Introduction and the aim of the study The very first years are crucial for university students' adjustment and commitment to their studies. Tutorial services offered by their teachers can be very helpful to the fluency of the studies. The aim of this research study is to clarify what kinds of tutorial experiences students have had during their first two years at the university and how students describe themselves as learners with relation to the tutoring and teaching they have had. Grow's (1991) self-directed learning model and Vermunt and Verloop's (1999) model of congruence and friction between student- and teacher-regulation in learning constitute the frame of reference to this study. Both of these theoretical models describe relationships between different modes of teaching and learning. Method and subjects The subjects of this qualitative study were 12 university language students from two Finnish universities. They were interviewed in the spring term of their second study year. The students were asked to tell about their experiences of tutoring and teaching, their experiences of different kinds of teachers and perceptions of themselves as learners at the university level. The data is being analysed by means of fenomenographic and narrative approaches. Results The preliminary findings of the interview material indicate that students have quite diversified conceptions of tutoring, varying from seeing tutoring as general career planning to considering it as a channel of more specific practical advice. Furthermore, the findings show that teaching and tutoring methods at the university can often bring about "a constructive friction" to the freshmen: university studies challenge students to be more self- regulated than they have been used to be in their earlier study years at upper secondary school. Discussion The findings of the study suggest that students' self- regulation can be influenced by developing teaching and tutoring practices. One challenge of tutoring is to recognise different developmental stages in students' directiveness and to harmonise student and teacher regulation. References Grow, G. 1991. The staged self-directed learning model. In H. B. Long and Associated (eds.) Self-directed learning: Consensus & Conflicts. Oklahoma, 199-226. Vermunt, J. D. & Verloop, N. 1999. Congruence and friction between learning and teaching. Learning and Instruction 9, 257-280.