This method doesn’t seem to exist in Luxembourg yet. I think it would be a helpful offer that we could develop.
The programme coordinator is Prof. Dr. Silvia Queri. She can be contacted for further information: silvia.queri@rwu.de. Further information can be found on this website of the University Rvensburg-Weingarten.
The peer mentoring program aims to support autistic students and students with related conditions in improving their retention, academic success and well-being at university.
Studies have shown that autistic students often have the following difficulties:
- Planning and organising;
- Verbal, especially abstract understanding;
- Group work and oral presentations;
- Make friends;
- integrate into groups;
- Seek help;
- represent their own interests;
- Anxiety/depression.
Research has also shown that experienced peer mentors can help with these difficulties. Peer mentors are approachable, successful and experienced students who have received special training on the autism spectrum.
Each student mentee is assigned a peer mentor who is available for support and counselling according to the mentee’s individual needs.
They offer mentees the opportunity to discuss personally relevant topics and develop their short- and long-term academic and life goals. Individual communication and meetings encourage mentees to develop goal achievement strategies to solve specific problems and practice goal-setting skills.
Mentors can also help students find support services or groups on and off campus. They work towards the long-term goal of helping their mentees to gain as much self-confidence and competence in representing their own interests as possible and to achieve an independent lifestyle with as high a quality of life as possible.
The copied from a flyer of the Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences.