I am delighted to share this guest blog from Jessica Hayball, Training Officer from Student Support & Safeguarding, reflecting on the University’s journey in delivering mandated pastoral support staff training that aims to support both the staff and student experience of advising. Jessica reflects on session feedback and updates to date, as well as sector recognition, and next steps at Bath.
I ask student-facing colleagues yet to complete the session to book onto one of the upcoming sessions via ESS. There will be an increase in available slots throughout July, ahead of Jessica preparing the end-of-academic-year departmental completion rates.
The University’s Pastoral Support Training sits within the wider Student Experience strategic plan, however, a key priority is that it serves to provide support and guidance to the staff who hold a responsibility in supporting students. This priority has remained a central focus as I’ve developed and delivered the session over the past 2 years. Whilst only mandatory for Academic Advisors and Doctoral Supervisors, attendance is strongly recommended for all student-facing colleagues. To date, bespoke sessions have been delivered to Placement Officer teams, the Library team, and a version of the session is annually delivered to external accommodation providers. Open sessions for Professional Services and Technical Support Staff are also hosted quarterly. The training is in place to support all student-facing colleagues, as we appreciate that students approach staff across the variety of roles within departments.
Feedback and redevelopment
Bath’s Pastoral Support Training became mandatory for Academic Advisors and Doctoral Supervisors in March of 2023, after its initial pilot launching in May 2022. After undergoing some re-development in the summer of 2023, following feedback from academics who had attended the training’s first year of delivery, the session has now been attended by approximately 75% of all advisors and supervisors, with overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Feedback from the post-training evaluation survey:
The training was informative and made me reflect - a perfect balance.
Extremely beneficial session and easily the best mandated training I've done since I've joined.
A key change to the training was the implementation of the ‘Practical Guidance for Pastoral Conversations’ section. Feedback from staff called for practical tips and advice relating to those times where students brought personal matters, often emotive and complex in nature, to their advisor or supervisor. Concerns were voiced around staff’s responsibility to such students, including how they could be empathic and supportive, whilst keeping within the boundaries and limitations of their role. This section of the session aims to address those concerns, providing clear guidance around supporting students within the boundaries of the role, with active listening, phrase and language tips, followed by case studies to discuss and reflect upon. The section has been well-received by staff, with colleagues voicing how it’s improved confidence in effectively responding to student disclosures
Further staff feedback:
Very helpful suggestions on how to keep difficult conversations empathetic whilst not overreaching boundaries.
Sector Recognition
Along with Jo Stewart-Cox, a Senior Academic Advisor from Life Sciences, we recently presented at the UK Advising and Tutoring association annual conference (UKAT 2025) on Bath’s Pastoral Support Training. Speaking at the end of the second day, we were pleasantly surprised to welcome a full room of advisors and tutors from various UK universities. We discovered that there is a desire for this kind of staff training across the sector, and Bath is currently sector-leading in this area, with many institutions still in the discussion/planning stages in terms of training that supports Tutors and Advisors.
We opened our presentation with a Mentimeter question: What concerns do you or your colleagues have when it comes to supporting students as an Advisor, including when students disclose personal issues? The results echoed concerns and challenges voiced by Bath colleagues over the last two years and highlight the continued need and relevance of the Pastoral Support Training session.
As universities across the country consider the support and training that’s provided to academics around pastoral care, Bath’s training is being featured in Student Minds’ Library of Learning, as a model of best practice. The library feature provides an honest account of the training’s journey so far, detailing the positives in terms of staff and student experience of advising since the launch of the training, as well as the challenges and limitations that have arisen in delivering a university-wide, mandated session. Colleagues can access the case study online here but may need to register with the Student Minds website using their bath.ac.uk email.
Next Steps at Bath
Training sessions for academic staff continue to run regularly, and continue to be interesting and insightful sessions, with colleagues coming together from across each faculty and the School to discuss and reflect on the ever-evolving topic of supporting our student community. Sessions for student-facing Professional Services colleagues also continue, with exciting projects in the planning stages that will bring more of a focus onto supporting non-academic colleagues, who of course play an integral role in supporting students both within and beyond their studies.
In relation to our Academic Advisors and Doctoral Supervisors, our next step is to assess the impact of the training, in practice, over a prolonged period, with the Student Policy and Projects team currently working again with Jo Stewart-Cox. Qualitative data is being sought from staff who have attended the training within the past year and who will have had the opportunity to put the training into practice. The data is hoped to provide a longer-range view, gaining insight as to how the training has impacted the confidence of staff who act as Academic Advisors and/or Doctoral Supervisors, in relation to their pastoral support responsibilities. We are also interested in whether the training has changed staff practice, and if so, in what ways. Any continuing staff concerns in confidence, or gaps in knowledge regarding best practice, will be used as a basis to adapt future iterations of the training.
Sessions continue to run for Advisors and Supervisors, and student-facing Professional Services staff. Dates and information on booking onto a session can be found here: Student Support Staff Training
Thank you, Jess, for this insightful blog! Contact me directly at pro-vc-se@bath.ac.uk if you have a question or would like to suggest future topics for my blog.
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