Peer mentoring is one of the most important instruction and guidance practices for the first-year students entering higher education in Finland. With the concept of peer we are referring to someone with the same or a nearly equal status as the person being tutored. Peer tutoring and mentoring have long traits in the history of education and they are most commonly used in teaching and learning purposes. The same tendency is also seen in research concerning peer support, which has mainly focused on topics concerning learning and teaching. Most of these studies have focus on children, whereas higher education has remained in the marginal position. However, also most of the studies carried out in the higher education context focus on aspects related to learning and assessment (e.g. Gilles & Wilson, 2004; Topping, 1996). The studies are also most often focusing on the mentees’ experiences, instead of those of the mentors’.

In many universities there are peer mentoring programs which aim to assist first-year students’ transition into academic life (Heirdsfield et al., 2008; Mee-Lee & Bush, 2003). This transition is a challenging one for many students. The aim of the peer mentoring programs is to provide a system which effectively aids the student to the new educational culture. Most often peer mentoring takes place during the first weeks and months of the studies and the mentors are students in senior position on the same field of study. The mentoring includes orientation to practical issues of studying, study services, student life and social support, but also academic support as well as training in academic study skills and modes. In the Finnish context student unions often have a great role in organizing these activities, both in universities and universities of applied science. The mentors receive either a financial fee or credit points as a compensation for their work.

In this paper we are focusing at the peer mentors' self-reported experiences of mentoring. We are interested in mentors' experiences: aims and contents of the peer mentoring activities, the mentor’s role as a group tutor and the pedagogy involved, as well as their collaboration involving other guidance and service providers. The role of the peer mentor is contemplated within the framework of the structured group counseling activities (Borgen et al., 1989). The collaboration aspects are based on the holistic career guidance model (Watts & van Esbroeck, 1998). The research questions are: 1) How do the students perceive their role as peer mentors? 2) What constitutes the contents of mentoring? 3) How mentoring is implemented (pedagogics)? 4) Are there significant differences between universities and universities of applied science? and 5) What should be improved in the current mentoring system according to mentors?

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