Peer Mentoring Works : In the students own words… Quotes from the research… Robin Clark & Jane Andrews Engineering Education Research Group r.p.clark@aston.ac.uk j.e.andrews@aston.ac.uk

First Year… The peer mentoring experience is something that changed me as a person to an extent. It was supporting me behind my back. I always knew that if I needed something I could ask my mentor and that secured feeling was very important at that point of time, so it gave me that… Security

First Year It gave me confidence to help me develop my personality in the university, and basically it helped me settle down and feel established. Feeling established is more important, so that helped me. That’s how I was helped by peer mentoring. Belonging

Writing Peer Mentor: Breaking barriers Basically I think it breaks barriers, because I’ve made friends with a lot of the students who I’ve done tutorials with. I see them on campus when I wouldn’t have before…. I think it breaks barriers when you’re a student. Breaking barriers

First Year SHARED EXPERIENCES Your peer mentor can explain it to you in a way you can understand, and also he or she knows how to present everything to you - how to give you advice because he has been in your place. SHARED EXPERIENCES

First Year: Tackling transition I was completely homesick in the first 2 weeks. My peer guide just kept dragging me out. Even though she knew I had friends, she just made sure I was doing something every night so I didn’t have time to get homesick. Even now we meet just for a chat, or go out for coffee or for lunch or something like that. It was good for me. Tackling transition

Peer Mentor: Help settling in For me it was knowing that you were helping someone to starting by themselves at uni…. , and just being able to say that I helped them make friends, I helped them choose modules, and I helped them settle in. Just part of that was pretty good. Help settling in

First Year Study skills I find it really, really difficult writing, like stepping up from sixth form to university and kind of writing essays then for university. And then so just to have my peer guide there just to be able to kind of … I don’t know … kind of just help me do research on it, to improve my grades. But I don’t know, I find it really, really helpful… … So I think it’s just like helpful little hints or books to look at. Study skills

Writing Peer Mentor: approachability I think we have to remember is they all come in here for peer to peer support. So they’re not looking for a lecturer… they want to be put at ease and just have a conversation about writing … that’s definitely a massive part of it, putting them at ease and offering reassurance. Then you can really start to work at any problems that they have. approachability

Writing Peer Mentor: Mutual understanding When you have a student mentoring a student it’s easier to have an informal relationship than it is when with a student and a lecturer. It’s better to talk to someone in your own age group about your work. Someone who’s more likely to understand what you’re trying to say and where you’re coming from. Mutual understanding

First Year… Help with studying The peer guides talked to us about the modules, helping us decide… … they were like, “Well do you want exams or do you want like assignments to do?” And if we said that, “Well like I’ll do this one because…” they helped us choose. And also they told us which lecturers are nice and stuff like that. Help with studying

Peer Mentor… reciprocal benefits For me being a mentor helped me become a better student. By showing my mentees how to use the library, the electronic catalogues and things I learnt more myself. When they asked me questions about studying that I didn’t know rather than loose face I went and found out. That’s benefitted me a lot. reciprocal benefits

First Year: On-going support I feel really comfortable with her so everything I need help with I ask for. She made it really clear to me that any problems I can always call her...that was one thing that I thought was really great… She said any time you need help with something I am always here for you and that is really great… On-going support

Peer Mentor Employability I think it gives you a lot of skills as well to write on your CV and to also get in placements in graduate jobs in a few years’ time. I think a lot of employees find it important, I think they value skills like that as well because they obviously have mentoring in their organisations as well. Employability

Writing Peer Mentor: Peer support But then as soon as they realise you are also a student and that they will be freer talking to you about their problems than to a member of staff ... they sometimes feel they can kind of confide in you. They find you more willing to listen to them, more ... than a staff member might be. Peer support