UPWr Doctoral School with tutoring

• Modern education is about proper communication with the student
• Tutoring allows you to build a relationship between the supervisor and doctoral student based on the master-student relationship

The director of the UPWr Doctoral School, Prof. Agnieszka Noszczyk-Nowak, who has also undergone mentoring training, emphasises that the 64 hours during which 18 people learned the principles of academic tutoring not only let them acquire new skills and knowledge, but also obtain certificates to confirm this. The first group to obtain such certificates at the end of the training cycle of the School of Academic Tutors includes both members of the Council and supervisors. Another group of supervisors is currently undergoing training – again 18 people.

First of all: a tailored approach

During the sessions at the School of Tutors, the participants learn how to effectively recognise the potential of the mentee, discover and strengthen their strengths and talents, improve master-pupil relations, but also how to strengthen the authority of the lecturer, about satisfaction in teaching, how to become motivated as a lecturer and prevent professional burnout. The training programme includes getting to know the place of tutoring in higher education, good practices, elements of psychology, or writing a tutorial essay based on conversation and tutorial discussion, in which the art of asking questions is an important element. During the next meetings the participants learn how to deal with difficult tutoring situations, or how to implement and organise tutoring at a university.

Professor Sebastian Opaliński, a member of the Doctoral School Council, is in the first group to boast an academic tutor certificate, and he says the training confirmed his belief that modern education is primarily about effective communication with the student.

– The key is to approach each student individually, and tutoring is a tool that helps us do so. It lets us deal with education, and not limit ourselves to training – explains Sebastian Opaliński, admitting that university studies are often treated as getting a profession, learning specific skills, and not the ability to analyse problems, ask questions and look for solutions.

– For me tutoring is a development tool. The tutee, i.e. a student or doctoral student, is able to draw from the tutor's scientific experience and, importantly, they do not have to come from the same scientific discipline – says Prof. Opaliński.

Second of all: the courage to ask questions

As the member of the Doctoral School Council points out, "education" is often based on passively sitting at a lecture and rarely asking questions. In tutoring, the tutee can use the teacher's experience, and the teacher does not fall into the usual routine thanks to effective questions from the student, which is conducive to the emergence of the most interesting ideas, especially scientific ones. – In tutoring, we have tools that allow you to create situations of mutual benefit for both sides. Both a doctoral student and a scientist. Both sides have something to offer the other, I offer my experience and the doctoral student often has a different view on the issue – emphasises Prof. Sebastian Opaliński, admitting that he himself is from a generation that based its scientific development and decisions related to it on the master-student relationship.

– Today, people are talking about an authority crisis, resulting from universities offering mass education and, consequently, a lack of time for individual work with students. But I think another significant piece of the puzzle is fear on the part of the students. In Poland, students are often afraid to ask questions during classes, dig deeper, or say that they do not understand something or do not agree with something. Of course this is not the case for everyone, but there are not enough brave students in this regard. During my internship at Iowa State University, I met many young people who were curious about the world. There, students believe that their studies are precisely the time to ask questions and look for answers – emphasises Prof. Sebastian Opaliński, who admits that tutoring is a chance to change passivity into activity.

The School of Academic Tutors is a 64-hour development programme for people related to higher education, which ends with receiving a 1st degree Tutor Certificate. The classes give the opportunity to renew the master-student relationship, effectively develop students' talents and potential, and raise the prestige of the university. In the academic year 2021/2022 the Doctoral School has recruited 46 doctoral students: 30 as part of the quota (21 Poles and 9 foreigners), five as part of National Science Centre projects and 11 under the Implementation Doctorate programme. The foreign students are from the Philippines, Vietnam, Iran, Algeria, India, Cameroon, Nigeria and Indonesia.