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In universities across the country, administrators have identified a gap between institutional resources and how—or if—students use them. This rift doesn’t just affect the students' experience and compromise their ability to thrive, but it can also represent wasted funds, time, and other important resources for universities.
In the fall of 2020, Mentor Collective piloted a study at UNC Greensboro, using the Transfer2Transfer program to learn how peer mentorship can accelerate transfer students’ sense of belonging, increase their self-efficacy, and close their resource utilization gap. The central research question investigated is: does student participation in a peer mentoring program improve sense of belonging, general self-efficacy, and help-seeking skills?
Here are the core findings:
Universities’ Money and Staff Time are being Consumed by Underutilized Resources
Every year, universities make a considerable investment in academic support and co-curricular resources.
At UNC Greensboro, for example, their student resources included:
| Writing Center | Speaking Center | Career & Professional Development Services |
| Office of Accessibility | Resource Services | Counseling Center |
| Academic Achievement Center | Students First Office | Digital ACT Studios |
If students aren’t using these ample resources that are available and beneficial to them, a lot of staff time and university funding goes unused.
Institutions Need a Proactive Resource Utilization Strategy
Simply telling students about on-campus resources doesn’t do enough to close the resource utilization gap. Institutions need a proactive and intentional strategy and mechanism to ensure that... a) students know what supports are available to them and b) feel comfortable using them. Institutions need to sculpt awareness about what they provide for students, make resources more accessible, and increase the help-seeking skills of students. This is where peer mentorship can help. In the Transfer2Transfer program, Mentor Collective found that mentored students were more likely to use on-campus resources than students who weren’t part of a mentorship program.
Upper-Division Students Are an Untapped Resource
Who better to help new students access on-campus resources than upper-division students who have walked the same path before? A peer mentor at the university is well-equipped to normalize help-seeking behavior and provide important recommendations about where mentees can go for assistance in a range of different circumstances. New and transfer students might struggle with self-doubt and lack the confidence to ask how to access the resources they need. Upper-division students can destigmatize asking for help, share the experiences they went through as new students, and point them towards the resources they need to thrive at the university.
Early Peer Mentorship is Powerful
Peers play a significant role in helping new students navigate a new institution and environment. Providing a connection to a peer who has experienced the same transition leads to a longer-term outcome of enhanced sense of belonging and better understanding of available resources. The earlier in the process a peer mentor can be introduced, the better the new student’s experience is going to be. Often better than guidance from faculty, a peer mentor can remove obstacles from the process of integrating into the institution.
An Easier Way to Identify the Gaps
It’s often hard for institutions to measure intangible and non-cognitive skills like help-seeking and self-efficacy. Mentor Collective’s built-in data capture and reporting tools allows for administrators to better understand the gaps between students' needs and the available resources, and then leverage upper-division students to deliver those resources to areas they are needed most.
Conclusion
The Mentor Collective and UNC Greensboro Transfer2Transfer program study found that peer mentoring has an impact on lifelong skills like how to seek help as well as leveraging campus resources to the fullest extent. The program allows UNC Greensboro to reduce the waste of staff time and money, ultimately increasing ROI so they can set more students up for success.
Want to learn more about how Mentor Collective has supported over 200,000 students at 180+ colleges and universities through mentorship? Get in touch today to speak with one of our team and discuss how you can use mentorship to increase resource utilization at your institution.