Courtesy Gabriella Bocchetti
The department held an event in May to introduce postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) and academics who have volunteered to provide support to graduate students.
The graduate community were invited to meet these Postdoc Mentors and Departmental Tutors and for an informal talk, followed by a chance to meet them and other postdocs individually over drinks and nibbles.
The Postdoc Mentors are a pool of postdocs who have volunteered to act as a support network for graduate students when they want to discuss the next stage in their lives.
The Departmental Tutors are a group of academic and academic-related staff who have agreed to provide pastoral support to any student who approaches them, in a sensitive and confidential way.
At the event, the Mentors and Tutors introduced themselves, speaking about their backgrounds and research interests, so that students could get a feeling about whom might feel most comfortable working with/talking to in the future. All attendees were also given a list of Tutors and Mentors and their biographies.
These two new support systems have been put in place for all graduate students, and are in addition to the Peer-to-Peer mentoring (buddy system) and Academic Mentoring schemes which already exist.
In the new schemes, students can choose their own tutors or postdoc mentors, and contact them at times when they are needed. The Postdoc Mentors have often been through career stages more recently than a student’s academic mentor, and can offer advice and support based on first hand experience.
The Department Tutors, on the other hand, are there to listen, discuss and where possible, assist students in working out how to solve a problem or difficulty they are having. If a particular problem is outside their knowledge, they can refer the student to the right person.
Postdoc Mentors do sometimes discuss a student’s academic progress in the context of putting themselves into a good position to make the next step in their career, although it was emphasised that students who need pastoral support should normally approach a Departmental Tutor or their College Graduate Tutor.
After the talks, graduate students and postdocs joined with the Mentors and Tutors to share beer and nibbles and get to know each other better.
The schemes have been set up by the Head of Graduate Education, Dr Deborah Longbottom, and the event was organised by the Chemistry Graduate Social Committee.