• Sustaining mentoring schemes banner image 1

      Sustaining mentoring schemes

    • Sustainable Mentoring Schemes banner 2

      Sustaining mentoring schemes

  • Mentoring schemes (similar in many ways to buddying or coaching schemes) can have a huge impact on a student’s experience at university.

    Through a one-to-one connection a student can develop personal and professional competencies and explore opportunities through the support and guidance of their mentor. Mentoring schemes can fulfil students’ needs in ways the university cannot otherwise easily provide for, so they are incredibly valuable.

    This project is about providing a set of tools and resources to support existing mentoring activity and to encourage new schemes to develop.

    Learn more about the tools and resources available to sustain mentoring schemes »

  • The Strategy for Enhancing Student Experience (SESE2) 2015-2020 states:
    'We will seek to introduce student mentoring where possible across the University' (paragraph 4.3.5).

    There are a wide variety of mentoring-type schemes in higher education.

    These range from the online e-mentoring of new students by current students on their programmes, to peer schemes where final year students use their experience to mentor those in the first year, to alumni schemes where industry professionals mentor students into the world of work from the same programme they themselves graduated from.

    Some schemes are embedded within modules or across programmes, such as practice-based schemes, whilst others are extra-curricular. There are also different mentoring schemes for university staff.

  • Case study: Inside Track on sport science

    Inside Track, our new sports mentoring scheme, can help you get on the road to a career in the sport science and coaching industry.

    When I was a performing athlete I wasn't particularly able to access any mentors. Quite often I was too scared to ask. When in fact people would have given me that information if I had just been brave enough to ask. Here we've got that set up.

    Sarah Winkless, Olympic medalist and Chair of the British Olympic Association Athletes' Commission

    Inside Track (sports mentoring scheme) event in the Abercrombie Building, Headington Campus, Oxford.

    Mentors include elite coaches, directors and heads of sport in schools and practitioners, such as physiologists and sports scientists.