Academic Skills Unit

Supporting your role as a personal tutor

Personalised academic advice and guidance is at the heart of a contemporary higher education. You can advise your tutee to approach the Academic Skills Unit (ASK) if you think that their academic progress will benefit from further consideration of their thinking, writing or organisational skills.

ASK can offer confidential, one-to-one tutorials to students on any aspect of their studies at the University. This could be additional insight into writing and reading practices, strategies to improve your studies or ways of becoming more critical. The teaching approach is attentive, kind yet challenging as our aim is to encourage the student to develop their independence.

Your tutee can use your faculty learning support tutors, as well as the services provided by ASK.

Who can use ASK?

ASK is available to all students on any course or level of study (undergraduate, postgraduate or research), and one-to-one tutorials are available to all campus-based students and distance learners at the University of Portsmouth.

Distance learners can have tutorials by telephone, email or social media platforms such as Google Hangout, WhatsApp and Skype – this is dependent on what works best for the student after initial contact and discussion with the ASK tutor.

Direct and non-standard entry students may benefit from exploring what types of learning strategies and approaches are suitable and appropriate for them as a learner in this new context. Mature students returning to higher education may also want to discuss the changes in learning and teaching that have taken place since they last studied.

ASK also offers

• Online resources to support key academic skills development:
  • Downloadable handouts – bite size guidance on key academic skills.
  • ASK Moodle site (in development)
• Skills sessions/ workshops:
  • Sessions that focus on understanding, developing and building the abilities needed to succeed at University.