Sarah Johnson, LLR
Rachael Smith, SoE

• Rationale
• Collaborative effort
• Current team
• Promotion
• Participation
• Feedback
• School of Education Strategies
• The Future for Academic Peer Mentors
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• Research carried out at Nottingham Trent University as part of the
HERE! Project indicates that student mentoring is a useful way in which we can support student retention and engagement in the first year of Higher Education
• Quantitative research found that poor confidence was linked to doubting and with doubters who subsequently withdrew from the university. When this was explored further, it was found that there was a correlation between increased confidence and support from fellow students
• The Student Mentor scheme was borne, supporting students with the level of writing, study skills and maths expected at university!
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NTSU
SCCO
Schools Library
Liaison
Librarians
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Business
Services
Marketing SSS
Employability
Social
Media
School
Administrator
CADQ
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• 7 Schools
– Academic writing
– Study skills
– Maths for non-maths students
• 18 Mentors
– 5 Male (Gender gap)
– Mix of ethnicity (BME attainment gap)
– 3 postgrad
– 3 mature
• 3 Lead Mentors
– 1 per campus
• Activity
– Drop-in
– Bookable sessions
– Workshops
– Tutorials
– Welcome week and Induction
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• Paid £8.71 per hour
• NTU recruitment and selection process
• 2 day residential training with 1 day top-up
• Student Mentor Log
• Student feedback on Survey Monkey
• Lead Mentor Observations
• 1 debrief per term
• Facebook group for sharing information
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• Learning and Teaching Coordinators
• Academic Liaison Team
• School Administrators
• Student Mentors
• Student Reps
• Student Ambassadors
• NTSU
• Employability Teams
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Student News on intranet
• Staff News
• Webpages
• Events calendar
• Leaflets and posters
• Wall-planner
• Workshops
• Plasma screens
• NOW Learning Room widget
• Newsletters
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Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Totals
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
5 2 3 19 1 10 3 3 0 5 0 0 21 27 3 51
1 9 9 13 7 3 0 0 0 14 0 23 38 32 9 79
0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 8 7 6 0 13
6 3 1 13 5 9 5 0 0 7 3 12 29 34 1 64
4 6 10 12 6 6 3 0 0 10 4 16 33 34 10 77
2 9 8 10 4 8 2 0 0 9 3 0 25 21 8 54
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
18 29 31 69 23 38 14 3 0 46 10 59 153 155 31 339
Bookings 14 21 24 55 21 16 10 3 0 44 9 54 112 135 24 271
Drop-ins 4 8 7 14 2 22 4 0 0 2 5 41 20 7 68
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• 52% of students said they had been referred by tutor or lecturer
• 23% of students said they had been referred by Student Mentors
• 71% of students attend only one session
• 94% of students said that their understanding had improved as a result of seeing a Student Mentor
• 88% of students said that their confidence had increased as a result of seeing a Student Mentor
• 30% said that their grades had improved as a result of seeing a
Student Mentor
• 35% of students identified themselves as being BME
• 82% of students identified themselves as being female
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“Went through my report step by step helping me plan my work and also giving me the confidence to go away and start.”
“I came away with a set of achievable targets and goals to work on over the next few weeks. This massively exceeded my expectations.”
“[Mentors] answered our questions efficiently and guided
us how to improve.”
“The benefits of student to student support have been well documented, but I’ve seen many of my students develop greater confidence, improved understanding and better study habits having spent time with a Student
Mentor in the School.”
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“The student academic mentor scheme has definitely helped raise the quality of assignment work submitted and helped support student progression”
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Student Academic Mentors: School of Education :
The SoE has the highest participation rate (30% of all mentoring activity)
Why?
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• Extending service
– Across all Schools
– More Mentors per School
• Greater numbers of BME Mentors
• More males and mature Mentors
• Embedding within culture of Schools
– Twitter
– Further self-promotion
– Monthly meetings with LTC’s
• Intern
• Webpages
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Any Questions or Feedback?
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• The HERE Project, What Works? Student Retention and Success Programme
Interim report 2008-9: http://www.slideshare.net/edfosterntu/here-projectinterim-report-20082009 [accessed 29/01/2014]
• FOSTER, E., LAWTHER, S., KEENAN, C., BATES, N., COLLEY, B. and
LEFEVER, R. 2011. The HERE Project Final Report [online]. Available at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/what-works-studentretention/HERE_Project_What_Works_Final_Report [15 January 2013]
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