Professional boundaries
Protecting yourself
On rare occasions you may have a personal tutee with complex academic or personal problems who may require specialist help. The university has a wide range of both personal and academic professional support services to which you can refer students. You can access these under Supporting and Signposting Tutees. Keep a record of any referrals that you make and if you remain concerned about the health and welfare of a particular student take advice from your Senior Tutor, the course leader or your Head of Department.
Professional boundaries
Whilst your role will be to support and guide your tutees and to help them develop, your role is not to solve their problems for them or to act in loco parentis. For some of your tutees, university may be their first time away from home and they may be looking for a parent substitute. More mature students may consider you their peer or friend. Whilst you should be seen as a trusted point of contact, you need to maintain a professional position. There may be rare occasions when personal and professional boundaries begin to blur, which can become difficult and can leave you feeling out of your depth.