Undergraduate study - 2025 entry
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Peer mentoring

We offer a trained mentor to first year students from Widening Participation backgrounds, to help you settle in to university.

We email all students from Widening Participation backgrounds at the start of their first academic year to invite you to take part.

Students chat in the School of Mathematics

How a peer mentor can help

Mentors are trained and experienced students who can provide friendly guidance and support as you find your feet at university.

The mentoring relationship is informal, but there is a structure to help everyone understand their role. 

If you participate in the peer-mentoring programme, you will meet your mentor approximately fortnightly throughout the first two semesters to discuss any academic, social, financial or personal concerns.

Your mentor will be able to give the benefit of their first-hand experience in these areas and can help you plan for key times in the academic year, for example how to deal with managing a reading list, how to join a society or how to budget your finances.

Your mentor will not know the answer to every question you might have; however, they will be able to suggest the appropriate support service to address your particular issue. 

Undergraduate mentoring has been successful for more than 20 years. Here’s what some of our students have had to say:

Having my mentor has aided me so much already, and she is just one more extra friend to help me along. I would be happy to return the favour next year, and hopefully try to do just as good a job.

I have gained confidence, become more independent and responsible. I have found it easy to get on with people. Mentoring has helped me in getting on with it and taking chances.

I hope I’ve been able to help my mentee deal with the variety of difficulties freshers can face, purely through giving advice based on my own experiences and mistakes.

Contact us

To contact us about peer mentoring, please email Gabriele Negro, Widening Participation Officer:

Peer Mentoring

Contact details

Contact us through an online sign language interpreter

British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact the University of Edinburgh via Contact Scotland BSL, the online British Sign Language video relay interpreting service.

Find out more on the Contact Scotland BSL website


Related links

The Edinburgh Award

Institute for Academic Development

The Advice Place

Student Counselling Service

Chaplaincy