Why was the Mentoring Programme set up?
It's a project where mentors help facilitate new first-year bachelor students into the academic life and Dutch academic life, specifically because a lot of the students are international. The university is a completely different environment from what you're used to in high school. You are used to the teacher telling you what to do, and now you're in this free-flowing independent structure. That can be a little bit overwhelming.
We offer that extra help to make that transition a bit easier. When you start your academic year, it's very important to be prepared. For example, at the advent of the year, we give presentations on Academic integrity, focusing on citing and referencing and on the Dutch academic culture. After that, students enrolled in this program are assigned a mentor to whom they can reach out for support, be it academic or social.
You mentioned most of the students in the programme are international. How does that affect the work you do?
The programme is very much about the Dutch educational culture too. For example, the culture in East Asia is characterised by low individualism and high power distance, which means that you look at your teachers as a part of the authority that cannot be questioned. But it's not like that in the Dutch culture.
You are expected to ask questions, and you don't need to call your teachers doctor. You can call them by their first name, and that is really weird for a lot of students that come from East Asia or some parts of Africa. Getting them to understand the culture of it is key. The Dutch system is all about elevating the mind of the student and allowing it to be creative and independent.
How do you make sure everything that the students learn actually sticks and is applied throughout their studies at VU?
After these workshops are done, we organise study sessions and social events. For the study sessions, we book a room that's just for the students and the mentors. So students can ask questions directly to the mentors. Mentors are innately enthusiastic students and have a proclivity of helping others. It's for the students by the students.
Social events can be anything from Halloween parties to online pyjama parties and are also an important part of academic life. They help students stay motivated in their studies because they feel that they belong.