trust;
- Consistency of experience for students who know what to expect from personal supervision;
- Improvements in retention rates and outcomes for students;
- Ensuring advice and support is timely and appropriate depending on the stage of a student journey.
Guidance on holding sessions
1. Meetings and communication
There is no expectation that personal supervisors will be available at times outside normal working hours, or that you will schedule more than two meetings per semester. You may find Google Calendar appointment schedules useful in scheduling meetings.
To ensure students are clear about the limits of the personal supervisor role it is useful for you to:
- consider the appropriate timing of scheduled meetings to take account of anticipated student needs such as timing of assessments or feedback;
- explain how students can contact you outside of scheduled meetings, for example by using the ‘office hours’ system;
- set appropriate expectations about email responses and be mindful of department/school arrangements for this;
- make use of ‘out of office’ notifications and inclusion of emergency support links for students in crisis outside of normal working hours. Your department may have a standard template for out of office emails, if this is not the case you should insert the following text into your out of office email:
“Students: If you need wellbeing support, contact Open Door on opendoor@york.ac.uk ; or if you are in York and experiencing a mental health crisis or feel you are at risk of harming yourself please contact NHS 111 and select the mental health option, or see our In crisis now web page for more information: york.ac.uk/students/health/crisis”
2. Content for sessions
Personal supervisors are uniquely placed to support the whole student journey, from arrival and induction to graduation. To ensure session content is appropriate and timely it might be useful for you to:
- share your experience and expectations of personal supervision with supervisees early on;
- be mindful of where your supervisee is in their academic ‘journey’ and what might be expected of them at this point;
- build rapport with your supervisees by asking about their life outside York and their academic interests - finding things in common can help put students at ease;
- have some regular check-in topics for each session such as academic progress; personal wellbeing; non-academic activities or future plans so that supervisees know what to expect each time you meet.
It is not expected that all of the check-in topics will be covered in depth at every meeting and the areas of focus and level of depth will depend on the needs of individual students and will differ depending on the level of study and the time of year.
Supervision planner
You might find this personal supervisor calendar/planner helpful in planning the content of your supervision sessions. A more tailored version of this calendar may be provided by some departments/ Schools.
Personal supervisor calendar/planner
3. Keeping records
Personal supervision sessions should be recorded in e:Vision as part of the University’s Student Engagement and Wellbeing Policy. There are three elements to keeping records you should be aware of:
a. Recording attendance
The minimum requirement is for student attendance at a scheduled meeting to be recorded on e:Vision as part of the Student Engagement and Wellbeing Policy. This must be done within two weeks of the meeting (preferably on the day the meeting takes place). Please note that the record created in e:Vision is now integrated with the Check-In system, providing a complete overview of student engagement. It is, therefore, important that personal supervision sessions are recorded promptly and accurately.
b. Keeping notes
Detailed notes are not necessary, but recording key points from discussions can be a really useful way to keep track of student progress and allows for a much smoother transition to a ‘new’ or ‘temporary’ supervisor. Remember, though, that these notes won’t notify or flag any issues to any other support services. You will need to do that separately.
You should keep notes in the open text box in e:Vision (there is no need to upload separate documents) following these guidelines:
- Notes held in e:Vision are NOT confidential - professional support staff or others who have access to the student’s records will be able to read them
- Record key points from your discussion or actions in bullet point form - no need for lots of detail.
- Don’t forget that students can also view these notes - remember also that notes can be legally subpoenaed or made available via a Subject Access Request or Police Data Protection Impact Assessment procedure
- Make notes as soon as you can, ideally during the meeting or immediately after
- Any notes you do keep should only contain factual records of what was said by the student and any actions taken or recommended
- Personal thoughts or reflections should never be included, neither should other sorts of judgments
- Only record what is needed, never record more than is necessary - a useful principle is, “they told me…. we discussed…. we agreed on….”
- Students should be informed about note keeping and their right to access notes
Additional requirements if a student raises an issue you are concerned about:
- What you said to the student about confidentiality in regard to safeguarding issues
- A brief and factual account of the content of the contact or meeting with the student
- What information or advice you provided to the student
- Any involvement or discussion with other professionals and colleagues relating to the student
- What if any follow up was agreed and by when
c. Follow-up action
Being clear about any follow-up action you have taken is essential, especially where students are experiencing difficulties or you have referred them on to specialised services.
As part of your bullet points make sure you are clear about any follow-up action you have taken if appropriate (for example, contacting a Student Wellbeing Officer or the Open Door Team directly, or signposting a student to contact a specific service themselves).
Make sure to include:
- any involvement or discussion with other professionals and colleagues relating to the student, including the date and form of communication;
- if the student is signposted to a specialised service, the date and any further follow up (i.e. did you check if they had made the approach?);
- any outcome/response you received from any follow-up service/action.