Peer Support Programmes (PSPs) have long been a feature of student engagement activity at the University of Exeter.  Peer Support at Exeter started over eight years ago, with just two discipline-specific programmes. Since then, the number of programmes has increased significantly, but throughout this period of growth the bespoke nature of the programmes has been retained.  All PSPs are student-led and, crucially, they are tailored to meet the specific needs of the student group involved.  We, the authors, are firmly of the opinion that ‘one size does not fit all’ and that tailoring every programme to the specific needs of each student group is vital if it is to be successful.  It is now recognised that engagement in interventions such as PSPs can play an important role in improving student retention and success (Thomas, 2012) and that an understanding of ‘local contexts’ can enhance the efficacy of such programmes (Thomas et al, 2017).  However, this was not as well understood when PSPs were first introduced at Exeter. This short paper seeks to present an overview of the evolution of PSPs at the University of Exeter, which may provide others with a useful insight into the development of tailored PSPs for optimal student engagement.

Digital solutions for tracking and evaluating student engagementare limited. This paper reviews the implementation of a digital solution used to transform two Student Engagement schemes at the University of Exeter: ‘Peer Learning’ and ‘Students as Change Agents’.By means of the workflow function in CareerHub, an online career management system, workflows have been created to enable the management, in one efficient platform, of student recruitment, training, tracking and learner reflection. Since all student engagement records and knowledge of interactions are in one place, asignificant reduction in administration and enhanced opportunities for effective evaluation have been achieved.Previously, student skills development and reflection to enhance student employability had not been a significant feature of either Peer Learning or Students as Change Agents. With the automated workflow, students can now access the right guidance at the right time, thereby making more effective step-by-step progress through either scheme. Students are also able to track their own progress and manage their involvement with the projects more effectively. The workflows have created clear audit trails so that these activities are verifiable and easily articulate with student Exeter Award profiles and the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR).

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