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Academic Advisors

All students on taught programmes at Oxford Brookes will be allocated an Academic Advisor from the academic staff within your Department or School at the start of each academic year. Your Academic Advisor is a valuable contact throughout your degree who will complement the academic guidance provided within your programme. They will help you navigate all the academic aspects of university and can direct you to other support when needed, such as your Student Support Co-ordinator. They may also be the person who provides you with a reference for a job when you move on from university. 

Your Academic Advisor is your primary contact throughout your programme of study.

The name and contact details of your Academic Advisor can be found on your 'Record and Results' page in Student Information

What is my Academic Advisor's role?

Your Advisor's role is to provide you with:

  • academic feedback and development;
  • individual support;
  • information and support referral;
  • goal/target setting and monitoring of achievements.

Academic guidance from them includes helping you to:

  • develop your study skills and critical self-awareness;
  • reflect on your academic progress and gain a holistic view across the modules within your programme;
  • understand feedback on assessed work;
  • review your overall academic performance, including your developing Grade Point Average and Honours Degree Classification;
  • discuss and alleviate any barriers to learning;
  • engage with a range of developmental activities to enhance your employability;
  • consider what your options might be on completion of your programme and the steps you might need to take to achieve them.

Your Advisor can also provide you with an academic reference in line with the University guidance on preparing student references.

You don't need to have a specific ‘problem’ to be able to meet with your Academic Advisor. They will be very happy to talk to you about your general academic progress and how to improve and develop. A good starting point is to use the Academic Skills Audit before you meet to identify some specific skills that you would like to work on. You can show your Academic Advisor your skills audit and they can help you make plans to work on the areas you have identified.

How should I be in contact and meet with my Academic Advisor?

Under the Academic Advising Policy launched in September 2023, your Academic Advisor will:

  • undertake two hours of scheduled Academic Advising tutorials, per Advisee, spread across the academic year. Timetabled Academic Advising may include group and/or 1-2-1 tutorials. The format will vary across disciplines to best fit the needs of each programme. They may be in person, or online;
  • document participation in the timetabled Academic Advising Tutorials for monitoring purposes;
  • send communications across the academic year offering timely signposting to relevant information advice and guidance;
  • invite you to contact them to discuss your academic progress, successes or concerns you might need to address;
  • sign post you to other more specialised University services and support when and where appropriate.

Do make every effort to meet your Academic Advisor (virtually or in-person) when they contact you. Check your Oxford Brookes email regularly as your Academic Advisor may use this to contact you. 

You can also ask to meet with your Academic Advisor or drop in during their ’Student drop-in hours’ which are usually published on their Google calendars. Normally Academic Advisors have their Student drop-in hours included in their email signature.

What will Academic Advisor meetings consist of?

The purpose of the conversation can be agreed with you.  For example, it could be one of the following:

  • teaching - where specific teaching goals are the focus.
  • mentoring - where skills, knowledge and experience are shared/passed on.
  • coaching - a non-directive conversation between thinking equals.

Your meetings may cover:

  • academic support - including reflecting on your overall progress and learning, suggestions to help you develop, learning from your assessments, interpreting your feedback.
  • connecting with the community at Brookes - including putting you in touch with other academic and support staff, highlighting opportunities.
  • employability support - including providing references for job applications (please note, they can only do this if they have got to know you, which is another good reason for meeting with them regularly).

A record of the tutorial discussion should be made collaboratively with yourself and include agreed goals /targets you can use to review your progress. Many subject areas use 'virtual office' on Moodle for this.