Mentoring Programme

Students in their 2nd or 3rd year of a Bachelor’s Degree in Bioinformatics or in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year of a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business and Marketing.

Prospective mentors should have the following skills:

• Proactive approach.
• Keen interest in helping students settle in and in strengthening ties within the ESCI-UPF community.
• Assertiveness and ability to empathise.
• Good oral competence.
• Discretion.
• Solid understanding of how the school works and the range of services it offers and a good command of the resources required to find this information.

• Help new students settle in and play an active role at the school.
• Strengthen bonds between students.
• Empower students.
• Improve crosscutting communicative and social competences.
• Raise students’ awareness of the range of services available to them.

• Support and guide new students during their first term, and possibly for the remainder of the academic year, by giving them tips based on their own experience as first-year students, answering any queries they have about university formalities, offering them advice on how to pick subjects and think about which areas they might want to specialise in, recommending study techniques and work habits and offering them their own personal support to deal with the common causes of anxiety during their first year at university.
• Inform their mentees about the range of services on offer from both ESCI-UPF and UPF.
• Answer any queries their mentees might have and guide them towards the appropriate service, department or website where they can find the relevant information.
• Forge a proactive relationship with their mentee.
• Provide information on the range of technological and teaching tools available, including their purpose and how they work (SIGMA, Aul@ESCI, etc.)
• Create an environment for dialogue and learning between mentor and mentee that goes beyond the mere transfer of information to become a space for mutual growth.
• Contact the programme coordinator if any issues arise which the mentor is unable to deal with personally.
• Provide feedback to the programme coordinator to help identify common questions among mentees, pass on any problems they have had as mentors, put forward any suggested improvements, etc.
• Coach students on how to approach their course by stressing the increased demands of a degree course compared with their previous learning experiences at school and college.

On enrolment day, all new bachelor’s degree students at ESCI-UPF will be given the name and contact details of the volunteer they have been matched with to act as their mentor

Higher-year students who wish to be matched with a mentor may request to join the programme by applying to the annual call for volunteers at the end of the third term or by contacting the Inclusion Office

• Mentees can expect to receive personalised support to help them settle in at the school and find their feet in the university environment, together with full information on the range of services and resources available to them.
• Mentees can expect any queries, questions and personal details they share with their mentor to remain strictly confidential.
• Mentees may request to be matched with an alternative mentor if they feel mismatched.
• Mentees can expect to receive answers and solutions to their questions and queries in good time, while understanding that some questions may take longer to answer than others.

• Mentees should keep all matters discussed at their meetings with their mentor strictly confidential.
• Mentees should sign the Mentoring Agreement at the start of the programme and the mentoring record every time they attend a meeting or activity.
• Mentees should inform the programme coordinator of any incidents that occur over the course of their mentoring period.

• Campaign launched to call for students to volunteer as mentors.
• Students sign up to volunteer as mentors.
• Mentors receive training on the programme led by the programme coordinator.

• All new students are given the name and contact details of the mentor they have been matched with.
• All mentors are given the name and contact details of the mentee they have been matched with.
• Welcome session.
• First meeting between mentors and mentees (ideally in person).
• Start-of-term meetings to cover relevant issues at this point of the year.
• Volunteers are free to decide on the form their mentoring relationship will take and which actions to carry out, while ensuring that they cover all areas of interest to their mentee. This information will be shared with all volunteers at the start of term.

• Informative talk for volunteers. Open to the whole university community.
• Monitoring of mentees.
• Mentoring Agreement signed and submitted to the programme coordinator.

• Informative talk for volunteers. Open to the whole university community.
• Monitoring of mentees.

• End of term.
• End of mentoring period for volunteers who do not wish to continue to serve as mentors past this point.
• Volunteers who wish to do so may continue to serve as mentors and thereby receive course credits in recognition of this extracurricular activity.
• Feedback to the programme coordinator.

No, it is a voluntary programme. Its purpose is to help new students settle in and find their feet as they begin a bachelor’s degree at ESCI-UPF. It is also open to any higher-year students who would like to be matched with a mentor.

Volunteers should serve as mentors for at least the first term. However, mentors and mentees may mutually agree to continue their mentoring relationship for the remainder of the academic year. In this case, mentors should attend a series of monitoring activities over the course of the academic year.

Students in their 2nd or 3rd year of a Bachelor’s Degree in Bioinformatics or in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year of a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business and Marketing with a keen interest in playing an active role in welcoming new students to the school and getting to know it better themselves.

The annual call for volunteers opens at the end of the third term (in June or July).

No course credits are awarded for the initial mentoring period (first term).

Mentors may earn course credits if both mentor and mentee mutually agree to continue their mentoring relationship for the remainder of the academic year. Mentors should communicate this decision to the programme coordinator before the end of first-term classes and will be required to undertake a series of additional obligations over the course of the academic year.

No. Course credits may only be earned by completing the initial mentoring period (first term), followed by attending a series of training sessions and keeping a signed record of the meetings you hold with your mentee over the course of the same academic year.

The mentoring programme is open to any higher-year students who would like to be matched with a mentor to offer them support during their time at the school. Simply sign up when the call for volunteers opens at the end of the third term (in June or July) or contact the Inclusion Office.

• Welcome new students to the school.
• Offer support to new students during their first term or to any higher-year students who have asked to be matched with a mentor.

Mentors who decide to continue their mentoring relationship for the remainder of the academic year are required to attend group training sessions and keep a signed record of their meetings with their mentee.

The programme coordinator monitors mentors’ and mentees’ engagement with the programme over the course of the academic year.

Mentors will be required to show that they have assimilated the information provided at the sessions by taking a short test or completing a task worked on at a session, which will help them earn course credits for extracurricular activity.

Mentors are not required to prepare a report but should keep a signed record of their regular meetings with their mentee. At the end of the year, you should give feedback to the programme coordinator on your experience of the programme in general, including any specific problems that arose and any suggested improvements.

At the start of term you will be randomly matched with a higher-year student studying for the same degree as you who has volunteered to act a mentor. Your mentor will be able to draw on their own experience to help you settle in, learn the ropes, offer you advice and assistance and answer any questions or queries you might prefer not to put to members of staff at the university.

Your mentor will email you to welcome you to the school and will be on hand throughout your first term at face-to-face or online meetings to offer you support, answer your questions or queries, make sure you know about the resources available to you and fill you in on academic and day-to-day life at ESCI-UPF.

The mentoring relationship can come to an end in several ways:

• Naturally at the end of the first term, which marks the end of the initial phase to welcome new students to the school.
• At any time, at the express wish of either the mentor or the mentee (this does not need to be a mutual decision).
• If the programme coordinator deems that the mentor is not complying with their obligations, either by neglecting their meetings with their mentee or by failing to do the required tasks, in which case they will not be eligible for any course credits for this extracurricular activity.
• If compatibility issues arise or if the mentor no longer possesses the skills required to carry out the tasks expected of them.