Subject-based Student Mentoring at VU
WHO IS INVOLVED?

Five groups of people form part of any Subject-based Student Mentoring team. These include the:

The Subject Coordinator and Subject Lecturer

The staff member responsible for the subject and/or other staff who teach the subject take responsibility for the development, implementation and evaluation of the student mentoring program with the support of an SLS staff member. This includes attracting students to be mentors, training student mentors, finding ways to encourage students to participate in mentoring groups, supporting student mentors in their roles, evaluating the program both formatively and summatively.

The SLU staff member

The SLS staff member has an overall coordination role for all the Subject-based Student Mentoring Programs and helps the staff who teach the subject to develop, implement and evaluate the mentoring program.

Student Counselling Staff

Student Counselling staff take part in student mentor training, in particular giving advice and practical skills training in referral of students to useful services. They form part of the larger team available tot he students for help and advice.

The Student Mentors

The Student Mentors are students who have achieved at least a credit in the targeted subject. They are selected by the Subject Coordinator and/or other subject staff and are trained as Student Mentors. After being selected and trained, the Student Mentors work in pairs with a group of students in weekly, voluntary and informal study sessions from around week three to the end of semester. The role of the Student Mentor is to conduct a session which is fun and which reviews content already taught in away which engages students. The Student Mentors encourage the group to find answers to the questions from amongst themselves and to take unsolved questions to tutorials.

The Student Participants

Students take part in the Student Mentoring groups on a voluntary, weekly basis for approximately nine weeks of the semester. They are also requested to complete evaluation surveys.