Help for first-year students
Mentoring scheme
Where is the study guidance service? How do I sign up for next semester? How do I meet other students?
Taking the step from post-secondary education to higher education can raise many relevant questions. Therefore, at CBS, almost 50 third- and fourth-year students are acting as mentors and advisors, helping new students quickly feel settled. The mentoring scheme is part of a larger process to create a better learning environment.
- The initiative is all about ensuring that new students feel comfortable in the new university environment that they have entered into, explains Associate Dean for degree programmes, Sven Bislev.
Developing their network
The 49 mentors have been on a two-day course where they have been given the necessary skills to answer the new students' questions.
The project involves the mentors giving the new first-year students an opportunity to come to public meetings. The plan is to have one mentor for 20 mentees, but there will also be an opportunity for individual guidance if this is needed.
It is not just the new mentees who will benefit from the new mentoring scheme.
- You learn a great deal academically from being a mentor, but at the same time, you also widen your network at CBS, says one of the mentors, Kaare Poulsen, who is studying for an MSc in Economics and Business Administration.
He also points out that it is satisfying in itself to help other students who need it.
Who is using the scheme?
It hasn't been a problem getting volunteers for the job of mentor, and this perhaps reflects that there has been a real need for this scheme.
In particular, the BSc in Economics and Business Administration course is a dominating user of the new mentoring scheme. Other programmes that are taking advantage of the scheme include: BSc in Business Administration and Organisational Communication, BSc in Business Administration and Commercial Law, Asian Studies, BSc in International Business and Politics, BA in Information Management, and MSc in Sociology.