4th European Conference for Student Affairs and Services

In Higher Education, the role of mentors has seen significant interest as it relates to supporting students and their maturity. In a post COVID-19 scenario, there are many student needs that can be addressed through different initiatives regarding advising and mentoring students. Through thoughtful mentorship and engagement, students grow in skills such as conflict management, group dynamics, and peer learning. Students learn how to support each other.  In this track, we want to delve into experiences that can enlighten ways in which Students Affairs professionals can help students thrive in their university experience.

• Address the knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to providing advising and support to individuals and groups through direction, feedback, critique, referral, and guidance. 
• Facilitate reflection to make meaning from experiences with students, groups, colleagues, and others. 
• Facilitate problem-solving and individual decision-making and goal-setting
• Provide resources and tools to appropriately challenge and support students and colleagues. 
• Identify support initiatives that integrate peer support from tutors, resident assistants or other senior students. 

Institutions of Higher Education around the world are experiencing a wave of incoming students who have experienced trauma and loss due to pandemic, economic, societal, and political events. As professionals in Higher Education, how do we equip ourselves to support these students? 

• Unpack holistic student well-being and its relationship with student success in Higher Education.
• Create opportunities to define current health triggers (pandemic, economic loss) and its impact on the community. 
• Define current mental health conditions (e.g. addiction, depression, substance abuse, etc.) which represent challenges to student success and well-being.
• Identify collaborative models between service practitioners (qualified mental health professionals) on campus and outside support.
• Identify successful practices and programs that support student resilience, work/study-life balance, healthy habits, community engagement, responsible use of social media and online presence or activity.

As Higher Education institutions reinvent themselves for defining the next milestones and educating young people, how can student affairs professionals contribute to support forward looking educational missions to achieve more peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies? How can we redefine our practices and what tools are useful for a new blended learning experience and ensure thus student success? How can we empower students to be positive change makers in their communities or globally??

• Identify initiatives for new curriculum development that support students to act as change agents for a positive impact in our world or empower them as active citizens in their communities?
• Explore virtual or hybrid programming ideas, lessons learned or promising practices experimented during and after the pandemic.
• Identify initiatives or tools that develop students’ digital skills and online reputation management.
• Explore green education initiatives, including United Nations’ SDGs, that advance and scale sustainability practices at both personal and institutional levels.

How can student affairs work with intentionality to expand the out-of-classroom experience for all students? What are some promising practices in building a residential curriculum to ensure meaningful learning that goes beyond attendance? How to build a culture of assessment in residential life? These questions are meant to guide the discussions of news trends and challenges in student learning and engagement in residential settings.?

• Identify initiatives that increase and deepen students’ participation and engagement in educational programs on campus or residential halls.
• Identify successful practices which document learning in residential settings or informal learning programs that improve overall student success.
• Describe how involving student leaders on campus or residential halls expands student learning (e.g., tutors, orientation mentor, resident assistant, academic mentor etc.)
• Explore strategies to build intentional, inclusive and supportive learning environments and/or living-learning communities post COVID-19.
• Understand the various ways institutions document learning, both inside and outside of the classroom.
• Demonstrate how effective programs can tighten the graduate skills gap in order to improve international mobility and employability.