University of Helsinki
As you’ll be starting your studies here at the UH in a couple of weeks you can be sure to find a lot of friendly faces and helping hands to make the start of your studies as easy as possible. One of the most important people you’ll encounter are our student tutors.
All our degree and exchange students will be assigned a tutor by the faculties and you will meet your tutor in the beginning of the orientation week. Each tutor will take care of a group of students, so you’ll also get to know other students from your field of study at the same time!
The task of the tutors is to assist new students in getting through the most important things during the first couple of days. The tutor can e.g. point out where the most important services on the campus and around the city are, where to register as a resident, where to get your city transport travel card and most importantly who to contact when you have more specific questions about your studies or other matters.
Tutors are your friendly guides to university life and will provide you with the information and support you need to be able to function independently after the orientation weeks. For you to get the most out of your tutoring we have made a small list of tips that will help both you and your tutor.
5 tips on how to get the most out of your tutoring
1) Be a good group member. Do your best to get to know the other students in your group and acknowledge your tutor as the leader of the group. When the tutor has something to say, listen carefully.
2) Be on time. If your tutor gives you a schedule, you should follow it. If you know you cannot make it to a meeting, let you tutor know in advance. It’s impolite to make others wait.
3) Speak only English in the tutor group. Since the tutor groups have students from various different nationalities, use English to communicate so that everyone can understand you.
4) Be ready to find information also on your own. You’ll be sharing your tutor with a group of other students so your tutor will have a lot of questions to answer. A good place to start searching for information independently is the Orientation Handbook for international students. For official matters always contact university staff first to get the right information.
5) Let the tutor know you appreciate his or her help! All our tutors work on voluntary bases so thanking them for their job will definitely make their day.