Could you be a Brighton Student Mentor?

At Brighton we don’t just want students to succeed, we want them to feel good too. It’s about being part of a community that build you up and we believe that mentoring plays an important role in boosting the confidence and skills of our students.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a unique relationship where a student is matched with a volunteer mentor. The mentor is usually a professional working person who can bring years of knowledge and experience helping the student to reach their goals and build confidence.

We’re proud to offer several mentoring programmes from those focused on career goals, to those which are matched to a certain characteristic, such as background heritage or gender identity.

We offer these different types of mentors to all levels of students; undergraduate, postgraduate, part-time and full-time.

How can I become a mentor?

If you want to become a Brighton student mentor, you can apply to become a mentor through our website. You can choose a specific programme, or not, but please consider if you can commit to the time required to meet with our students before applying.

After some initial training for the mentor (and the mentee (student)), the mentor agrees to meet virtually with the student on a fortnightly basis for up to two hours. The time is spent talking, listening, and reflecting. But it differs from match to match and the mentor will do their best to work with what is best for the student. The relationship lasts for between 4-6 months. There is always support available throughout the match and the outcomes for students are better than if they hadn’t had a mentor.

“I first met with my mentor for an hour, we got to know each other, just casual. After that, we’d meet up every two weeks. I learnt so much from it because we are such similar people in terms of what we do. I think that’s why it works, he always gave me the best advice; he got me into reading, I’ve trained with his football team, it’s the little things. It has given me opportunities and I’ve never really had that before to be honest, because I didn’t know who to go to for opportunities.”
Ismail, Sport Management student

I’m a student, how can I get a mentor?

If you’re a student, and want to find a mentor, you also need to register. University staff will then meet with you and find out a bit about what you could use support with. They then look to find you the best match. The matches are made taking into account personalities and goals; as this is important in ensuring those matches work well.

You won’t necessarily be matched based on industry; for example an engineering student isn’t necessarily matched with an engineer. However, the way we match works well and the feedback from is positive:

“During my first year, I found it hard being away from my family and my confidence was low. I signed up for the mentoring programme and my mentor and I worked on building my confidence, goal setting, time management skills and they even helped me to find volunteering role at the hospital. I really saw the difference in my second year and volunteering helped me to see what working at a hospital actually looked like. I feel a calling to it.”
Ervette, Biomedical Science student