In this episode, Sarah Bailey, from the EMCC UK Higher Education Special Interest Group, discusses how pastoral and academic peer mentoring supports students in higher education with special guest Dr Joe Stevens. Joe is a senior law academic who has taught in a number of public universities and is currently a senior lecturer at the University of West London.

While completing his PhD, Joe became involved in his university’s Peer Academic Learning Scheme (PAL). He later trained as a supervisor before starting a PAL program at Bloomsbury Institute, where he trained leaders for several years. He has always seen the benefits of peer learning both to leaders and attendees, and has recently introduced a PAL programme at the University of West London.

Sarah and Joe discuss the key elements in creating pastoral and academic mentoring schemes, the process needed for training pastoral and academic peer mentors, and the benefits of mentoring to students, staff and the institution as a whole.

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