Session Outline

This presentation showcases our innovative mentoring model, which has significantly enhanced student engagement and satisfaction within the Department of Management for our 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 explore different mentoring approaches, understand peer practices, and learn how to impact individual students on a large scale.

The presentation is based on the experiences and work of the authors who joined LSE in 2019 in newly created mentor positions shaping 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.

Since 2019, our model, led by two professional services staff and two academics, has improved student satisfaction. This year's National Student Survey (NSS) shows a 94% satisfaction rate for Academic Support, surpassing LSE's 88% average and 2023's 85.4%. This is a significant achievement within the Russell Group and among competitors. Our mentoring model aims to:

- Engage students and add meaning to their academic journey, helping them identify and act on their intrinsic motivations. van Rooij et al. (2018) found that students with intrinsic motivation to learn could better regulate their study behaviour and were better adjusted to their degree programme after college, equipping them to deal with academic demands.

- Empower students to think independently and with their peers about their careers, work approach, and attitudes. Similar to peer tutoring, we encourage and support students to work informally on tutoring each other (see Falchikov 2001; Topping 1996; Chi et al. 2001).

- Develop soft skills, which some students lack despite their academic confidence and performance (Robles, 2012; Noah & Abdul Aziz, 2020).

- Provide a space for students to explore challenges together, creating successful interactions with the academic experience (van Rooij et al., 2018). Senior and Howard (2014) identified that friend interactions allowed students to explain concepts, relate them to real-life situations, and gain new perspectives, supporting their understanding in an academic context.

- Foster a community of learners. According to Chapman & Wong (2023), informal student–student interaction could be the most critical form of interaction in terms of student satisfaction levels. Working peer to peer can also improve how students monitor and regulate their progression (see De Backer, van Keer & Valcke, 2014).

We facilitate this through large group mentoring sessions, individual appointments, email correspondence, and departmental extracurricular activities. These efforts connect students, set clear expectations, and inform them of absenteeism consequences to improve accountability (Hassel & Lourey, 2005).

As part of our session, we will ask audience members to consider mentoring scenarios where they feel they’ve positively impacted students. We will ask how they knew, if other groups contributed to this, and if this impact could have extended further. The authors will facilitate feedback to the wider group with the intention to share best practices between peers. We will use Mentimeter to facilitate discussion.

Our presentation will balance operational details with real-life student impact. We'll also highlight how our mentoring model incorporates Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and Widening Participation (WP) principles to ensure all students receive 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

Bibliography