The Tutorial Fellowship: General Template of Duties as Approved by the Conference of Colleges

1: Introduction in text

Tutorial Fellowships represent the College side of CUF (College and University funded) and most University lecturerships. Both forms of lecturerships are joint appointments i.e. appointees are selected and funded jointly by the College(s) concerned and the University. The Tutorial Fellowship is an unusual system in research-intensive universities. Its central feature is that scholars of major research reputation are attached to particular Colleges, where they are members of an interdisciplinary community of moderate size. In those Colleges they teach, and arrange teaching for, a small cohort of undergraduates (characteristically able) in very small groups, and monitor their progress individually over the whole of their course. The Tutorial Fellowship thus holds a key place in the intellectual culture of the collegiate University of Oxford. This document, adopted by the Conference of Colleges, aims to set out the key features of this unusual role, and the general expectations that Colleges have of Tutorial Fellows whatever their allotted tutorial duties (stints) in return for the element of financial and other support (at whatever level) provided by Colleges.

The Colleges, equally concerned for the high academic status of Oxford, have the same interest as the University in seeking to appoint to Tutorial Fellowships scholars of actual or potential major research standing. In the case of joint appointments in the humanities and social sciences, the Colleges normally provide an appropriate research environment; for all joint appointments Colleges and the University jointly fund regular sabbatical research leave. The Colleges also have the same interest as the University in seeking to appoint outstanding researchers who are willing and able to engage in undergraduate and/or graduate teaching, student support and pastoral work, and administrative duties. These are key elements in being both a University Lecturer and a College Tutorial Fellow, and all need to be taken into account in making joint appointments.

Those appointed to Tutorial Fellowships are obliged to perform for the College or for the benefit of the College the stint of tutorial teaching specified in their contract or further particulars, under the supervision of each College’s Senior Tutor. The timing of tutorials and the exact numbers in them are usually matters for the individual tutor, though each College will have established conventions, and the Senior Tutor and subject colleagues will provide advice and examples of past good practice (e.g. intercollegiate teaching exchanges). Tutorial teaching is not the same as lecturing: the key element is advice and guidance on the regular production of written work, usually weekly (e.g. essay topics or problem sheets, reading lists); assessment and feedback on that written work through regular marking and/or oral comment; and (above all) appropriately directed intellectual interaction and creative dialogue with students. Appointees should have the human qualities required to relate effectively to students and their academic and personal needs.

Tutorial Fellows are normally assigned sole or joint tutorial responsibility for a defined group of students in their subject area within their College. This normally covers the following duties:

1. arrangement of tutorial and/or class teaching for each student in each term, whether the teaching is done by the tutor or another;
2. pastoral care of undergraduates reading the subject in question;
3. monitoring students’ progress through termly written reports, collections (regular tests of performance), and/or assessment of vacation work;
4. organisation of the admissions procedure for candidates applying to read the subject at the College, including interviewing and selecting students;
5. writing references for students, and dispensing careers advice;
6. appropriate liaison with College Officers;
7. recommending and selecting books for their subject area in the College Library;
8. delegation of responsibilities (a)-(g) above when on sabbatical leave, in consultation with the Senior Tutor and subject colleagues.

Tutorial Fellows normally do their tutorial teaching in rooms provided for them in Colleges or in their Departments, and should be easily contactable through their Colleges for the periods of Full Term; absences elsewhere for more than a day or two at a time during those periods should be normally require consultation with and agreement from Colleges.

The Oxford Colleges set great store on the strong pastoral support which their small communities provide for students. Here Tutorial Fellows play a key role: they will normally have responsibility for pastoral care for a defined group of undergraduates, and also act as College advisers to small groups of graduates in their general subject area. In such confidential pastoral work Fellows are typically aided by other College Officers and by professionals such as medical advisers, a Counsellor or Chaplain.

Oxford Colleges are self-governing communities with wide responsibilities. All Tutorial Fellows are members of College Governing Bodies, the sovereign bodies of Colleges. As such they are trustees as well as employees. Non-academic managerial and administrative roles are commonly performed by appropriate professionals, but in most Colleges the key roles of academic administration (Senior Tutor, Tutor for Admissions, Tutor for Graduates, Dean) are performed by academic staff for agreed limited periods (usually of several years) in return for additional stipend or partial remission of tutorial teaching duties. Tutorial Fellows are expected not only to take part in the government of the College but also to take a fair turn in performing such key academic administrative offices when asked to do by their Colleges. The normal expectation would be that every Tutorial Fellow would be willing to take on one of the key administrative roles at some stage in their career, but not normally in their probationary period of the first five years.

The duties of a Tutorial Fellow, whether a CUF or a University Lecturer, are not confined to the College. All have an obligation to give University lectures, nearly all can expect to supervise graduate students, and all have a role in contributing to the research environment in their Faculty or Department. Furthermore, they have an obligation to contribute both to discussion and to the exercise of functions at Faculty, Sub-faculty and Departmental level: to participate in debates, for instance, on the syllabus in the light of their tutorial experience, and to revise their tutorial practice in the light of discussion with colleagues in other subjects.

University examining is an important part of a tutorial fellow’s duties. All Tutorial Fellows are also members of Congregation, the sovereign legislative body within the University, and have a right to vote on matters before Congregation.