ISANA

Rachel Baron and Rodney Carr

Abstract: Student peer mentor programs are recognised as a valid component of a multi-faceted strategy to
improve student engagement within higher education. This paper reports some preliminary results
from research investigating how such programs help support diverse student needs in a multicultural
environment.
Our results are from a study of a pilot postgraduate student peer mentoring program set up to support
new students in the Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University, Australia. The postgraduate
student body at Deakin is quite diverse and includes a large proportion of international students. We
present examples to show how a peer mentoring program can improve the social engagement of
students, help overcome cross-cultural communication barriers and contribute to the development of
academic skills.

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