What does student guidance include?

In the University of Helsinki, guidance is defined as support for a student’s learning processes, change, development, and journey to becoming an expert (Rector’s decision 801/2017).  

As a whole, guidance consists of:

• Guidance, for which the teaching and research personnel are responsible
  • Teaching and research personnel are responsible for providing guidance in relation to the content of studies and disciplines. This includes things such as guidance related to the personal study plan (PSP) and guidance in relation to theses.
• Communications, advising and counselling, for which the university services of each area of expertise are responsible
  • University services are responsible for career counselling, advising concerning student and researcher exchange, traineeships, and degree structures, and the counselling provided by study psychologists. University services also offer support for guidance work and they produce the progress data on studies for each academic year.

Guidance is often separated from advising, which in turn refers to providing direct instructions or concrete solutions. Guidance emphasises collaboration and enhancing the student’s own agency. Good guidance is based on respectful encounters and constructive interaction.

The subject of the guidance materially influences which targets and expectations are related to the guidance situation and how the roles of the supervisor and the student are structured.

 The subjects of guidance can be placed in two categories, which are

1. products
2. student’s processes

A product refers to things such as supervising a thesis.  This means that the guidance relationship typically contains the assumption that the supervisor possesses such information about the requirements and expectations related to the subject of the guidance which the student does not yet possess.  The role of the supervisor is teacher-like.

Supervising a student’s processes refers to guidance that focuses on the student’s personal processes related to things such as building an expert identity, orientation for the future, and personal objectives.  For example, within the PSP guidance the student’s processes are often emphasised as a subject of the guidance even though the same guidance relationship may also involve supervising a product such as a study plan.

These definitions are fluid, and typically both guidance processes and encounters contain characteristics of both categories. However, there are differences in emphasis, and it is important that the supervisor understands what they are supervising and how it impacts the targets, roles and power relationships of supervision.

These instructions focus on the aspects of supervising a process. More information about supervising theses is available under the theme Supervising theses.

The role of the supervisor depends on the subject of the supervision

When providing guidance for a student’s processes, the roles are, in a sense, reversed in relation to when providing guidance for a product: the student receiving guidance is the expert on their own life i.e. the subject of the guidance. Instead of acting as a teacher or an expert on the subject of the guidance, the supervisor should converse with the student and support them; the supervisor’s actions should aim to support the student and their agency when promoting their processes.

In this case, guidance contains many situations in which

• neither party has answers to the questions arising
• emotions are a visible element of the interaction
• even the supervisor may have to endure feelings of uncertainty and ignorance, maybe even inadequacy, when faced with the student’s contemplations and concerns.

The supervisor and the student must discuss the objectives openly and together, things such as how the student would benefit from the guidance the best and which expectations the University sets for the conversation. These expectations can also deviate from one another. For example, the student may during the PSP guidance consider switching their field, which would mean discontinuing their current education. In this situation, the supervisor should be able to understand the contradicting objectives affecting the situation and, through their actions, show that they are on the student’s side.

Guidance aims to enhance the student’s agency: motivation and ownership in relation to studies, self-reflection in relation to personal knowledge, skills and resources. It is not the supervisor’s duty to do things for the student; instead, their duty is to instruct the student on how to steer their actions. Enhancing agency is closely tied to the student’s objectives, their processes of becoming an expert (and, in a broader sense, the development of their identity) and, through them, the student’s well-being and motivation to study.

The student’s agency, motivation to study and their well-being, as well as their becoming an expert, requires the student to be able to understand the connection between their studies and the rest of their life career: what interests them in their studies, what they strive for through their studies, what significance they studies have in the context of their life. Here, the supervisor can be of help by allowing the world outside academia to become part of the guidance encounter.

Studying also includes many kinds of thoughts and emotions. For instance, learning new things often leads students to feeling uncertain whether they are adequately capable or learning well enough. The uncertainty can be stressful and can create additional challenges for the students. Students are prone to comparing themselves to an ideal version of a student, and they read success stories on social media. The comparison can make the student feel like a failure or somehow abnormal even when the challenges related to the student’s studies are ordinary and expected. This is why guidance should normalise the challenges related to studying.

The supervisor must be ready to listen and to receive whatever the student wants to tell them about their situation, but they must not become burdened by the student’s stories.

Tools for guidance 

It is important that the supervisor is aware that there is no right way to study and that everyone has different ability to study. Study ability is a combination of several interconnected factors. Exploring the study ability model with the student can help to clarify this. The student can be encouraged to consider what areas they are doing well and where they need support:

• In terms of study skills and personal resources, the student can reflect with the supervisor on where they can get help and how they themselves can contribute to their situation.
• When discussing the learning environment or teaching and guidance, it is important that the supervisor listens to the student's feedback and considers what needs to be done to ensure that the study progress is not hindered.

The Guidance Compass offers information about the other operators providing students with guidance at the University and in which cases a student can be referred to them.

The instruction page concerning challenging guidance situations offers support for how to examine your own limits, and practical instructions for challenging guidance situations.

Professional benevolence as a tool and objective of guidance

One of the most important characteristics of a supervisor is their so-called professional benevolence – their strive for respectful, empathetic and ethical interaction in which the parties feel accepted, respected and safe as they are. Seeing other people, listening to them, and conversing with them are important and valuable elements of guidance.

Professional benevolence does not mean that the supervisor should resolve the student’s issues for them. The supervisor should not try to act as a therapist, psychologist, career counsellor, priest, labour services expert, immigration officer or anything else not included in the job description of a supervisor.

The key elements in guidance based on professional benevolence are

• creating a safe environment and giving the student time to examine the things occupying their mind
• allowing the world and life outside of studies to become a natural part of the conversation
• striving to help the student progress in their contemplations by, for example, listening to them, asking them questions, and examining the matter with them.

The authors listed below are career counsellors, study psychologists and guidance counsellors:

Jarkko Immonen, Anu Lehtinen, Jasmin Kurkaa, Matilda Herjanto and Taru Leikas

Sources used as background material:

Vehviläinen, S. 2014. Ohjaustyön opas: yhteistyössä kohti toimijuutta. Gaudeamus, Helsinki.                                                                      

Marttinen, E. 2017. Deciding on the Direction of Career and Life. Personal Goals, Identity Development, and Well-Being during the Transition to Adulthood. University of Jyväskylä. https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/54287/978-951-39-7094-9_vaitos17062017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (16.5.2022)