Saoirse – Bachelor of Arts/Law

It was my first year of uni. It was the second term, and I was still settling in; it was my first proper law subject, and the midterm assignment was coming up, and I just didn’t really know what I was doing, so I ended up failing the exam- which for me, was a really big blow, but I found that I had a lot of support from my lecturers. When I got that mark, it wasn’t just thrown away into the dust. I felt like even though I failed, it was illuminated, but not in a bad way. It was like, ‘this girl needs a little more support, and we’re going to help her.’ And I think that also really helped me in realising that it was my first year in university. I’m still finding my way in my second year, and it’s okay to fail sometimes. This is all so new, and you can’t expect yourself to know exactly what you’re doing as soon as you start. I found, especially looking back to my first-year courses compared to now, I think that my lecturers were really engaged and making sure we knew what we were doing and leading us into some of those big exams that we’ve never even seen before. And so I found that to be really supportive.

Also, in terms of when I did fail that first year, my lecturer called me back after class. She said, ‘Anyone who got a mark around 50, you need to come to my office, and we’re going to have a discussion.’ She told me, ‘I have no doubt that you’re going to pass this course. You need to work hard.’ That made me really feel like, okay, if she believes in me, I do too. And so I think that lecturers and teachers at university, they know that you’ve come here by choice, and they know that you want to study here, you want to study your degree. So, they want to help you get through university. Sometimes, lecturers at university will offer you direct support. So, that’s what happened when I failed my exam; my lecturer said, ‘Come to my office if you failed or you’re close to failing.’ And that was a really good way for me to understand that lecturers and teachers and staff here at university want to support you in any way they can. So, sometimes it can be direct like that and that kind of makes it a little less intimidating, because they’re calling you to their office.

Another way that you can indirectly connect with teachers and staff at university is on forum pages and discussion pages through your faculty. This can be really helpful; it’s a little less direct, you’ll be messaging them by your own choice, but it’s not as intimidating. I think also, in classes, it’s really important to speak up and really create a connection with your teacher., because they’re here to teach you and so that sort of relationship is established, and it means you can ask any questions you need to redirect your learning, because that is what you’re here for, really.

So my advice for any students who want to connect to their university lecturers or teachers for supper is definitely to just reach out and don’t be afraid or intimidated. This is seriously what they’re here for, and they want to help you get the best mark possible. Otherwise, they’re not doing their job correctly.

Daphne- Bachelor of Psychology (Honours)

So, tutors are students who might be further on in their study, but they’re also very well versed in the topic that they need to teach. So, they’re kind of a bit more on your level but not as intimidating as a lecturer, whereas a lecturer might be years and years into their study; very proficient in the field they’re studying in, and you might call them doctors as well. That’s also one thing that’s quite different. Tutors have really helped me in my courses because they’re a lot more approachable. I can relate to them a bit more, and I can talk to them about things that are closer in my study, like, ‘How do I apply for this?’ or ‘If I’m writing this essay, how do I structure it this way?’ They’ve been really helpful in. Whereas lecturers are more about the big picture. Of course, you can talk to them about lecture content, but also much bigger things in the field. If you have a specific area of study you’re interested in, you might ask a lecturer, ‘Hey, I’m interested in this; do you know what avenues I need to go down to approach that pathway?’ So, both tutors and lecturers have been really helpful through my studies.

I’ve reached out to tutors for help, particularly with my assignments. Let’s say I’m unsure how to structure an assignment, or there’s a specific paragraph that I think, ‘Oh I don’t think I worded this correctly but I want somebody else to run through it’- I’ve gone to tutors to double check that. Another thing I’ve gone to tutors for is if I’m stuck on an idea. For my degree, I have to write a lot of research reports, and that requires you to maybe come up with your own experiment, which can be a pretty daunting task. But tutors are more than happy to help if you’re stuck and not knowing what to do, and you kind of need a push in the right direction, that’s how tutors have been a help to me.

So the way I’ve reached out to tutors is after class, or even during class, if you just put your hand up they can come to you. After class though is a great time because it’s that limbo period where everybody is leaving but there’s also a bit of time for you to actually talk to them and get detailed feedback. Another way is email if you kind of want to synthesise your question a bit more. I find email really easy especially if you want to do numbered questions, then you can send it all at once and they usually reply back with each answer, which is amazing. So, that’s how I approach tutors for help.

So one thing when reaching out to tutors is making sure that when they give feedback to you, try not to take it too personally. Obviously, the tutors and academics are there to help you, and any feedback they give will be there to help you and it will be positioned in a good light- so that’s one thing to keep in mind. Another thing to keep in mind is just time conflicts. So, a tutor might really busy and they might not be able to get back to an email that you might send. So again, don’t take it too personally. There’s nothing wrong with just following up with a second email, “Hi, you didn’t see my email previously, but I really want this question answered. Is it okay if you answer it as soon as possible?” There’s also nothing wrong with that; to remind a tutor to answer a question.

Peter- Bachelor of Economics/Computer Science

I found the catalyst to reaching out to my tutors was, if I’m honest, one of them is that every week they’re saying, ‘Reach out to me if you need any help’, but also the fact that they know this class really well, and I’m with them each week. They give me so much information and- we all have questions. So I find the best way to get questions answered is from the tutors themselves.

I’d say a positive outcome that came out from reaching out to one of my tutors was in one of my Economics subjects. It was a math-based subject, and it was quite difficult at the beginning. And I found myself not getting questions correctly or understanding how to complete them. So, I reached out to my tutors following a class and he was able to go through some of the questions with me and actually help me understand them to the point that when it came to the assignment, I knew what to do and I was able to do well in this assignment. So, I’ve been able to connect with tutors in different ways, they’re actually accessible in more ways than you actually think.  

One of the ways that I’ve been able to engage with tutors is following a class. If they have time, maybe five minutes, I’ll be asking them a very specific question and they can help me in that moment. But they’re also available on Moodle and also email as well. I sometimes email tutors a page of work that I’m confused on, and they’re able to help in that way, which is really good.

The independent nature of university can be quite daunting when you’re coming to university. I was taken aback by the realisation that, ‘Wow, I need to be reaching out to these services, I need to be doing all these different things.’ But the best thing I can say is: take your time. You don’t have to rush into all these things. You don’t have to rush into being the perfect person at studying. It’s okay to figure things out and you can reach out as you’re figuring things out. People are there designed, ready to help you and they want to help you. And I think for me that was the biggest thing to understand, was people want to help you in university. You’re not left alone, and you’re goin g to get there towards the end.

Sweta- Bachelor of Commerce/Law

In one of my courses, for example, I really wanted some feedback on my midterm assignment because I felt like I could have done better. I was happy with my mark, but I wanted to improve more for the final exam. So, I emailed my tutor, I set up a time with him for a consultation, and he spent about twenty minutes with me, just going over each detail of my midterm assignment, giving me feedback that was personal to what I had written and what I could improve on. I used that feedback in my final exam and got a mark that I was really happy with. And it just shows that tutors and lecturers are there for you in a way that they understand you want to do better, and they will help you do better. It was important for me to reach out to the tutor because I felt they were the best person equipped to help me with the goal I had in mind, which was getting a better mark on my final exam. They know the course, they know the content, they’re the ones marking it and they’ve seen what I have written. So, I felt that reaching out to them was the best option to fulfill my goal of getting a better mark.

Tahrima- Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy & Economics

So the first time I reached out to my tutor was generally after my tutorial, just going up to them and asking, ‘Hey, I’m kind of confused about this topic, and I’d like to write about it for my assignment. Is there any way you could clarify it for me, please?’ It’s as simple as that, and he was more than happy to help me. This term actually, I also reached out to another one of my tutors, and I emailed them after my tutorial, asking, ‘Hey, I need help with my assignment. I’d like to just fluff out and bounce off ideas. Would you mind setting up a time so we can just have a chat?’ He was more than happy to do so, and when the day came, and we sat down, I just told him my ideas, and I was able to bounce off someone who knew what the assignment was and had a good idea about it. Even though he wasn’t doing the assignment for me, he was giving me a lot of pointers to help me do the assignment on my own. So, I’d definitely recommend reaching out to tutors first before other academic sources if it is a very course-specific question.

Some tips that I’d have for incoming students to reach out to the lecturers are first by drafting a really great email, starting off with introducing yourself, being very formal, so using capital letters and full stops, but also being very genuine about why you would like the help. Maybe try to introduce yourself prior to writing the email, so they know who you are. So, just even walking into the class, just saying ‘hey’ and sitting down, that’s it. You don’t need to do anything fancy, but that’s all. So, tutors and lecturers are not daunting people. They love what they do, and they’re more than happy to guide you, because they much rather you understand the content and them having to explain it three times than you walking out being confused and then thinking you’re alright.