In this extra post, Julie, Emily, and Lianya spotlight a peer support initiative ‘Dissertation Buddies’, co-created to support one-year master’s students during their dissertation phase and to foster community building and belonging. Julie Smith is a Lecturer and Director of QAE; Emily Birtles is a Student Experience Officer and Lianya Qiu is a PhD student and Dissertation Buddies coordinator at the Moray House School of Education and Sport.
Following the implementation of the University’s Student Support Model, with peer support as a key component, we discuss our co-construction and implementation of a peer support system for one-year taught master’s students at Moray House School of Education and Sport. A collaboration between students, academic staff, and student experience staff, we have developed and refined our peer support system ‘Dissertation Buddies’ over the past 4 years. Despite the challenges in the implementation, this model is considered both sustainable and sensitive to changing cohorts.
A one-year taught master’s degree is challenging, not least because of the limited time to gain appropriate taught credits and complete a dissertation. Success at undergraduate does not guarantee success at post-graduate (Hussy & Smith 2010) and study at postgraduate taught (PGT) level can be affected by difficulties in understanding expectations, and fewer opportunities (or time) for developing community and sense of belonging (McPherson, Punch & Graham, 2017). These struggles are especially pronounced during the dissertation phase of the degree when students often describe feeling isolated from their peers. We have found that fostering a strong sense of belonging is vital for both student wellbeing and academic achievement (Student Minds MH Charter, 2021). Peer-to-peer support systems have the potential to support community and a sense of belonging and they can be empowering since the focus shifts from a helper who will solve a problem to two people learning together (Mead & Filson, 2017).
We chose to focus the development of our peer support system on the dissertation phase as it can be isolating. One peer support model commonly implemented at undergraduate level is the ‘parent’ model where students in senior years provide support to students in earlier years. This is not possible in one year master’s programme, unless engaging PhD students as the more senior students. Where there are large numbers of master’s students this is not a realistic approach. Our focus therefore turned to developing peer-to-peer support across our master’s programmes, thus also giving students the opportunity to interact with other students and develop a sense of belonging.
Student voice
Student voice was central to our model and vital for success, so we immediately collaborated with our student cohort. Through various student voice opportunities, students told us that their main concern during the dissertation was getting appropriate academic support. The stresses of academic work influenced their wellbeing. They also felt isolated because they no longer had regular classes.
Dissertation Buddies
Students, academic staff, and student experience and support staff then worked together to develop ‘Dissertation Buddies’(DB). Students are matched with a buddy (or find their own) and then engage in activities together and with others. Students told us that it can sometimes be difficult to attend activities on their own and a ‘buddy’ can help support with this. Having a buddy also means having someone to reflect with in relation to the different activities, the learning, and the overall dissertation experience. Each year, at the start of semester two, students attend information sessions and discuss the type of peer-support activities they might find useful, contributing to the co-creation of DB. Students are encouraged to lead these activities, or to encourage peer engagement. Activities run between May and August and are designed to support optimal academic, social and wellbeing outcomes. We regularly have 200+ students engaging with the peer support programme.
What are students’ experiences?
We engage in evaluation each year to enhance DB to better reflect the needs of our students. Overall, students enjoy the social activities and find the academic activities beneficial to their dissertation. Last year, when we asked students why they joined DB, they generally responded that it was due to being isolated or lonely:
“Doing a master’s is like living as a hermit for a year” and “the dissertation can be a lonely process.”
Students were also anxious because they did not know what a dissertation was:
“This was my first dissertation and I felt so nervous about it and worried a lot”.
Issues to consider
However, there are sometimes challenges with engagement since students can feel under pressure if their buddy is further ahead in the dissertation process than they are:
“My progress is slower than others so I feel pressure”.
They also may begin feeling overwhelmed toward the latter stages of their dissertation:
‘We met a lot at the beginning but towards the end we had too much work.’.
These are issues that we reflect on with students going forward to ensure that they feel supported and can continue to engage throughout their dissertation process. For those buddies who were able to continue to the submission point, the benefits of peer support were evident:
“You’ll be concerned and worried about everything if you’re writing your dissertation by yourself. Having a friend who can speak with me, on the other hand, greatly reduces my anxiety. We keep in touch, and we cheer and encourage one another, which helps to ease the stress”.
Our hope for the future
This year our students really enjoyed our collaboration with the School of Economics (watch out for a blog post about this soon!). They appreciated the opportunity to engage with students in a different School and share peer-support activities. We hope to continue the development of DB and would love to collaborate with staff and students across other Schools who have, or would like, peer support for their dissertation students so that we can facilitate mutual learning and growth.
References:
Hussey, T., & Smith, P. (2010). Transitions in Higher Education. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 47(2), 155–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703291003718893
McPherson, C., Punch, S., & Graham, E. (2017). Transitions From Undergraduate to Taught Postgraduate Study: Emotion, Integration and Belonging. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.14297/jpaap.v5i2.265
Mead, S., & Filson, B. (2017). Mutuality and Shared Power as an Alternative to Coercion and Force. Mental Health and Social Inclusion, 21(3), 144–152. https://doi.org/10.1108/mhsi-03-2017-0011
Julie Smith
Julie Smith is a Lecturer in Developmental Psychology in Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport. She is also currently the School’s Director of Quality Assurance and Enhancement. Julie has previously worked in the area of mental health with children and young people as well as with students at the University Disability Learning and Support Service. It was this latter experience that developed Julie’s keen interest in supporting a holistic learning experience for students through collaboration and co-construction, with a focus on supporting wellbeing through the curriculum. Julie is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Emily Birtles
Emily Birtles is the Student Experience Officer at Moray House School of Education and Sport, based within the Student Experience and Support Office. Emily is committed to organising and supporting school wide events that enhance the student experience. Additionally, she focuses on improving communication with current students to keep them well informed and actively engaged throughout their academic journey.
Lianya Qiu
Lianya Qiu is a Tutor and PhD candidate in Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport. Her PhD research focuses on the curriculum design and development of Polish and Chinese complementary schools in Scotland. For the past three years, she has also been working as the Dissertation Buddies Coordinator. Her interest in higher education and her previous experiences as an MSc student at Moray House inspired her to support and collaborate on the Dissertation Buddies project.
