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Caroline Hoyle is a Senior Lecturer in Law and the Senior Academic Advisor for the School of Social Sciences. Earlier this year she achieved professional recognition as Recognised Senior Advisor (RSA) by the UK Association of Advising and Tutoring <\/span>(UKAT<\/span><\/a>). Here she reflects on the journey,\u00a0 the benefits of applying for <\/span>professional recognition with UKAT<\/span><\/a>, and offers practical advice for others who might be considering it.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What does UKAT do?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n UKAT advances the scholarship and practice of academic advising and personal tutoring in Higher Education in the UK. They achieve this through their conferences, workshops, supporting original research, accreditations of practices, professional courses, and resources. As an Institutional Member of UKAT, all staff at the University of Manchester can join as affiliate members\u202ffree of charge.\u00a0 <\/span>As an Affiliate Member, you can gain direct access to all the member-only <\/span>resources<\/span><\/a>, access to the UKAT online <\/span>Professional Development Curriculum<\/span><\/a> and membership of any <\/span>Special Interest Groups<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Through the <\/span>UKAT Professional Recognition Scheme<\/span><\/a> academic advisors submit evidence of their practice against the competencies of the UKAT <\/span>Professional Framework for Advising and Tutoring<\/span><\/a> and the UKAT Core Values of Personal Tutoring and Academic Advising. The scheme facilitates staff development through a reflective approach to advising, supporting tutors, and enhancing academic support.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n What prompted you to apply for professional recognition with UKAT?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As a member of UKAT UoM has five <\/span>fully-<\/span>funded places annually on the professional recognition scheme.\u00a0 When a call came round via the University <\/span>Senior Academic Advisor\u2019s Network<\/span><\/a> I saw this as an opportunity to deepen my understanding of advising theory and pedagogy as well as obtaining external recognition of my leadership in advising. As the process of applying for professional recognition involves compiling reflective statements of practice, it also created space to engage in critical reflection of my own advising practice and how I lead and support other advisors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What did the process involve and what support was available?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The first step is to identify the relevant level of professional recognition (there are three<\/span>: Practitioner; Senior and Leader<\/span>). As a Senior Academic Advisor, the appropriate level for me was Recognised Senior Advisor. The UKAT handbook describes recognition at this level as demonstrating \u2018sustained effectiveness in student support through the organisation, leadership, or management of personal tutoring\/academic advising.\u2019 The application process requires candidates to compile a portfolio of evidence mapped to the competencies of the UKAT professional framework, along with reflective statements supported by references to scholarship, and action points for further professional development.\u00a0 For Recognised Senior Advisor applicants also provide a reflective account about their leadership of advising.\u00a0\u00a0 Applicants can join the scheme at any time and have 12 months to compile and submit the portfolio.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fig 1. The <\/span><\/b>four broad catego<\/span><\/b>ries of the <\/span><\/b>UKAT Professional Framework for Advising and Tutoring<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How did the process of seeking professional recognition impact on your advising practice?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The process of seeking accreditation encouraged me to delve more deeply into the literature related to academic advising theory. As an experienced academic advisor my own practice had become somewhat intuitive.\u00a0 Through deeper engagement with scholarship, I gained further insight into potential reasons for student behaviour and lack of engagement with advising. For example, I have a greater awareness of cultural barriers that mean students may be reluctant to actively reach out to advisors, and the need for advisors to be proactive and visible.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Engagement with UKAT has introduced me to a community of practice with a shared interest in advising.\u00a0 For example, UKAT\u2019s <\/span>Special Interest Groups (SIGS)<\/span><\/a> provide members with an opportunity to join others with similar interests in advising and tutoring.\u00a0\u00a0 Being part of a wider community of practice has provided an opportunity to develop my own scholarship around advising and to share ideas and good practice with Senior Tutors at other <\/span>u<\/span>niversities.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What practical advice do you have for others thinking about professional recognition.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Additional useful resources:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Drake, J., Jordan, P., and Miller, M., (eds.) (2013). <\/span>Academic Advising Approaches: Strategies That Teach Students to Make the Most of College<\/span><\/i>. 1st edn. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass<\/span>. (available online)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lochtie, D., McIntosh E., Stork A., and Walker B., (2018). <\/span>Effective Personal Tutoring in Higher Education<\/span><\/i>. 1<\/span>st<\/span> edn. 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Earlier this year she achieved professional recognition as Recognised Senior Advisor (RSA) by the UK Association of Advising and Tutoring (UKAT). Here she reflects on the journey,\u00a0 the benefits of applying for professional recognition with UKAT, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8311,"featured_media":3079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,22,16],"tags":[27,40],"class_list":["post-3078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-advising","category-professional-development","category-student-support","tag-professional-development","tag-student-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3078"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3085,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078\/revisions\/3085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/262\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-01-121208.png\")
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Leaders in Teaching (LiT)<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Getting involved in the national conversation on graduate workers<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
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