“A brain to pick, an ear to listen and a push in the right direction” (John C. Crosby)

Abstract

This paper provides the context and background to a ‘Student Peer Mentoring’ scheme that was co-created with students and piloted within the Business Faculty in University of Greenwich. We reflect on sharing this experience at the annual SHIFT1 conference on Teaching, Learning and Assessment and the lessons learned that will support the further development of this scheme. Key themes that arose were around the value of mentoring to support first year students and the benefit for mentors in terms of their own self confidence and development as evidenced by their contribution to SHIFT. Lessons learnt were the need to provide more guidance to mentees in preparation for mentoring and providing supervision support to mentors to allow them to reflect on issues that arise out of mentoring. Our complex approach to evaluation was challenged given the small numbers of numbers of mentors and mentees. We concluded that qualitative evidence gives enough support for the success of this scheme. It is planned to provide mentor training to all students on a voluntary basis leading to enhanced peer relationships and support.