Supervisions
Supervisions aren't being organised
It depends on the subject whether it is the responsibility of the college or nominally the faculty to organise supervisors for students. If a student has not been assigned a supervisor then you can encourage them to ask their DoS to find out when a supervisor will be found or if their DoS is not helpful, they should inform their personal tutor. If there is still a problem, you could give contact their DoS and perhaps also inform their personal tutor or the Senior Tutor. If the problems remains inform the CUSU academic Affairs officer who can follow it up the University through the Education Section or the Senior Tutors Education Committee.
Supervisions are at a time that is inconvenient to the student
If there is a good reason why supervisions are at a bad time for a student, for example they are a student parent and timings of supervisions make it difficult to find child care, or if they are at a really inconvenient time (e.g. 8pm at night) encourage them to talk to their supervisor or DoS and hopefully something can be arranged for them. This might be one of these situations however where you might have to point out to the student that supervisors are quite busy and can’t always be that flexible.
Students are not happy with their supervisor
Students may be unhappy for a number of reasons; they can feel that they are not learning enough from a supervisor, they might have a personality clash with them or they may feel uncomfortable with their supervisor. Talk through with them why they wish to change and then either you can speak to their college on their behalf or you could encourage them to ask their DoS if they can find a replacement supervisor or if a replacement cannot be found they could ask their DoS or personal tutor to help resolve the difficulty with the supervisor.
They are not happy with who they are being supervised with
A student might complain to you that they are being supervised with a group of people who they feel are not helping their learning, for example through intimidating them or dominating the supervision so they cannot get their questions answered. Again, either you or they can talk to their supervisor or their DoS and see if they can arrange for them to be supervised at a different time either on their own or with different people.
A student is struggling with supervision work
If a student is finding it difficult for whatever reason to complete their work in time or make supervisions, encourage them to talk to their DoS, their supervisor or their personal tutor and point out it is better to do something about it now than close to exams.