An Exploration of the Effects of the Student Mentoring Programme at the University of the Western Cape on a group of First Year Students

Abstract

Historical constraints in tertiary education in South Africa force us to look at alternative and innovative ways of ensuring that the first year student receives all the support necessary to ensure a good start to his/her academic career. Universities will increasingly have to rely on talented senior students for a range of services to students. This study will focus on the Student Mentoring Programme (SMP) of the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The SMP is a creative way of utilising the expertise of successful senior students to assist in the adjustment and academic concerns of first year students. The SMP is an initiative of the Centre for Student Counselling at UWC and aims to support the first year student in his/her academic and personal adjustment to university. It aims to develop autonomous and self-directed engagement with the academic material through co-operative learning. To this end senior students are trained to engage in a peer mentoring relationship with the first year students. The review of the literature reveals that there is a paucity of research investigating the relationship between academic performance and mentoring. Furthermore, there is no consensus as to which aspect of the mentoring relationship is instrumental in affecting change. The study investigated the relationship between academic performance (real and perceived) and participation in the SMP. This was done by statistical analysis and by investigating how the students themselves perceived, processed and understood the academic impact of the SMP. Quantitative (t-test comparison) and qualitative (focus groups) methods were employed to investigate the effects of SMP. The study concludes that the results support the notion that mentoring facilitates adjustment to and coping with the tertiary educational environment, as well as providing valuable academic support to mentees. Student adjustment and academic performance benefits significantly from involvement in the SMP.