Student Peer Mentoring
About our Student Peer Mentoring Service
The Student Peer Mentoring Service is available to all students as soon as they have accepted an offer to study with CCCU. The service is run by students for students and its focus is the wellbeing of our students. Student Peer Mentors are trained to provide a safe and confidential space for their fellow students to talk freely about anything and ask questions. Peer Mentors can provide reassurance, guidance and signposting to other services to help fellow students succeed through sharing their own knowledge and experience.
Why Mentoring is an important tool in Higher Education?
Student Peer Mentors help you support your students.
Research and practice have shown that the use of Peer Mentoring schemes is beneficial for both students and staff. Mentoring offers many benefits to both the Mentor and the Mentee, including an overall enhanced learning experience, improved retention, better degree outcomes, the development of key graduate employability skills, and a greater sense of belonging.
For staff and module leaders, Student Peer Mentors help you to support your students both academically and personally. At CCCU, we proudly have a diverse variety of students and staff, and to support this diversity we recruit peer mentors from various backgrounds and differing experiences - each with their own unique insight to share. If you are working to build Peer Mentoring within your course to promote and encourage diversity, targeting students with different backgounds and ethnic profiles is essential.
Student Mentoring Models Available:
Pre-arrival Peer Mentors provide online (email) reassurance and guidance to new, returning, or distant students who have not yet commenced their studies but have a conditional or firm offer to study at CCCU.
The pre-arrival peer mentoring process:
- A student may request a pre-arrival Peer Mentor as soon as they have accepted an offer to study with CCCU, but prior to them commencing their studies.
- Students are matched according to their preferences or as near as possible.
- The mentoring relationship is flexible so that it fits around students, their studies and other commitments.
- A student mentor can choose the amount of time they devote to mentoring and how many mentees they can manage.
- Both participants can change their mentor or mentee at any point.
- How the mentoring relationship will work is for both participants to agree and decide. This will form the contract/boundaries for the mentoring relationship.
Pastoral Peer Mentors provide both online or face-to-face reassurance and guidance (subject to COVID-19 regulations) to students who are currently studying at CCCU.
The Pastoral Peer Mentoring Process:
A current student can request a pastoral peer mentor at any point during their studies.
- Students are matched according to their preferences or as near as possible.
- The mentoring relationship is flexible so that it fits around students, their studies, and other commitments.
- A student mentor can choose the amount of time they devote to mentoring and how many mentees they can manage.
- Both participants can change their mentor or mentee at any point.
- How the mentoring relationship will work is for both participants to agree and decide. This will form the contract/boundaries for the mentoring relationship.
This programme has been uniquely designed for students that identify as Black, Asian, Mixed Heritage or Minority Ethnic. The programme aims to improve the experience of Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage and Minority Ethnic students, enhance learning and celebrate success and collaboration.
As mentoring provides opportunities for students to build a reciprocal relationship through empathy, listening, providing guidance and shared experiences, the Believe, Achieve, Mentor and Empower programme provides opportunities for students from a range of different cultural backgrounds to create a sense of community and shared understanding. Under the Believe, Achieve, Mentor and Empower programme, where possible students will be matched up with mentors from similar cultural backgrounds.
Course Peer Mentoring provides subject-specific facilitated study sessions. Students are trained to be Peer Assisted Learning Leaders (PALs) to help enhance student understanding of the course. Course Mentoring can be facilitated to the needs of your students and typically consist of weekly or fortnightly in person or virtual group sessions enabling reflection on taught content, to achieve a set task designed to consolidate learning. It facilitates discussion, it is not teaching, and it allows students to raise questions in a safe and confidential environment about any fears, challenges, or other issues that they may be facing.
The PAL Process:
- PALs run and facilitate peer assisted study sessions (PASS) for fellow students on their course in the level below.
- PALs provide a safe and confidential space for students to ask questions.
- PALs are trained in how to structure and lead flexible sessions so everyone can participate.
- PALs are supported by their Academic Contact (academic member of staff in their course).
- PALs do not teach, lecture, or give out the answers.
- PALs may help with problem-solving, study skills and exam techniques, as well as preparation for coursework, assignments, and presentations.
- PALs know what their students are going through because they 'have been there' and been successful.
- PALs agree with the PAL group which material they want to review, improve on, or understand better.
- PAL groups should bring lecture notes, hand-outs and/or textbooks to refer to in the session.
- PALs and the PAL groups agree together how the group will work together to form the contract/boundaries for the group.
Benefits for Staff
Staff have said that using peer mentors within their course has helped:
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students supporting each other with general enquiries, and in the use of certain systems, such as Blackboard and Turnitin. This proves particularly useful for staff as it decreases student reliance and frees up your time.
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with the reporting of issues to key course staff to aid in quicker resolutions. This helps with Student Staff Liaison Meetings as resolutions can be reported on rather than issues.
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students to develop real-life transferable graduate attributes, such as improving their leadership and presentation skills to help build self-confidence, and other skills often sought for in graduate jobs.
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with the overall health and mental wellbeing of students, enabling any issues to be made known to staff more swiftly and ensuring both student and staff have an adequate amount of time to complete assessments or other work in.
Benefits for Students
How can I get involved?
Help your students connect with a peer mentor. Students can request a mentor at any point during their studies. Simply direct them to the webpage where they complete a form to request a mentor.
Encourage your students to apply to volunteer. Peer Mentors will receive full training and support from the Peer Mentoring team and can apply for any of the Peer Mentorship roles by completing this online form.
Initiate a Course Mentor programme to support volunteers running subject-specific peer-assisted study sessions to help enhance student understanding of your course. Please get in contact with the Peer Mentoring team to discuss how to set this up.
You can contact the Peer Mentoring team for additional guidance at peermentoring@canterbury.ac.uk.