Coaching en Diversiteit
Are you looking for a mentor or would you like to become a mentor?
When students support each other, it enhances their sense of belonging and contributes to creating a caring learning environment where everyone can feel at home or comfortable. Through the course "Coaching en Diversiteit," we help facilitate this by organizing university-wide 'peer-to-peer support (P2P).'
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Would you like to have a mentor as a new Ghent University student for the upcoming academic year? Sign up as a mentee. Read on to find out what to expect, what you’ll commit to, and who is eligible.
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Do you, as a senior student, think, 'I have the potential to be a mentor, and I'd love to guide a new student!'? Then, enroll in the course "Coaching en Diversiteit" as a university-wide elective in your curriculum and get more information about the expectations involved by reading further.
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How does it work?
As a mentee, you will be matched with a mentor from your faculty. This matching process happens after both mentors and mentees have registered via the registration link, ensuring that the match aligns with both of your interests and expectations.
After the first meeting, organized by your faculty’s contact person, you can expect your mentor to support you in one or more areas. This can include:
- Being introduced to your faculty, the university, and the city, including exploring the existing support services together (monitoring, language support, study guidance, requesting accommodations...), tailored to your personal needs as a mentee.
- Social-emotional support: exchanging experiences about what it means to be a student in Ghent, offering a listening ear, and encouraging you to clarify and achieve your goals.
- Academic support: figuring out the best approach for you to succeed, from taking notes to creating a study plan, developing practical assignments and papers, and preparing for exams...
A mentor coaches you alone or with other mentees through a clear commitment to sharing their experiences as a fellow student. As 'Ghent University Peers,' you will meet regularly and decide together what to focus on.
In addition to sharing their own experiences, the mentor also takes the course "Coaching en Diversiteit" to best guide you throughout the academic year. Through this course, the mentor is coached to provide peer support for an entire academic year.
The course offers mentors learning paths focused on 'diversity,' 'coaching,' and 'self-regulated learning,' along with activities and related reflection assignments. By participating in five activities, mentors from different faculties can exchange best practices in small groups. Year coaches, who are in their final year of Pedagogy, guide their group of mentors in pairs to put their coaching skills into practice.
Twice a year, there is a progress meeting with the faculty contact points to adjust mutual expectations.
You will also have the chance to meet other mentees and mentors several times a year through extracurricular activities, which can include a quiz or creative events. Mentees, mentors, and year coaches are welcome to suggest ideas for organizing these activities.
Why participate in ‘Coaching en Diversiteit’?
A few quotes:
"A mentor's role is to clarify work points. A mentor doesn't have all the answers but acts as a sounding board or a partner in searching for solutions and sharing ideas together."
"My mentee was the first in their family to study and struggled with performance anxiety and procrastination. I saw a lot of myself in him when I started. Together, we made a weekly plan, and I encouraged him to sign up for the anxiety training with the student psychologists. We also did extra math exercises together. The learning path on ‘Self-Regulated Learning’ prepared me to ask the right questions so he could find the solution himself. My mentee was in the driver's seat, and I was the co-pilot. My teaching and communication skills have grown a lot since then, and these are valuable skills that I don't really develop in my other courses. I also feel confident enough to take on a leadership role in the future. As you can see, peer support is always a two-way street."
"My mentee is from Syria and hasn't lived in Belgium for long. She speaks Dutch fluently but struggles with academic language. Although I’m a native speaker, I'm not a linguist. So, I referred her to Ghent University's free NT2 workshops. There, she got the tip to learn five new words daily. I kept track of this during our weekly meetings. Soon, we developed a nice connection and occasionally did something fun together."
"What I take from this course has nothing to do with studying but more with coaching, which will be useful in my future life."
"If we as students can't help each other, what are we doing at university? It's also a way to learn something new myself."
Specific information:
How do you sign up as a mentee?
To request a mentor from your faculty for this academic year, read more here.
Want to know how to become a mentor and coach one or more mentees this year? Read more here.
Who can request a mentor?
All new students at Ghent University from all faculties who:
- want to request peer-to-peer support,
- are willing to engage in regular contact with the mentor throughout the entire academic year,
- and want to complete their first year at UGent with a coach by their side.
For new students with the following diversity characteristics, this offer is certainly worth considering:
- Students with performance anxiety or procrastination issues
- First-generation college students
- Working students
- Non-native Dutch speakers
- Students with a foreign (secondary or higher) diploma
- Students from atypical educational backgrounds or those with doubts about prior knowledge
- Students with a disability (physical, learning disorder, chronic illness...)
- Students in difficult (home) situations or those who sometimes feel alone
- Working students, athletes, artists, political mandate holders, etc.
- Students with family responsibilities or caregivers
What can you expect from a mentor?
- A mentor provides free guidance as part of the elective course 'Coaching en Diversiteit' and is available for an entire academic year.
- A mentor will introduce you to Ghent University, offer a listening ear, help you with challenging subjects, and give practical tips about exams and study planning.
What do we expect from you as a mentee?
You commit to working with your mentor for the entire academic year.
Convinced? Then sign up via this link.
This link directs you to a form where some information is requested to initiate the matching process with a mentor. Starting from the 3rd week of classes, your faculty contact person may invite you to meet your assigned mentor. Ensure that you complete this form by September 29, 2024 at the latest!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us in advance at coachingendiversiteit@ugent.be.
Who can become a mentor?
All senior Ghent University students who wish to coach a new Ghent University student for the upcoming academic year by enrolling in the course "Coaching en Diversiteit" either as an elective or as an extra credit contract. It is a 3-credit course (H001977A). (Exception! Only for students of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, there is a second option to take the 5-credit course (H001977B), provided you have already passed a package of at least 60 credits).
Please note: This course is only offered in Dutch, so a good knowledge of the language is required.
To pass on your experiences as a Ghent University student, it’s best to have completed at least one year at Ghent University, preferably having successfully completed your first year.
You must also be willing to guide your mentee(s) throughout the entire year by meeting regularly, helping them navigate life in Ghent, at Ghent University, and in your faculty, offering study tips, and brainstorming about the best approach to their studies.
Course Information:
The course information and expectations can be found in the study guide and ECTS description under the university-wide elective courses.
This course provides an opportunity to combine academic knowledge with social engagement. After a theoretical introduction to concepts like ‘coaching’ and ‘diversity’, you will apply these concepts as a mentor to one or more first-year students from your same program.
You will independently complete several learning paths via Ufora (code H001977A) and participate in five activities spread over the academic year. Evaluation is based on active participation during the activities and personal reflection assignments.
Enrolling in the course:
Depending on your program and available space in your curriculum, you can include this course in your schedule.
You can register for the course through OASIS.
If you want more information about the possibility of including this course in your curriculum, it’s best to contact your faculty's point of contact or study advisor.
Ufora will be used as the learning platform for all information and communication regarding the course. You can already visit the Ufora page using the following code (H001977A).
Convinced to take the course?
Let us know that you will be enrolling in the course via OASIS through this link so that we can match you with a mentee who has applied by September 29, 2024. (The link leads to a form to collect some information for the matching process, for which you need to be logged in.) If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
Calendar:
Mentees and mentors will be invited by the faculty contact person for an initial meeting in early October. This will typically occur during the third week of classes but may vary by faculty.
Once you are matched, the mentor and mentee will plan an initial meeting with the mentoring coordinator to outline mutual expectations.
From there, you will regularly meet throughout the year to continue working on your goals. At the start of the second semester, you can request another meeting with the mentoring coordinator to adjust your approach based on the results from the first semester exams.
Throughout the year, there will be extracurricular activities organized each semester, where both mentees and mentors are welcome. These sessions provide a low-threshold opportunity for mentors and mentees to meet and interact.
Mentors enrolled in the course will attend a joint introduction lesson (September 25, 2024, at 19:30 - online, see Ufora for the invitation link), after which they will independently complete learning paths and attend activities on Wednesday evenings from 19:00 to 21:00 (Campus Dunant).
Provisional dates for the upcoming academic year: (Check Ufora for updates or communication from your year coaches)
- 30/10/24 Activity 1: working on learning path 1 + introduction
- 20/11/24 Activity 2: working on learning path 2
- 11/12/24 Activity 3: intervision
- 19/02/25 Activity 4: intervision after the announcement of first-semester results
- 23/04/25 Activity 5: closing intervision
Save the date
27/11/2 (in the evening): Mentors and mentees meet-up moment
19/3/25 (in the evening): Mentors and mentees meet-up moment
Contact
Coordination and questions about the course: lieve.carette@ugent.be
Questions about matching: coachingendiversiteit@ugent.be
Contact persons at your faculty