Study guidance and especially staff tutoring and personal study plans are very current themes in Finnish universities owing to at least four reasons. First, because of the reform of the degree structure, a shift to the two-cycle system, Ministry of Education has obliged universities to enhance their student counselling so that the degrees can be attained within expected time. Thus, enhanced study guidance is aimed at shorten the graduation times. Second, universities have started to pay more attention to quality of teaching mainly because of the implementation of quality assurance systems. One consequence of this is the investment on study guidance in order to increase student's motivation to study more target-oriented. Third, government has also stressed the importance of working life relevance in universities. In practice, this has meant that in the university act an amendment that education shall provide the student with knowledge and skills needed for independently operating as an expert and developer of the field has been added. Fourth, students have also demanded more focussed study guidance practices.Staff tutoring and personal study plans are the key forms of study guidance through which studying is tried to get more effective and target-oriented. The purpose of this presentation is to give one example of how to carry out the staff tutoring during the first academic year. In addition to that, both advantages and disadvantages of staff tutoring system are discussed. By staff tutoring is meant those actions that aim to give students help in how to set and achieve their individual goals, how to develop their learning capacity, and how to organise their studies throughout their student career. A central element of staff tutoring is that it is a reciprocal process in which both students and staff tutors have their own responsibilities. Students are expected to write their own study plan in which they reflect what kind of learners they are, what kinds of educational and professional expectations and goals they have for their studies. Furthermore, students are encouraged to think over the minor subjects that best support their professional development and to make a timetable for their studies. At the beginning of the autumn term student will have a discussion with his/her staff tutor based on the personal study plan (s)he has written. In this discussion attention is especially paid to how realistic student is with his/her views about academic studies and what kind of, if any, occupational aims (s)he has. At the end of the spring term student will have an evaluative discussion about how (s)he progressed with his/her studies and whether the occupational orientations have changed during the first year. Students are also assisted to construct their academic and professional identity by providing different kinds of supportive courses.