Peer Partnerships in a First Year Transition Programme During Covid-19: Unmasking Student Voices

Abstract

Student voices have the potential to increase student engagement; encourage collaboration and partnerships among students, academics and student support units. This paper focuses on students as mentors, mentees and transition officers who engage with each other as partners within an institution-wide First Year Transition Programme (FYTP). The FYTP is a peer partnership intervention that is founded on the idea that students connect with other students who can identify and understand their particular experiences in adjusting to university life. This model is a collaborative peer-mentoring partnership that provides a dual layer of support that is offered to first year mentees in the transition programme. The transition programme plays an important role in creating a sense of connectedness, partnerships and self-agency that could support students in their first year. This paper highlights the partnership of the First Year Transition Officers (FYTOs) and first year mentors in supporting mentees towards a successful virtual first year university transition. Qualitative data was collected and analysed from the FYTOs and mentors' reports and a world café activity during the pandemic. The study highlights the challenges and successes of the partnership during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper draws on Leach and Zepke's conceptual organiser on student engagement to analyse the data within a broader social context on student experience. It provided us with actionable focus on how challenges could be addressed and partnerships strengthened.