AS College tutor for the last six months, David Robb has been involved in skilful negotiation.

"It's certainly brought a different side of student life home to me," said the admissions tutor for the department of mechanical engineering. "Being from the admissions side of things, I usually deal with well-behaved 17 year-olds. As College tutor, you are dealing with adults; you see things which go wrong and some take a lot of time to sort out."

He has joined College tutors, David Lloyd Smith and Anna Thomas-Betts in a role which supports both undergraduates and postgraduates who may not be able to turn to their own department tutors for advice.

"Within each department are support systems," he adds. "We fill in the gaps where something is no one's immediate responsibility. If a student feels that for some reason they don't want to discuss things with their own department - they may feel victimised or have received unfair treatment such as an unfair exam result, they can come to us as a totally independent resource.

"Postgraduates pose different, but no less serious problems - some may feel a supervisor is treating them unfairly for example. We guarantee total confidentiality and won't take the matter to their department unless they want us to."

The pastoral care of students also includes being involved with student discipline. The College tutor at times needs to act as prosecutor, explaining complaints to the College disciplinary committee. Cases can vary from misuse of College computing facilities to harassment and violent behaviour. The priority of the College tutor is always to ensure that the student is treated fairly and that the College's reputation is maintained.