ACTIVITY I - DEVELOPMENT OF THE PEER MENTORING INITIATIVE
Several peer mentoring initiatives are ongoing at UCP. Some of these initiatives are coordinated by students only and others involve the support of lecturers and/or student support services.
This action contemplates the following steps:
- survey and characterisation of the Peer Mentoring initiatives underway at UCP;
- Evaluation of the initiatives in operation in the Academic Units (AU), with a view to introducing practices adapted to the current challenges of students and the university context;
- Development of institutional support mechanisms for the activities implemented in these initiatives, in particular the training of mentors;
- Involvement in the Peer Mentoring programmes of student representatives as well as alumni and external partners;
- Definition of strategies for monitoring and institutional valorisation of mentoring initiatives;
- Organisation of activities to share experiences between students from different scientific areas and UA.
ACTIVITY II - DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACULTY MENTORING PROGRAMME
Several teacher mentoring experiences have been developed at UCP, integrating a wide variety of models and formats.
Action 2 aims to develop and consolidate the experiences already underway and the progressive involvement of other AUs in these dynamics.
The following steps are proposed:
- survey, characterisation of Faculty Mentoring Initiatives already being implemented at UCP;
- Evaluation of the initiatives in operation in the AUs, with a view to introducing practices adapted to the current challenges of students and the university context;
- Development of institutional support mechanisms for Tutoring Initiatives, such as tutor training;
- Definition of monitoring strategies and institutional valorisation of tutoring initiatives by teachers;
- Organisation of activities to share experiences between tutors from different scientific areas and UA.
ACTIVITY III - DEVELOPMENT OF THE 360° INITIATIVE FOR STUDENTS AT RISK
The UCP has a mechanism for identifying students at risk of failure and/or dropout, based on the monitoring of their academic results. In this framework, the Rectoral Order ADM/1047/2020 was produced with recommendations for the best monitoring of these students, identifying strategies to be implemented by academic coordinators or directorates.
Institutional responses may be more internal to each Academic Unit or involve, more directly, "central" student support services.
This action aims at the development of students, under the format of workshops oriented to skills to support self-regulation of learning and development of transversal skills, particularly designed to respond to the specificities of these students, organised in thematic workshops.
These workshops will be based on the "Social Identity and Groups Network" (SIGN) developed by the University of Queensland (Australia), integrating sessions on socio-emotional development, self-regulation skills and adaptation to the Higher Education context. This pilot experience will enable the adaptation of these sessions to the Portuguese context, with monitoring by the research team of the University of Queensland.
This action takes place in 3 stages:
- Design and planning of the 360° workshops;
- Implementation of the workshops with students
- Evaluation of the pilot experience.
ACTIVITY IV
Digital Platform Católica in! In order to aggregate the various institutional measures under implementation, we intend to develop and increase policies and practices to accompany and support students. To this end, four actions are proposed that aim to pay special attention to the mechanisms of monitoring and academic integration of students, in order to promote adaptation and subsequent permanence, as well as academic success itself, aligned with other mechanisms already underway in the institution.
