PSP guidance provided by a teacher

As a teacher providing guidance, your task is to offer support and guidance on the content of studies and disciplines at various stages of studies in accordance with the practices of your faculty and degree programme. This includes guidance on students’ personal study plans (PSP). 

The goals of guidance are to support student progress and smooth learning processes and to promote student-centred learning. Guidance ensures that students receive sufficient and timely support for their studies. At its best, guidance supports students in building their identity as experts in their field. Guidance also promotes student wellbeing and integration into the academic community. 

As a teacher providing guidance, you act as a contact person for students in your degree programme and, if necessary, help them find, or refer them to, the correct support services. In PSP guidance, it is good to bear in mind that students are responsible for their own studies, including making choices and formulating plans.

Further information about the definition of guidance and the role of teachers is available at What does student guidance include?

Degree programmes are responsible for arranging guidance 

PSP guidance is based on the rector’s guidelines for academic supervision, guidance and progress monitoring at the University of Helsinki (PDF) (Rector’s Decision HY/201/00.00.06.00/2017).

Degree programme steering groups are responsible for the system of student guidance and its smooth functioning. They are also responsible for ensuring that each student is assigned a teacher, who advises and supports the student with the personal study plan. If a group of teachers is responsible for this guidance, their duties will be defined and communicated to the students. Related responsibilities must be included in the work plans of teaching and research staff in a clear and concrete way. 

Degree programmes have different goals and practices for guidance. Guidance may be offered under the relevant teacher’s leadership in groups or seminars or as separately agreed individual meetings. In many degree programmes, guidance meetings are included in specific courses, such as an orientation course or a course in academic expert skills.'

You can find information on guidance practices in your degree programme and faculty at the bottom of this page. The instructions on ways of implementing guidance describe how guidance can be organised and how a safe and inclusive atmosphere can be created in group guidance.

Work on the personal study plan (PSP) is a process that continues throughout the degree programme to support progress and the development of expertise. All degree requirements include drawing up a study plan in the Sisu system. In narrow terms, PSP guidance can refer to practical advice for drawing up a study plan. At its best, the process involves providing students with timely guidance supporting their studies and development as experts.

Topics such as those below can be considered collaboratively in guidance. This path visualisation (pdf) also shows some typical stages of studies and describes some of the associated questions and topics of reflection. As a teacher providing guidance, you need not have answers to all student questions. The Guidance Compass for teachers offers tips for discussing topics and information on key support services to which you can refer students.

• Integration into the study and scholarly community in the degree programme (particularly at the beginning)
• Academic expert skills, such as study and communication skills and scholarly thinking
• Ability to study at different stages of studies
• Planning degree programme studies and optional studies
• Recognition of prior learning or studies
• Scheduling exchange studies and selecting a potential host university
• Continuing to and selecting master’s studies
• Traineeships, career planning and growth into the role of an expert
• Resuming studies after a break or changing fields
• Other study-related choices and transition points

When writing a study plan, it is important to consider student resources and health so that students are able to schedule their studies based on personal resources. Individual arrangements should be discussed as part of guidance whenever you think they might benefit the student in question. If necessary, you can serve as the contact person for a student in need of such arrangements, cooperating with the faculty’s accessibility contact person or education coordinator.  

Sisu as a guidance tool

The Sisu system supports student progress monitoring and guidance. Detailed instructions for using Sisu in PSP guidance can be found at Sisu instructions: PSP guidance.

Education coordinators create guidance groups in Sisu based on the needs of each degree programme. Students can see the name of their teacher providing guidance in Sisu. As a teacher providing guidance, you can explore your students’ study plans, comment on them and respond to students’ comments. As messages and notifications are displayed only in Sisu, you should agree on related practices with students at the outset. You can also use Sisu to monitor student progress. 

Students need not submit their Sisu study plan for approval to their teacher if the plan complies with the Sisu rules. The plan is flexible and can be updated as studies progress – it need not be drafted fully at once.

You need not respond to notifications about applications and requests (e.g., relating to the degree structure). Teachers providing guidance do not process applications in Sisu. This is done by education coordinators and student advisers who consult teachers if necessary. However, as a teacher, you can see the applications the students in your group have attached to their study plans.  

• You can watch the video Sisu and Oodikone in support of guidance (in Unitube) and the recording of the orientation session for PSP teachers (in Finnish) held on 8 March 2021. 
• Further information for students about drawing up study plans can be found under Study planning and guidance in the Studies service.

Other tools and material 

• HowULearn surveys 
  Guidance discussions can draw on the results of HowULearn surveys. HowULearn supports students’ active engagement in their studies and provides individual feedback in support of studying. To obtain the survey results, you can contact the person you are guiding, the education coordinator or the degree programme director. 
• Guidance support cards (PDF)
  The support cards include questions addressing the typical academic growth of university students as their studies progress. You can also select questions from the cards and send them to students in advance for use in guidance discussions. Some faculties have created their own version of the cards. 
• Model for the ability to study (Finnish Student Health Service website)
  Developed by the Finnish Student Health Service and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the model helps in analysing factors that influence students’ ability to study. The model can be used in guidance, for example, to identify students’ current strengths, resources and challenges affecting their ability to study.
• Material bank for career planning and growth as experts
  Created by career counsellors, the material bank contains information on career planning and concrete tools in support of guidance. 
• Kudin.fi self-assessment tool and Kudin.fi guidance cards (PDF, in Finnish)
  Kudin.fi is a self-assessment tool supporting student career planning during studies. You can ask your students to complete their questionnaires of choice on the website before a guidance meeting and then use the questionnaire feedback as the basis of discussion. The Kudin.fi guidance cards are designed to support student career skills and can be used for further work on self-assessment as part of guidance. 
• A PSP for enhancing language skills
  The guidance of, in particular, international students must address the issue of Finnish and Swedish skills and their impact on employment in Finland. A ‘language PSP’, or a personal study plan for language studies, can help students in independently evaluating their language learning.
• Instructions in the Studies Service
  You can refer students to seek study-related support and information independently from the Studies Service. For example, the Guidance Compass brings together all student advice and guidance services and helps in finding the right person or unit. 

Orientation and training

You can use the Moodle training Introduction to guidance for teachers to explore the duties of teachers providing guidance or develop your guidance independently. This self-study training consists of reading, videos and short assignments. In addition, degree programmes and faculties can arrange their own information sessions for teachers providing guidance. 

The Moodle course is available in English at https://moodle.helsinki.fi/course/view.php?id=51708. No course key is required.

The Centre for University Teaching and Learning (HYPE) offers training aimed at guidance providers. Further information can be found at Education and qualifications. 

Tending to your own wellbeing

As a teacher providing guidance, it is important to understand your limits to ensure that you are able to cope. You need not know everything. If you have questions, contact the University’s guidance, counselling and advice services or ask the student to do so. The Guidance Compass for teachers outlines the most common topics emerging in guidance and describes the support services and instructions you can refer students to explore. 

If you need assistance with coping, contact your supervisor or occupational health. Further information on occupational health is available on Flamma (requires login). 

Challenging guidance situations 

You may occasionally have to navigate challenging guidance situations. For information and guidelines, see the resources on the page Challenging supervision and guidance situations. If you are concerned about a student, you can consult a study psychologist by phone, for instance. Further information is available at Support from study psychologists. 

IT support

• If you have technical problems with Sisu, you can send an email to sisu-info@helsinki.fi. 
• User support for other teaching tools can be found on the Instructions for Teaching website. 
• The IT Helpdesk can assist you if you have a technical problem involving IT services or you wish to reach your campus on-site support.