Edinburgh Peer Mentoring

Getting mentored through Edinburgh Peer Mentoring is super easy! Simply sign up, write a brief description of yourself and your needs, then filter for a mentee/mentor based off your own preferences and send a matching request. Think of it like a kind of social media site!

Once they accept, you’ll be able to view their full profile and contact details as well as chat with them directly through the website. You are welcome to arrange a different method of contacting your mentee/mentor outside of the website if preferred once matched.

If you decide that you would no longer like to be mentored/mentoring, you can simply ‘Unmatch’. You can then choose to be matched with someone else or even delete your profile.

Edinburgh Peer Mentoring is completely confidential! Anything that you discuss between you and your mentee/mentor is kept between you and them. Similarly, your full identity is hidden until the point you are matched.

The only time where confidentiality may need to be broken is if a feeling of serious harm to yourself/someone else is brought up. If this is the case, the mentor will explain what, why and with whom (this will always be staff at the Students’ Association) something might be shared.

Please note that the chat log on the website is moderated by the Peer Learning and Support team at the Students’ Association purely for safety purposes and our duty of care (such as above). No content moderated will be shared with any member of staff at the Students’ Association or University unless there is a feeling that someone may be in serious risk of harm.

No. Peer Mentoring is intended to be a way for you to discover your options and feel more confident in your experience. Our trained student peer mentors are trained in topics like active listening, sensitivity in understanding different perspectives and their own experience as a student who might’ve gone through similar things as you. They are not a replacement for professional counselling, support services or mental health services.

If you feel that you are in need of professional counselling or mental health services, we recommend you contact services like your local GP or the counselling service at the University.

If you need urgent mental health support, we recommend viewing these pages at NHS Scotland and Mind for advice on relevant helplines.

No. If you would like to discuss things like academic life, our trained mentors are only capable of providing general academic advice such as study tips, finding academic support services and overall feeling more confident.

You may find by luck a mentor who has happened to study the same course/degree as you, but as it is very unlikely, we cannot guarantee this. If you do find someone who has per chance, whilst they may be able to provide a bit more specific advice, they will still not be able to provide tutoring or advice on course content.

You may be interested in accessing the Peer Proofreading service instead; an online tool developed by the Students’ Association to pair your written work with a student proofreader volunteer to check for things like grammar and flow but not content.

If you are needing specific on course content or a specific piece of exam or coursework, we recommend you to instead contact relevant academic staff within your school. This can usually be done by simply doing an internet search for ‘University of Edinburgh [Your school] Contact’.

Our mentees/mentors are students just like you who have their own studies and other commitments to balance. We encourage them to respond within a week or so but this could be longer at busy points in their lives or the academic calendar.

Your mentee/mentor will get an email notification whenever there is new activity on this website (unless they have manually turned this option off), so feel free to give them a nudge by sending another message if it’s taking longer than expected.

Yes. If you have any additional requirements such as a disability which might impact your mentoring experience (e.g. wheelchair users may need to meet in places where they can guarantee step-free access) and you would like to let your mentor/mentee know in advance, please write this in your description on your profile.