ABSTRACT
Coaching, mentoring, supervising and personal tutoring are the main oneto-one relationships that link a student with others, and work to support the all round student experience in terms of a mix of both educational and personal development, in an educational context. Each of these roles has the underlying intention of supporting, facilitating, enabling and empowering students to develop so that they can produce their own autonomous, owned work and can develop as learners and then as employees and fully rounded people. At any point in our work with students in universities or colleges we may be expected to carry out any one or more of these roles working one-to-one with students. Each role carries with it some similar behaviours, which need to be developed, learned and practised by the coach, mentor, supervisor or personal tutor, including:
■ engagement one-to-one with the student’s needs and development;
Some of the roles above might have slightly different meanings in the HE context to other meanings in business or even with younger students, and
you might well find yourself undertaking each of them at different times in your professional career and, even, with the same student at different times, so it is useful to consider the differences, skills and kind of relationship needed for each.
