Personal Tutors Scheme
Personal Tutors Scheme
This scheme is designed to provide members of the JCR with a direct link with a member of the SCR who is not one of their academic tutors. ‘Personal Tutors’ (also known as ‘Welfare Tutors’) serve primarily as an extra welfare provision, within the academic sphere, available for discussing issues that students may feel uncomfortable speaking to their own academic tutor about.
First years will have the opportunity to meet the tutors at a variety of occasions in their first term such as Deans’ Dinners. Hopefully during these gatherings you will find at least one of them to be someone you could speak to. For further advice on this contact Susan Burton or the JCR Academic Affairs Officer ( academicaffairs@magdjcr.co.uk ). The six tutors are:
Dr Jennifer Lau: Psychology
jennifer.lau@magd.ox.ac.uk
Professor Laurie Maguire: English Language and Literature
laurie.maguire@magd.ox.ac.uk
Dr Christine Ferdinand: Fellow Librarian
christine.ferdinand@magd.ox.ac.uk
Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth: Politics
contact via: susan.burton@magd.ox.ac.uk
Dr Rob Jacobs: Chemistry
robert.jacobs@magd.ox.ac.uk
Mr Mark Blandford-Baker: Home Bursar
mark.blandford-baker@magd.ox.ac.uk
Dr Jennifer Lau is the tutor in experimental psychology. She studied her first degree in psychology at University College London. After graduating, she worked as an assistant psychologist at Great Ormond Street Children's hospital before starting her doctoral research on the genetics of adolescent depression at the Institute of Psychiatry. Following a brief post-doctoral visiting fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, she joined the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford in October 2007. Her published research explores the development of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents with particular focus on how biological anomalies interact with the social environment to increase vulnerability to these disorders. She currently lives in College.
Mark Blandford-Baker is the Home Bursar. He lives off site but is always willing to see someone. His interests include rowing, rugby, fine wine, photography and Norfolk. He is experienced in helping students with a range of enquires and problems from money, to careers, to relationships etc. and is always happy to keep discussions confidential, as are all the Welfare Tutors.
Dr. Robert Jacobs is the Stipendiary Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at Magdalen College. This is my sixth year at the college. My research interests focus around studying the chemical and physical properties of surfaces. This encompasses a wide range of fields including, amongst others, nanotechnology, electrochemistry and biotechnology. My laboratory contains a wide variety of state of the art scientific equipment capable of many experimental methods including: scanning probe microscopy, Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy, ellipsometry and X-ray reflectometry. I am also the chairman and senior member of the Oxford University Motor Drivers' Club.
Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth (Politics) having read history at Magdalen, worked at the Palace of Westminster as a Clerk in the House of Lords 1960-97, ending up as Clerk of the Parliament 1991-97. During that time he was seconded to the Government in an attempt to reform the Lords, set up the Lords system on E.U. matters, and was concerned with numerous functional reforms. After retiring he came back to Magdalen as a Visiting Fellow, gave Waynflete Lectures on 'Parliament in a Changing World', and was kept on as special lecturer in Politics since 1998. He has also served on various Royal and other Commissions on constitutional matters, including House of Lords Reform, the Monarchy, and devolution to Wales. He is married and his wife writes children's books, has three children (two girls at university, and a boy at school) and has written on constitutional matters.
Dr. Christine Ferdinand is the Fellow Librarian at Magdalen and the Women’s Adviser in addition to her role as a Personal Tutor. The Women’s Advisership was set up soon after women were first admitted to Magdalen College – the college wanted to make sure that a senior member of college was available to help women who were adjusting to life in a previously all-male college. Women of course are fully integrated into Magdalen life now, but there are still problems women in particular might encounter in their university and college careers, and some women just prefer to talk things over with another woman. So an experienced Women’s Adviser remains part of the college welfare team.
