Effectiveness of first year mentoring program on increasing student sense of belonging and correlation with motivation

ABSTRACT

Context: The School of Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT) at UNSW Canberra started admitting civilian students in addition to the traditional cohort of military officer trainees in 2016. As part of this, there were concerns that these students would lack the same level of pastoral care enjoyed by their counterparts through their military training program. That, combined with some anecdotal evidence that our graduating students were expressing concerns that they did not feel included as a part of the school and that academic staff members were unapproachable, led to the formation of a first year mentoring program in 2017. Studies have demonstrated that first year students who participate in mentoring programs "failed fewer courses in the first semester and their academic status was dramatically better..." (Salinitri 2005) and have "enhanced institutional attachment" (Larose, 2011). <br /><br /> Purpose: The program itself has three main purposes: to foster a sense of belonging and inclusion for civilian students within the university structure, to contribute to pastoral care by identifying all students with academic or other problems early in their academic career, and to provide a consistent source of information to all students from the staff. An attempt is made to determine relationships between the motivation of the students and their participation in the program. We also specifically address the differences in utilization and effectiveness of the program comparing the civilian and military cohorts. <br /><br /> Approach: To evaluate the success of the mentoring program we adopted a structured approach using surveys. Two survey instruments were used - one piggybacked on an existing first year weekly survey, and another targeted survey was directed specifically at the first and second groups of students to go through the program. The students responded to a variety of questions concerning their participation in the program, the benefits they gained from it, and their motivation and subsequent feelings of belonging to the school during and after the program. <br /><br /> Results: The results revealed some severe structural problems with the implementation of the program, as contact rates were very low, and students that were contacted still reported low effectiveness. There was essentially no correlation between participation in the mentoring program with self-reported motivation or isolation levels. Although the mentoring program did not show much effectiveness overall, the civilian students involved reported increased levels of support, better knowledge of school policies, and more willingness to approach academic staff. <br /><br /> Conclusions: Overall, major structural changes to the mentoring program were recommended because of this study, particularly concerning the way students are contacted for mentoring and the participation levels of the academic staff. The major positive result was that there was some benefit for the civilian students who used it, so future implementations can build upon this.