Peer mentoring

Peer mentoring is one of the study support services offered by RMIT University Library. It allows you to connect with peers who have recent experience with course content and studying at RMIT. It’s a casual, friendly, and student-led service. You can ask a couple of quick questions or build an ongoing connection both online and face-to-face.

Peer mentors are current student volunteers that are happy to help other students build their own academic confidence by sharing their own experiences. Mentors for academic courses have completed the course within the previous 12 months and received a grade of 75% or above.

Peer Mentors aren’t tutors, so they might not know all the answers to your questions. Instead, they will help you find information and resources, understand assessment briefs and rubrics, and help you plan for the semester.

Peer Mentors are not available for every course at RMIT. Check the list of current courses in the app Vygo under ‘Find your course’, or email peer.mentoring@rmit.edu.au.

You can contact a mentor with questions about your course, or you can ask for general support with study skills, using the RMIT University Library, or navigating RMIT services. Mentors can help you with:

• Understanding assessment rubrics
• Finding academic resources
• Practicing tutorial questions
• Connecting with study support services such as Ask the Library
• Exploring campus, study areas and tips and tricks
• Encouragement and support
• Building confidence to ask questions, speak up in lectures or contact academics
• Breaking down tasks and identifying study goals.

Mentors can’t directly answer assignment questions; instead, they can share their own experiences and talk you through any concerns or challenges you might be facing. Please don’t ask mentors to:

• Estimate the grade of a piece of work. Contact your academic or teacher for advice
• Proofread and give assignment feedback. If you need help, book a consultation with Academic Skills Advisors 
• Provide counselling. Contact RMIT Counselling and Psychological Services.

To find and connect with mentors, you need to use an app called Vygo. Vygo is an online peer mentoring platform that has been developed for universities. You can access it in any web browser (see the instructions above).

With Vygo, you can:

• Browse mentor profiles and choose mentors to connect with (you can choose more than one)
• Talk with your mentors using in-built instant messaging or a video call
• Ask mentors a quick question, or schedule regular catch ups
• Leave feedback about your mentors.

Currently peer mentors are not available for research students

The peer mentors come from our large and diverse RMIT student community, which means some of them are neurodiverse. You can search the peer mentor profiles in Vygo to find someone that has shared they are neurodivergent on their mentor profile, then you can message them directly in Vygo. 

If you’d prefer, you can email the team at peer.mentoring@rmit.edu.au telling us what kind of help you would like from a peer mentor. We might need to ask you some questions via email to find a mentor who is a good fit for you. We will then connect you with the right peer mentor in Vygo.

Peer mentors can: 

• be a study buddy on campus
• share their tips on getting through lectures
• share methods for taking notes and apps they may use to help with this
• explain how they revise and retain information
• share study habits that work for them
• share tips on maintaining a consistent routine
• tell you where they like to study on campus, or how they like to study at home
• share how they break down tasks to stay on track of study.

To become a peer mentor for undergraduate and postgraduate by coursework programs, you must:

• be a current student with grades of 75% and above in any of the supported courses,
• have completed these courses in the past 12 months,
• be interested in developing your leadership, communication and interpersonal skills
• receive an invitation from the peer mentoring team to apply to become a peer mentor.

If you meet these conditions, you will need to:

• attend compulsory training on the date and time specified by the team,
  
• obtain a voluntary or paid Working With Children Check (Melbourne mentors).

Please note places are limited and successful applications are not guaranteed.

Learn more about becoming a Peer Mentor in the Volunteer Activity Description (PDF, 247KB).

Email peer.mentoring@rmit.edu.au if you have any questions about becoming a mentor.

When you become part of the peer mentoring community, you will:

• consolidate your own knowledge of the subject you mentor in,
• develop sought-after skills like time management, communication, leadership and facilitation,
  
• enhance your résumé.

Volunteering as a peer mentor also contributes toward the RMIT Plus program.

In the first instance, you will need to find time to attend compulsory training. Then you will volunteer your time over the semester as needed.

Not every RMIT course has peer mentoring available. If you'd like a mentor but can't find your course, please email peer.mentoring@rmit.edu.au.

You can browse the supported courses on Vygo using the ‘Find your course’ program cards. Either scroll through the list, or type the name of your course into the search box. Supported courses change each semester.

Mentors are students and not tutors, so there might be occasions where a mentor cannot help you. If this happens, they might be able to suggest another mentor or another service.

Many students will talk with multiple mentors, so choose mentors specific to your courses or find one that will help you with general study questions.

If you decide that a particular mentor is not a good fit, or if you don’t get a response, look for another mentor.

Email peer.mentoring@rmit.edu.au if you have any concerns.

Yes, Vygo is secure – you can only access it with your RMIT login, and you don’t need to give any personal information to your mentors. For further information, read Vygo’s Privacy Policy (PDF, 139KB).

If you use other platforms like discord or WhatsApp to communicate with peer mentors, RMIT cannot provide oversight or assistance.