Abstract:

The best and fastest way of integrating the new intake of students into the university environment is achieved through different actions, the most common of which is mentoring. These actions are usually formal mentoring programs, in groups or between colleagues. Finding indicators that justify the effectiveness of the said programs is fundamental at the time of achieving their continuity. One of the most used criteria or indicators is the satisfaction with the mentoring relationships.

The purpose of this study, carried out by the Faculty of Psychology at the Universidad Complutense (Complutense University), was to evaluate the satisfaction with each mentoring meeting held. The pursuit of the integration of the new intake of students together with their getting to know the resources available at the University was discussed at the different mentoring meetings of the program. The sample was made up of eighty-six "telémacos" (first-year students) and fifty-two mentors (final-year students). Six meeting were held between April and October. After each session, the "telémacos" and mentors completed a scale of qualification in which they expressed their satisfaction with the length of the meeting, the content dealt with, the degree of learning achieved, the use of the meeting and their satisfaction with the mentor. The hypothesis posed refers to whether the content of the meetings influences the satisfaction and whether the perception of the different agents was the same. The results show that the satisfaction with different aspects of each meeting varies in accordance with each subject dealt with in it, whilst the satisfaction with the mentor remains constant. The mentors also awarded significantly lower points than the “telémacos” in different aspects evaluated at the meetings. The implications were discussed with the aim of establishing improvements in the program in accordance with the content of the meetings.

Keywords:

Mentoring, peer mentoring, satisfaction, study development, program evaluation.