‘I wish I’d known then what I know now’: An exploration of the value of peer mentoring throughout the undergraduate lifecycle

Ball, E (2025) ‘I wish I’d known then what I know now’: An exploration of the value of peer mentoring throughout the undergraduate lifecycle. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Abstract

Background: A growing body of research has advocated the concept of peer mentoring as an approach to support the student experience in Higher Education (HE). Indeed, evidence would suggest peer mentoring has gained widespread popularity and has been described as a process that can provide both short and long-term benefits to student’s as well as provide evidence against key performance indicators for academic institutions. The effectiveness however, of using peer mentors across the student lifecycle is currently unknown. Conducted at a post-92 university in England, the aim of this doctoral thesis was to examine the impact and effectiveness of a series of formalised peer mentor facilitated episodes on promoting and supporting the student experience. Crucially, this thesis also sought to identify how these processes could be operationalised by determining the critical design features and resource implications for future peer mentoring programmes.

Methodology: This participatory action research (PAR) study was conducted over a period of five years and included a total of n = 726 [level 4 undergraduate students n = 562; peer mentors n = 38; level 5 and 6 undergraduate students n = 126] recruited from ten undergraduate programmes. Multiple qualitative data capture techniques (i.e., photovoice, focus group interviews, qualitative survey data and textual artifacts), were used to capture the experiences of undergraduate students’ engagement with the peer mentor facilitated activities and the efficacy of these experiences over the lifecycle. Data were collected in two distinct and interconnected phases and abductive thematic analysis was used to present the empirical findings.

Findings: The findings indicate that the episodic programme of peer mentoring activities have a positive effect on the student experience across the undergraduate lifecycle. Students participation in induction activities positively impacted students transition experiences into the institution and students became more engaged, integrated, and orientated within a new HE environment. Formally scheduled networking events maintained relationships and/or promoted new ones and contributed to students’ academic and professional development. It was also established that students benefited significantly from their involvement in the peer mentoring programme and over-time developed peer/staff relationships that resembled family, community and were able to function effectively in different environments. Institutional communication and resourcing had both positive and negative implications on the effectiveness of the peer mentoring programme. A number of key functional components were found to underpin the success of the student experience success outcomes and culminate a conceptual framework being proposed.

Conclusion: This doctoral thesis provides empirical evidence to support the use of episodic peer mentor facilitated activities in positively impacting on the student experience over time. Specifically, the outcomes of this thesis show the importance of promoting psycho-social, environmental, and academic orientation during induction and across the undergraduate lifecycle. The success of this approach however, is largely determined by the administration and operationalisation of such activities, as they are influenced by multiple institutional process and resource related factors that promote and inhibit the functionality of peer mentoring activities. The knowledge obtained from this PAR study includes a conceptual peer mentoring framework that can inform future peer mentor practices within the institution and potentially HE providers more broadly. Saying that, deeper conceptual clarity and further theorisation of the peer mentoring framework developed in this thesis is now required. This framework has the potential to inform and enhance the student experience across the lifecycle, but it requires further calibration and translation across the HE sector to fully validate the veracity of the claims contained in this doctoral thesis.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Peer Mentoring; Student Lifecycle; Photovoice; Participatory Action Research
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine
Divisions:	Sport and Exercise Sciences
Date of acceptance:	16 April 2025
Date Deposited:	10 Jul 2025 16:12
Last Modified:	10 Jul 2025 16:12
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00026626
Supervisors:	Hennessy, C and Roberts, S
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26626

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