Transitions and choices: Graduate student mentoring for psychology honours students

Abstract

Peer mentoring programs are typically designed to support students transitioning into university. However, recent work has highlighted the importance of supporting transitions through and out of university. The Australian psychology honours year is a particularly stressful period that involves transitioning through university into the research environment and is soon followed by transitions into the workforce or postgraduate study. The School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales, Australia (UNSW) recently developed a graduate/honours peer mentoring program. Pairs of PhD students mentor small groups of honours students in monthly meetings, discussing various aspects of honours and career options. Most honours students sign up for mentoring and evaluation results show that mentees find the program helpful, most frequently acknowledging that their mentors helped them with general advice and understanding their career options. Peer mentoring can therefore support psychology student transitions through and out of university.

Effectiveness of a Peer Mentoring on University Dropout and Academic Performance

“…We have shown that peer mentoring in university environments might facilitate the transition and integration into the first year of university (Khoo et al, 2019) and might lower the levels of intention to leave (Collins et al, 2014) and actual abandonment that first year. These results support previous research which suggested that mentoring has the potential to reduce university dropout in Spain (Alonso-García, 2021).…”

“…relationships driven by mentors, who are more experienced in a particular field, and mentees, who have limited experience (Woo, 2017). Peer mentoring programs have been used to facilitate the transition and integration in the first year of university (Khoo et al, 2019), and have been shown to be related to higher levels of academic performance for undergraduates (Shauran, 2021) and lower levels of intention to leave university (Collins et al, 2014). In most mentoring programs, the satisfaction of the different agents involved (mentors, mentees, and program coordinators) is evaluated; however, the lack of evidence of the usefulness of mentoring has been claimed (Gershenfeld, 2014).…”

Mentoring in the School of Mines and Energy to Cover Student Needs: From the Newly Enrolled to the Near-Graduates

“…Because of the great advantages they offer, mentoring projects are a widespread reality around the world, with universities, research institutions, and large companies offering formal mentoring programs [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Nevertheless, each mentoring program requires adaptations to the specific circumstances of each context for mentoring relationships to be successful [23].…”

Peer mentoring: A move towards addressing inequality between PhD students

“…Although universities have the potential to provide opportunities for meaningful social interactions, it would be beneficial for students, particularly those that are most vulnerable to high attrition rates, to have access to structured programs that are dedicated to creating opportunities for social support and mentoring. Such mentoring programs for undergraduate and honours students and have been shown to be successful [9], but they are rarely organised for PhD students.…”