Higher education has long been considered a transformative space, yet significant barriers remain for students from marginalised and minoritised backgrounds. These barriers can range from socioeconomic limitations to institutional biases that prevent students from achieving equitable outcomes.
As educational institutions move toward increased inclusivity and support for diverse student bodies, innovative practices are required to address systemic inequalities effectively. A reverse mentoring project, implemented at the University of Sunderland, was designed to foster dialogue between students and staff and address the unique challenges faced by marginalised students. The project’s outcomes have implications not only for educational settings but also for broader applications in social justice work within various social support systems.
Why reverse mentoring in higher education?
Reverse mentoring, originating in business, is a model where junior members of staff guide and advise more senior colleagues. The method offers a unique avenue for senior leaders to gain insight and understanding of the challenges of inexperienced or junior members of their organisation.
The model disrupts traditional power structures, positioning students as experts in their experiences while faculty and staff take on the role of learners. By capturing insights from students facing educational inequities, reverse mentoring fosters empathy, raises awareness of unconscious biases, and empowers marginalised students with a sense of agency. Through these insights, higher education can better design policies and practices that support student retention, success and wellbeing.
Project design and implementation
The reverse mentoring project at the University of Sunderland was implemented over a 12-month period, from September 2023 to 2024, with a diverse group of students from underrepresented backgrounds paired with academic and professional staff. These pairings were thoughtfully curated between those with differing backgrounds and life experiences to facilitate honest, candid conversations around issues such as academic support, campus climate, representation and mental health resources.
Regular meetings provided a safe space for mentees to share experiences and for mentors to reflect on institutional structures that may contribute to exclusion or disengagement. Key topics of discussion included:
- Social integration, identity and belonging: Many students expressed feeling isolated due to feeling ‘othered’ and noted a lack of peer support.
- Balancing responsibilities: Students identified issues with financial pressures and the difficulties associated with being a student alongside additional responsibilities (disability, caregiving/family commitments), often exacerbated by scheduling, timetabling or placement expectations.
- Institutional support: Students identified disparities in accessing personal academic tutors and wellbeing/mental health support. Students shared experiences of difficulties understanding policies and procedures and accessing services.
- Academic adaptations: Students identified difficulties adjusting to expectations of them in HE and in getting clarity and consistency regarding feedback systems and use of AI.
Through this project, students felt their voices were not only heard but also validated, which in turn cultivated an atmosphere of trust. For staff, reverse mentoring offered invaluable insights into how institutional practices could be reshaped to be more inclusive and supportive.
Outcomes and impact
There were several positive outcomes of the project that contributed to insights which will support institutional policy changes and enhance the educational experience for all students. The following projects are now underway:
- Revisions to student support: Student-led feedback prompted recommendations for revisions in personal academic tutor support and student services, to make them more accessible and culturally sensitive.
- Training and awareness programmes: We are currently developing training for staff to enhance understanding of demands on students, while also focusing on an appreciation of the need for accessibility and adjustments.
- Enhanced retention efforts: Findings highlighted the importance of early intervention strategies, with a significant focus on belonging, social isolation and early access to support. This has led to targeted retention practices for at-risk student populations.
The project’s success in transforming educational practices underscores the potential of reverse mentoring as an emancipatory tool for addressing structural inequalities. Empowering students to contribute actively to change within their educational environments has implications that extend beyond academia.
Expanding the model: Applications in social support systems
Reverse mentoring has broader applications in social support systems. Disadvantaged populations often encounter significant barriers within systems such as housing, homelessness services, and skills development programmes. Individuals and communities who are disenfranchised, minoritised, ‘hard to reach’ and facing additional challenges in life are often the target for interventions and support. However, whenever a project is designed to support people, it must work for those people in that place. A one-size-fits-all approach will never work, and there is growing recognition in this sector that interventions or support need to be done with people, not with them. Collaborative, participatory or emancipatory approaches such as this provide a mechanism to mitigate potentially exploitative research processes and to empower participants by giving them a meaningful voice in shaping the interventions intended to support them.
Just as reverse mentoring empowered students and allowed an authentic opportunity to embed the student voice in institutional priorities, it could also serve as a powerful tool in these sectors by:
- Amplifying lived experiences in homelessness services: Service providers could engage individuals experiencing homelessness as mentors to help staff understand systemic barriers such as stigma, inaccessible services and lack of supportive networks. By foregrounding lived experiences, reverse mentoring could foster empathy and drive meaningful changes in service delivery.
- Reforming housing support systems: Marginalised populations often struggle with housing instability due to structural inequalities. Reverse mentoring could offer housing professionals insight into barriers related to access, discrimination and bureaucratic challenges. This knowledge could inform policies that are more compassionate, transparent and inclusive.
- Skills development and employment programmes: Individuals seeking employment or re-entering the workforce frequently encounter systemic biases that limit their opportunities, or the take-up of these opportunities. By pairing programme staff with participants as mentors, reverse mentoring could reveal unseen challenges, such as prejudices in hiring practices or training programmes that do not account for diverse learning needs. Staff would gain a more nuanced understanding of these issues, leading to programme improvements that better support marginalised populations.
Reverse mentoring as an emancipatory practice
The reverse mentoring project at the University of Sunderland exemplifies the potential for emancipatory projects to drive social justice within educational institutions. By inverting traditional hierarchies, reverse mentoring positions individuals from marginalised backgrounds as agents of change, offering critical insights that can reshape institutional practices. The project provides a blueprint for expanding this model to other social support systems, empowering disadvantaged populations in areas like homelessness, housing and skills development.
As societal inequities persist, reverse mentoring offers a compelling approach to fostering inclusive, equitable and empathic support structures. By translating the lessons learned in higher education to other domains, reverse mentoring can play a pivotal role in addressing systemic barriers and fostering a society that values and learns from the lived experiences of all its members. As this model continues to evolve, its potential for impact across educational and social domains becomes clearer, advocating for an approach where those most affected by inequality are at the forefront of reshaping it.
Kate Newby is the Faculty Academic Support Lead at the University of Sunderland, where she oversees initiatives aimed at improving student engagement, retention and success. Dr Laura N. McGinty is the Research and Projects Assistant in the Institute for Economic and Social Inclusion at the University of Sunderland.
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