Contemporary Peer Mentoring in Higher Education

Abstract

This literature review illuminates how contemporary peer mentoring practices typically function within collegiate settings and delineates strategies for further developing and professionalizing the services they provide. Peer mentoring offers many advantages to the university, including the ability meet the needs of an increasingly diverse study body, which encompasses an array of ages, ethnicities, countries of origin, backgrounds, and abilities; the ability to draw from a large pool of student talent at a relatively low cost; and the improvement of retention rates by helping students navigate and succeed in their new environment. Topics include the main service models of peer mentoring; a consideration of what motivates university leadership, faculty, staff, mentors, and mentees to support peer mentoring programs; and the strategies required to ensure successful recruitment, training, deployment, supervision, and evaluation of peer mentors and the programs they serve. Suggestions for future research are provided.