Government has urged university students to provide tutoring in schools, saying it will help them gain “valuable work experience” and “give back to local communities”.
The Department for Education has created guidance for universities on how they can recruit students to its flagship National Tutoring Programme, either in voluntary or paid roles.
In an email to schools, the DfE said the push was to help “ensure the longevity of tutoring and maximise the opportunity for schools to spend their government funding”.
It could be sold to students as an opportunity “to gain valuable work experience”, allow them to promote the university to school pupils and “give back to local communities”, DfE guidance says.
Heads have previously warned they are struggling to spend the grant, which subsidises the costs of tutoring. This year, schools must pay 40 per cent of costs themselves. This will rise to 75 per cent in 2023-24.
The NTP has also failed to hit a target on the number of disadvantaged children receiving tutoring.
DfE added that university students can offer “specialist subject knowledge and could help raise aspirations of your pupils”.
The idea of using undergraduate tutors has been touted by social mobility professor Lee Elliot Major, at the University of Exeter.
He told Schools Week that students working alongside qualified teachers on targeted basic literacy and numeracy help is a “win win programme – helping pupils to progress, equipping undergraduates with skills and helping some to consider a career in teaching”.
His university is trialling the approach, which has “generated a lot of interest from universities around the country,” he said. An evaluation report is due in March.
Brunel University also works with schools on tutoring, DfE said.
The new guidance states student tutors could “double up as ambassadors, promoting the university to pupils”.
If a university is an initial teacher training provider, it could also “encourage new entrants, particularly reaching students who previously haven’t considered a career in teaching by exposing them to the school environment”.
It also says universities can “act on civic and social responsibilities by encouraging students to work with disadvantaged pupils/local communities”.
The guidance provides advice on how students could do tutoring through the three routes of the NTP. The work could be voluntary or paid with training provided.
Universities could also apply to be come tuition partners – the quality assured tutoring agencies in the NTP.
Some tuition partners already use undergraduates to tutor, such as The Tutor Trust.
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