Become a UniMentor

Our mentors are our greatest assets

If you’re thinking about joining, we'd love you to get involved and support new students at UWA.

New students will automatically be connected with a UniMentor via the Vygo platform. Email askUWA if you have any questions about the UniMentor program.

Why be a mentor?

Being a mentor is rewarding, and students participate for many reasons, but most agree they receive as much from being a mentor as they give. As a mentor, you can:

meet interesting people
develop your communication and leadership skills and transfer them to social, academic and professional situations
participate in social activities, events and excursions
assist other students in a voluntary capacity which boosts your résumé
complete 50 per cent of the supplementary activities required for the UWA Career Employability Award

Requirements to be a UniMentor

Have completed your first year of study in an Undergraduate, Postgraduate (48 credit points) or PhD studies (24 credit points).
Be on a good academic status, if you are on ‘probation’ status or ‘warning’ status or ‘conditional status’ you will be required to return to a ‘good academic status’
Be available to support new students before and during the semester.
Provide mentees information about UWA’s services.
Maintain contact and be responsive to mentees requests for support.
Act as a positive role model and ambassador for UWA and the UniMentor Program.

What training is required?

To qualify as a UniMentor, you’ll need to register for and complete a training program with three elements:

Attend an in-person training for first time UniMentors.
Attend a refresher session for returning UniMentors.
Complete the Respectful Relationships module.
Complete and read the post training UniMentor pack.

Once qualified, you can sign up for additional professional development opportunities that further your mentoring skills.

You may be interested in these currently available courses:

Mental Health First Aid Training

Training in mental health first aid enables you to provide a person developing a mental health problem or in a mental health crisis with support until appropriate professional treatment is received or until the crisis resolves.

Ally Training

This course will raise your awareness of the life experience, issues and needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and intersex staff and students.

Unconscious Bias Workshop

Available to current UniMentors only, this workshop covers how unconscious biases can affect our understanding of, and ability to, embrace diversities in culture, gender and sexuality.

Leveraging Your UniMentor Experience

Learn how to leverage the experience you’ve gained from being part of the UniMentor program to help you gain employment successfully.

How you help

Being a mentor is invaluable for students in any area of study and the benefits extend to the schools themselves as well, by fostering camaraderie and cooperation among students.

As a mentor you have the opportunity to:

share valuable knowledge with new students that you’ve gained as a result of your own student experience – think back to what you know now compared to when you started uni
contribute to UWA’s commitment to assisting students to transition to uni study
contribute to the development of the mentor program by feeding back your views

Get recognised

If you complete at least a semester of the UniMentor program, you can request a reference and a statement of service that highlights the volunteering you undertook as a mentor.

You’ll also be recognised with volunteer hours on your supplementary student record on studentConnect, which is recorded and uploaded at the end of each semester.

Appreciation Ceremony

Every year we also host a UniMentor Appreciation Ceremony to acknowledge the commitment of our UniMentors.

At this event we announce our UniMentors of the Year who are recognised on our UniMentor Honour Boards in Student Central.

We also recognise the recipients of the Mentee Choice awards who are mentors who have been nominated by the students they assisted.