PSS and Faculty Collaboration: How Working Together on Large Scale Mentoring Has Transformed Academic Support for Undergraduates at a Russell Group University
Tuesday, April 8, 2025 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
ENGAGEMENT
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Session Outline
This presentation aims to showcase the operational aspects of our innovative mentoring model, which has significantly enhanced student engagement and satisfaction within the Department of Management for our cohort of 500 BSc students. We will outline the structure, relationships, and expectations from both mentors and mentees, highlighting the unique collaboration between professional services staff and academics.
By the end of this session, we hope the audience will be inspired to think about different approaches to mentoring (beyond the more traditional single faculty member delivery model), have a deeper understanding of what peers are doing in this space, and understand how to make a personal impact on individual students on a large programme level scale. We endeavour to start conversations and create connections within the audience.
The presentation is based on the experiences and work of the authors (Paulette and Stephanie) who joined LSE in 2019 in newly created mentor positions that were central to the creation of the current model on the BSc Management. Previously, faculty members were responsible for small groups of students, which proved challenging for consistency of service and didn’t contribute to building a community of learners on the programme. The refreshed model from 2019 onwards is centred around two professional services staff (the authors) and two academics (education career track) with the support of other departmental services. This change has led to continuous improvements in student satisfaction, as evidenced by our National Student Survey (NSS) results. This year, we achieved a 94% satisfaction rate for Academic Support, compared to an 88% average at LSE and 85.4% in 2023. This achievement is notable within the Russell Group and among our competitors.
Our mentoring model aims to:
Engage students and add meaning to their academic journey.
Empower students to think independently about their careers, work approach, and attitudes.
Develop soft skills that some students may lack (despite their academic confidence).
Provide a space for students to explore challenges.
Aid students in understanding their motivations.
Foster a community of learners.
To facilitate this, we run large group mentoring sessions, host individual appointments, correspond via email, and run departmental extracurricular activities in collaboration with other services in the School and/or academics to connect students.
Within this session, we want our audience not only to learn about what we do but also what others are doing in the sector in terms of organising and delivering effective mentoring. We will use Mentimeter in the way that we do with our students to gather insights from attendees about their institutions' approaches to mentoring. This will aid a comparative discussion and allow the room to understand more about what others are doing.
As part of our session, we will ask audience members (in small groups) to consider mentoring scenarios where they feel they have made a positive impact on a student or group of students. We will ask how they knew they made an impact, if there were other groups/staff/students who contributed to this, and if this impact could have extended further. The authors will facilitate feedback to the wider group. The purpose of this is to share best practice between peers.
Our presentation will balance content on the operational details of the model with the human element, showcasing the real-life impact on students. We will also touch on how our mentoring model incorporates principles of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and Widening Participation (WP), in our aim to ensure that all students have access to the support they need to succeed.
By sharing our journey and the outcomes of our mentoring model, we hope to inspire other institutions to adopt similar approaches, ultimately enhancing student engagement and success across the sector.
Learning Outcomes
- be inspired to think about different approaches to mentoring beyond the more traditional single faculty member delivery model.
- understand how to make a personal impact on individual students on a large programme level scale
Competencies
This session addresses the following competencies of the UKAT Professional Framework for Advising and Tutoring