I am interested in establishing a student-led mentoring programme within the course I work on- Fine Art Photography at Camberwell. I work extensively with the first year, especially within their initial weeks at university, when I think peer-support would be beneficial to mitigate experiences of isolation amongst new arrivals, especially international students.
Gibbs (2015) writes about the importance of social integration to wellbeing, retention and consequently attainment, saying ‘one of the most effective ways to improve retention is to get students to form study groups’.
My initial idea is based on models I’ve heard about anecdotally, where students are grouped into ‘family’ units, with two or three first-year students are paired with a similar number of third-years. I would give them a series of tasks over several meetings during the first term – initially orientation-style activities, where the first-years would rely upon the third-years’ experience to help them find things on campus or complete challenges. The intention would be that they build an informal and sociable support network, so that the later meetings could involve going off-site to an exhibition and sharing knowledge of the local area in a way that builds confidence and friendships.
As an incentive for the third-year students to take part, the first-years that they are grouped with would be asked to support with the construction and installation of their degree shows the following summer. This was something I did as a student and remember gaining invaluable professional skills and an insight into where my own studies were heading.
I am unsure whether the project would work best by grouping international students from similar backgrounds together as this might allow them to converse in a familiar language and feel more comfortable, or whether this could potentially enhance feelings of segregation. I would be interested in feedback from colleagues about this, or any learnings they’ve had from similar schemes in the past.
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Gibbs, G. (2015). Maximising Student Learning Gain. In H. Fry, S. Ketteridge, & S. Mar-shall (Eds.), A Handbook forTeaching and Learning in Higher Education (4th ed., pp.193-208). Routledge.