Peer Mentoring: The Students' Perspective

Although it has been demonstrated that mentoring can be important for first-year students there has been, to date, relatively little published on the perceptions of peer mentoring by mentees. This report assessed students' views on how they utilised the mentoring process and what structure they feel would be most appropriate. Research has consistently shown that such schemes have beneficial effects for not only both participants but also the university itself. With the increased attention on issues of retention, the experience of first-year students was the particular focus of this report. The majority of students communicated via email, texts or phone calls. The academic related topics that the students most frequently discussed appeared to be issues relating to lecture notes, essay planning and essay writing. By contrast, a third of the students discussed socialising, talked about finding their way around the university campus and talked about adjusting to living away from their family home. The majority of students agreed that they would prefer an online forum where they could meet fellow students. When asked if they would prefer to select their mentor, as opposed to a randomised process of allocation, less than a fifth of respondents expressed a preference for selection. This report suggests that provision of an online forum along with random allocation of mentors to mentees could provide an acceptable, efficient and cost-effective means to provide such a scheme.