2010/11 Transition Programme Evaluation

1st Year Student Survey Results (All departments)

The data below shows the percentage rate of UCL first years progressing into year 2 of their degree, where the data refers to the overall UCL cohort of first years starting their programmes in September of that year; 2002 is the earliest year we have for this data and is followed by the years where the Transition Programme was being rolled-out.

2002 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009
85% / 87% / 88% / 90% / 89%

The data and comments below are taken from an online questionnaire completed by current first years. Students were asked a variety of questions to map out their experience of making the transition to UCL; 646 1st year students across all departments completed the Student Transition Survey.

  • 90% of all respondents attended the Meet your Mentor session during induction week.
  • 68% attended at least one Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) session

In what ways have you benefitted from Transition Mentoring?

Social aspects / 51% agree; 34% neutral; 15% disagree
Having a more experienced student to talk to / 85% agree; 10% neutral; 5% disagree
Getting departmental advice / 78% agree; 16% neutral; 6% disagree
Getting academic help / 66% agree; 22% neutral; 13% disagree

Mentoring has helped me achieve the following:

  • 88% of allrespondents would recommend the programme to other first year students.
  • 59% of all respondents are going to continue with their meetings with or without their mentor now that the programme has officially finished for the year.
  • A sample of typical qualitative responses is contained below:

What was the best thing about having a mentor?

“giving you inside advice on the degree, she was a fantastic mentor.”

“Opportunity to discuss work with my mentor and the other members of my mentor group. Also, a nice social experience.”

“Knowing that there was someone there to turn to for advice or help, especially since the mentors had been through the same experiences themselves.”

“He was able to help us on a much more personal level than any of the professors could, and he was a lot more easy to talk to than them.”

“Someone to talk to who knew what they were talking about and could give advice/troubleshoot academic areas that were difficult.”

“They were encouraging and made university look not so scary”

“Having guidance if you need it. Somebody to tell you that it will be ok!”

The following data refers to responses broken down by regularity of attendance at mentor group meetings. Students were asked about their perception of their own confidence and abilities in key areas, having completed their first term at UCL. Where students attended more meetings, they typically responded that they felt more confident in various areas. Responses were grouped by three meetings attended in total, up to ten or more meetings. (The first 4 responses did not include an option for no meetings attended, as the question applied only to respondents who had said they attended some mentor meetings- it is therefore represented as 100% neutral responses).

Mentor Survey Results (All departments)

114 Mentors across all departments completed the survey.

  • 74% of mentors will continue engaging in Peer Assisted Learning in the future, either with friends or their mentees
  • 90% would apply to be mentors again
  • 98% would recommend the role to other students

Benefits of mentoring:

Agree / Disagree
Development of communication skills / 97% / 1%
Development of leadership skills / 95% / 2%
Feeling you are doing something worthwhile / 93% / 2%
Development of empathy / 83% / 5%
Meeting diverse people / 84% / 5%
Development of facilitation skills / 93% / 1%
Development of academic skills / 79% / 8%

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