The significance of personal tutoring continues to increase as a result of contextual developments and the outcomes of key research on student retention and success, and yet these developments simultaneously create significant challenges in delivery within the pastoral model of personal tutoring. In addition, it remains an under-developed and under-researched area. Personal tutors’ needs and concerns have been established, and assessment of an intervention to address them has been recommended. This study examines the impact of the intervention of tailored professional development materials for tutoring within a pastoral model created in response to these issues. It reveals the usefulness of this developmental support and the need for such guidance for this work. It is argued that there are implications in terms of approaches to tutoring within this pastoral model, developmental support provision and a need for consistency of standards in personal tutoring across the sector.

Introduction: Across higher education, curriculum mapping has attracted great interest, partly driven by the need to map graduate competencies to learning and assessment for quality assurance and accreditation. Other drivers have included the need to: a) provide tools for curriculum design and renewal, b) improve communication amongst teachers and curriculum developers and c) support learning by informing students about the scope and sequence of their programs. Those embarking on curriculum mapping have sought clarification about what elements of the curriculum should be mapped, how to develop their own map or whether they should adopt externally available products. During our combined experience of mapping six different medical programs over the course of 15 years, we have frequently sought answers to these questions. However, due to the many and varying types of curriculum maps and curriculum-mapping processes that are described in the literature, answers have not been readily forthcoming. Methods:We conducted a comprehensive review of the higher education-including health professions-literature to develop a four-dimensional typology for curriculum maps, which details features related to their purpose, product, process and display. The typology was validated by testing the parameters against six curriculum maps from medical schools around Australia.

The Higher Education and Research Act established both a regulatory framework and the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) with associated metrics for student retention, progression and employability in the United Kingdom. As a key site in meeting these requirements, the significance of personal tutoring is clear. Despite this, according to existing institutional research, there is a need for developmental support, greater clarification on the requisite competencies, and adequate recognition for those undertaking this challenging role. Moreover, arguably compounding these concerns is the lack of distinct professional standards for personal tutoring and advising against which to measure effective practice, only recently addressed by the publication of The UKAT Professional Framework for Advising and Tutoring. Through a review of the literature supported by findings from a survey of practitioners, this paper discusses the need for such standards, and the skills and competencies populating them. Additionally, the usefulness of pre-existing standards pertinent to tutoring work (such as the United Kingdom Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in HE) are evaluated and the value and recognition with which personal tutoring standards could be associated are advanced. The survey supported the need for specific standards-represented by the UKAT framework-as evident from the literature. Justifications provided for both this and the opposing view are examined. Clarity for both individual practitioners and institutions was stipulated along with meaningful recognition and reward for this work which is considered highly important and yet 'invisible.' The participants and literature reviewed identify relevant content along with illuminating the debate about the relationships between personal tutoring, teaching and professional advising roles. Valuable analysis of standards, recognition and reward also emerged. This is considered by discussing the connection between standards and changes to practice, responses to policy developments and the purpose of 'standards' in comparison to 'guidance.' The paper proposes that the recent introduction and use of a bespoke framework is a necessary response to alleviate some of the current tensions which beset personal tutoring and advising in higher education.