The challenges faced by first-year doctoral students are more complex during Covid-19 pandemic. Before pandemic, first-year students often experience problems related to the transition and adaptation  into their degree (Cornwall et al, 2019). The students may experience specific problems related to their degree, such as uncertainty about doctoral processes, their sense of belonging in scholarly communities, social isolation, financial impact of study, and the engagement and effectiveness of supervision. Remote working environment may cause a more overwhelming adaptation process. Virtual studying and research environment can be a more challenging space to sustain relationships, including with supervisors (Wang & DeLaquil 2020).  It can also inhibit their engagement with the research community and their access to information and resources (Kumar & Johnson, 2017). The students, therefore, need more opportunities to interact and socialize with peers and colleagues in an informal and relaxing environment (Atkinson et al, 2021).

Virtual mentoring is a cost-effective alternative to connect first-year and senior students from different geographical locations. Having unique roles which differ from supervisors, the  senior students can provide complimentary supports that will not only beneficial for supporting the first-year doctoral students, but also contribute to their own personal and professional development (McConnell et al, 2019).

A virtual mentoring program has been developed at the School of Education, in an Australian large public university. Both onshore and offshore first-year students were matched with mentors who were in the middle or late stage of candidature. All mentors and mentees were provided with chances to meet regularly in one-on-one mentoring, group mentoring and some other events.  Scholars (Abdellatif & Gatto, 2020; McConnell, Geesa, & Lowery, 2019; Nieto, 2016) generally believed that mentors can help the first-year students integrate socially and academically with the research community within the department, in addition to helping them access and take advantage of resources available at the university and beyond. Therefore, this study is intended to understand the impact of the virtual mentoring program to the participants’ different aspects. The research questions which guide this study are:

1. How do the mentees and mentors experience the mentoring program?
2. How do the mentoring experiences impact on the participants’ academic progresses?

This study used cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) as the theoretical framework, particularly the third generation that was initiated by Engestrom (1987). The third generation of this theory (Engestrom, 1987) addresses the dialogue between the differing perspectives of individuals as well as how and in what way each person’s thinking emerges within their contexts. This manifests itself in their activity systems. Instead of focusing on individual characteristics, CHAT concentrated more on interactions between individuals (Sannino & Engeström, 2020). This generation of CHAT viewed first-year doctoral students’ experiences as a complex process that takes place within a social system. The framework fits in with this study because of its ability to highlight the way the mentors and mentees interact which results in certain actions being undertaken and specific outcomes.

This study may provide implications for policy and practice to support doctoral students during pandemics and beyond. First, the study is expected to provide valuable information for understanding the nature of doctoral students' experience during the pandemic and the impact of the mentoring supports provided to them. Second, the mentoring program can be adopted by the other universities in other contexts, including those in European countries, to provide practical supports for the students and to help them achieve greater academic success, better well-being, and a more satisfactory university experience.

This research employed a qualitative case study. This methodology is appropriate to answer the research questions because qualitative case study can generate deep insight into the students’ experiences in the mentoring program. Qualitative research works best with relatively unstructured verbal data collected through a flexible, inductive, abductive, data-driven process and in-depth examination in the natural setting (Hammersley, 2017). The data in a case study are collected over extended periods or during a short but intensive period of time. This enables the researcher to discover the subtle or latent characteristics of the phenomenon, individual, community, or institution that cannot be accessed by other approaches (Lune & Berg, 2017). The participants were six first-year doctoral students and five mentors at a school of education in a large public university in Sydney, Australia. The participants were selected through voluntary open recruitment. Before the program had started, the mentors were provided with two-hours of online training with an emphasis on working with first-stage doctoral students. The mentees also participated in an online orientation program. The mentoring lasted for three months and involved six one-one-one mentoring meetings and group mentoring meetings. The data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. The participants were interviewed to understand their challenges and experiences, as well as the impacts of the program on their personal, social, and academic progresses. The interviews were administered three months after the program through Microsoft Teams because the participants mostly stayed outside Australia. The purpose of the reflective journals writing was to provide an opportunity for mentees and mentors to express their thoughts and reflect on the changes of their experiences during the mentoring program. The participants were asked to write reflective journals six times, every after mentoring meeting. The data from interviews and reflective journals were analyzed using cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) as a framework that guide the processes.

The study showed some beneficial impacts of the program for mentees and mentors’ academic progresses. The challenges faced by mentors during pandemic reduced their confidence to mentor first-year students. However, the different activities provided during the program such as one-on-one mentoring, group mentoring, and other additional events, facilitated mentors and mentees to create a relaxing environment to communicate and connect with other students. The mentor training and clear structures of each meeting also helped mentors and mentees to develop relationship that enable them to support each other. Some of the contradictions were found but they triggered mentors and mentees to create some actions which led to more fruitful outcomes. The program is able to support students’ academic progresses by helping them increase supervisory relationship effectiveness, increase access to available resources, improve new research skills needed by the students, and improve ability to plan and set up study milestone. The students’ substantial learning can be achieved because there was a decrease in stress and anxiety, an increase of confident, an increase of sense of community, and motivation to collaborate with mentors and other participants. The positive results were also experienced by the mentors.

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