Student Academic Mentors – supporting teaching at NTU Sarah Johnson, LLR Rachael Smith, SoE

05 September Overview of Session: Rationale Collaborative effort Current team Promotion Participation Feedback School of Education Strategies The Future for Academic Peer Mentors

HERE project (2009) findings: 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! 05 September 20153

Collaboration 05 September SCCO NTSU Library Liaison Librarians SSS Marketing Employability CADQ Schools School Administrator Business Services Social Media

Current Team: 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 05 September 20155

Current Team: Paid £8.71 per hour NTU recruitment and selection process 2 day residential training with 1 day top-up Student Mentor LogLog Student feedback on Survey MonkeySurvey Monkey Lead Mentor Observations 1 debrief per term Facebook group for sharing information 05 September 20156

Student Academic Mentors: Promotion Learning and Teaching Co- ordinators Academic Liaison Team School Administrators Student Mentors Student Reps Student Ambassadors NTSU Employability Teams Facebook Twitter 05 September Student News on intranet Staff News Webpages Events calendar Leaflets and posters Wall-planner Workshops Plasma screens NOW Learning Room widget Newsletters

Reasons for attending a session: 05 September 20158

Seen to date 2013 – 14: 05 September 20159

Feedback from Students (n=40) 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 05 September

Example of Student Feedback: 05 September “Went through my report step by step helping me plan my work and also giving me the confidence to go away and start.” “[Mentors] answered our questions efficiently and guided us how to improve.” “I came away with a set of achievable targets and goals to work on over the next few weeks. This massively exceeded my expectations.” Example of Academic Feedback: “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.” “The student academic mentor scheme has definitely helped raise the quality of assignment work submitted and helped support student progression”

Student Academic Mentors: School of Education : The SoE has the highest participation rate (30% of all mentoring activity) Why? 05 September

The Future for Student Academic Mentors: 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 05 September

Thank you for listening Any Questions or Feedback? 05 September

References The HERE Project, What Works? Student Retention and Success Programme Interim report : interim-report [accessed 29/01/2014] interim-report FOSTER, E., LAWTHER, S., KEENAN, C., BATES, N., COLLEY, B. and LEFEVER, R The HERE Project Final Report [online]. Available at: retention/HERE_Project_What_Works_Final_Report [15 January 2013] retention/HERE_Project_What_Works_Final_Report 05 September