Staff news

Peer support guide now online

A new guide for staff which promotes the benefits of peer support is now available online.

Peer Support at Edinburgh - A Guide for Staff has been produced by EUSA.

It highlights the University’s extensive use of Peer Assisted Learning Schemes (PALS) and similar schemes, their benefits for students and how staff can get involved.

Projects

Peer support includes mentoring and buddying - anything that asks students with more experience to share their knowledge, skills and expertise with new or less experienced students.

More than 7,500 Edinburgh students are currently involved in 60 active projects across every school. The projects are run by 500 student volunteers and assisted by student and staff coordinators.

Staff involvement is vital to the promotion and endorsement of these schemes, to help them achieve their full potential.

Recognition

The scale and success of peer support at the University has achieved national and international recognition, including acknowledgement from the Higher Education Academy and National Union of Students.

The University is also the convenor of the Scottish Peer Support Network, which brings together 12 Scottish higher education institutions to share best practice.

The peer support project has had a significant and measurable positive impact on the student experience as shown by levels of engagement, quantitative data and qualitative feedback. It is renowned across the sector as a best practice model.
Katie ScottPeer Support Project Coordinator, EUSA

Further resources

In addition to EUSA's new guide, further information for staff is available online from EUSA and from the Student Experience Project.

The Institute for Academic Development also provides a peer support toolkit.

Related Links

EUSA peer support

Peer support toolkit

Student Experience Project peer support