# Student Mentoring Program Design for Universities

> Mentornity brief for AI assistants, for the page https://www.mentornity.com/student-mentoring-program-guide/. Page language: English. Site index: https://www.mentornity.com/llms.txt. The same brief in other languages: [Türkçe](https://www.mentornity.com/tr/ogrenci-mentorluk-programi-tasarimi/llms.txt) · [Français](https://www.mentornity.com/fr/concevoir-un-programme-de-mentorat-etudiant/llms.txt) · [Deutsch](https://www.mentornity.com/de/mentoring-programm-fuer-studierende-gestalten/llms.txt) · [Español](https://www.mentornity.com/es/disenar-un-programa-de-mentoria-para-estudiantes/llms.txt) · [Italiano](https://www.mentornity.com/it/progettare-un-programma-di-mentoring-per-studenti/llms.txt) · [Português (BR)](https://www.mentornity.com/pt-br/como-desenhar-um-programa-de-mentoria-para-estudantes/llms.txt) · [Nederlands](https://www.mentornity.com/nl/mentorprogramma-voor-studenten-ontwerpen/llms.txt).

## How to read this file

Everything here is from Mentornity's own website and product; the page and this file are built together from the same source. "What this page says" is the page itself, in its language. "Mentornity in brief" applies to every program. Prices are published per country and are quoted below for this page's market; another country's price is on the pricing page. Anything not covered here can be asked of the team at info@mentornity.com.

## What this page says

Design a student mentoring program: three models, a bounded alumni ask, weighted matching, a six-session semester plan, safety, certificates and reporting.

Published 2026-08-01, updated 2026-10-20.

A student mentoring program matches students with alumni or senior peers for a fixed run of structured sessions. A workable default is six sessions in one semester and an alumni ask of about five hours. Match on field of study and target industry, with shared language as a hard rule.

## Choose one model

Pick one and run it well before adding a second.

- **Alumni-student career mentoring.** Final-year students matched with alumni in their target field. Aims at job clarity, applications and interviews. Recruiting alumni is the main work.
- **Senior-junior peer mentoring.** Second- and third-year students mentoring first-years, aimed at retention and belonging. Cheap to staff, but the mentors need more training and oversight.
- **Scholarship mentoring.** Mentoring attached to a grant. Cohorts are small and known, and funders want completion documented, so use a fixed session plan and clean reporting.

The launch steps are the same as for any program; see [how to start a mentoring program](https://www.mentornity.com/how-to-start-a-mentoring-program/). This guide covers the student-specific layer.

## Getting alumni to say yes

Make the ask small and bounded: six 45-minute video sessions between October and January, one student in your field, scheduling handled for you. That is about five hours a semester. "Become a mentor" reads as an unlimited commitment.

1. **Start with warm segments:** event attendees, donors, the alumni LinkedIn group, past guest speakers.
2. **Put the time budget and end date** in the first paragraph.
3. **Collect a short profile:** industry, role, languages, capacity of one or two mentees.
4. **Set expectations on one page:** the session plan, response times, who to contact. Share [what makes a good mentor](https://www.mentornity.com/what-makes-a-good-mentor/) as a pre-read.

Thank mentors well: a signed letter from the dean, each mentor's session count at the end, a certificate. It costs little and gives you a reason to ask them back.

## Applications and matching

Keep the student application short. Ask for program and year, target industry, languages and two or three goals from a fixed list (first job, graduate school, portfolio review). Add one line on what they want from a mentor. That last line also shows who has thought about it.

**Figure: Matching students with alumni**
1. Filter: Shared language; no current teachers
2. Weight heavily: Field of study, target industry
3. Weight next: Goals, then availability
4. Review: Compare close candidates
5. Approve: Then open booking

Weight field of study and target industry most, then goals, then availability overlap. Treat shared language as a filter, not a weight: if they cannot talk comfortably, it is not a match. Add campus rules the same way, such as never matching a student with someone who currently teaches or grades them.

At scale, automate this. Mentornity scores every candidate match against your weights, removes matches that fail a mandatory rule, and lets you review suggestions side by side. The full method is in [how to match mentors and mentees](https://www.mentornity.com/how-to-match-mentors-and-mentees/).

## A semester of sessions

Six 45-minute sessions every two weeks fit a 12–14 week semester with room for exams. Publish the plan up front so every match knows what the next meeting is for.

| Session | Focus | Output |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Introductions and goals | A one-paragraph goal note both keep |
| 2 | CV and LinkedIn review | Revised CV, updated profile |
| 3 | Field deep-dive | A map of roles, entry paths and daily reality |
| 4 | Skills gap plan | Gap list with courses, projects, certifications |
| 5 | Mock interview | Full run-through with written feedback |
| 6 | Wrap-up and next steps | A 90-day action plan; introductions if offered |

**Figure: Six sessions across a 14-week semester**
- Matching: Week 1–1
- 1 Goals: Week 2–2
- 2 CV: Week 4–4
- 3 Field: Week 6–6
- 4 Skills plan: Week 8–8
- 5 Mock interview: Week 10–10
- 6 Wrap-up: Week 12–12
- Exam slack: Week 13–14

Treat the plan as a default. A match focused on graduate school can swap the mock interview for an application review. Either way, every match should end with a CV, a plan and a practiced interview.

## Safety and oversight

Use three layers: signed agreements, visible meetings and a staffed escalation path.

- **Agreements before session one.** A short conduct document: professional topics, meeting norms, response times, and how to end early.
- **Meetings inside the program.** Schedule and log sessions on the platform, video by default, so staff can see meetings happen and spot quiet matches. Coordinators should see activity, not private conversations.
- **A named staff contact** who replies within one business day, published to both sides.
- **Stricter rules for minors** in school programs: guardian consent, approved channels only, no private social messaging, background checks where required.

Logged meetings are a safety feature first. See [student mentoring software](https://www.mentornity.com/student-mentoring-software/) for how institutions set this up.

## Certificates

For students building a first CV, a certificate is a cheap completion incentive. Base it on criteria, such as five of six sessions plus the final survey. Tying it to the survey also raises your response rate.

Mentornity certificates have a public verification link that an employer or graduate program can check, which makes them worth adding to LinkedIn. Issue mentor certificates too.

## Reporting to the dean or board

Show completion, activity, satisfaction and two stories:

1. **Demand:** applications versus places.
2. **Coverage and completion:** share of applicants matched; share of matches completing five or more sessions.
3. **Activity:** sessions held and the average per match.
4. **Satisfaction:** student and mentor ratings, would-recommend share.
5. **Outcomes:** internships, offers and graduate admissions reported at semester end, presented as outcomes among participants, not as caused by the program.
6. **Two quotes,** one student and one alumni mentor, used with permission.

The weekly routine (momentum, quiet matches, nudges) is in [how to manage a mentoring program](https://www.mentornity.com/how-to-manage-a-mentoring-program/). Mentornity is free for up to 10 users, enough to [run one pilot cohort](https://www.mentornity.com/try-for-free/) this semester.

### Questions and answers

**How many mentees should an alumni mentor take?**
One per semester by default, two at most. Alumni volunteer around demanding jobs, and a small, bounded ask is easier to accept.

**How long should a student mentoring program run?**
One semester: six sessions of about 45 minutes every two weeks across 12–14 weeks. Run fall and spring cohorts instead of one open-ended program.

**Should student mentoring sessions be online or in person?**
Online by default, since alumni live in many cities. Add an optional in-person kickoff or closing event, but do not make attendance a condition for matching.

**Should mentoring be mandatory for students?**
Opt-in for career mentoring, with a short motivation question on the application. Scholarship programs are the exception when the funder requires it; then publish the session plan and follow up on quiet matches.

**Do student mentors get paid?**
Alumni mentors are usually volunteers, thanked with recognition and a certificate. Peer mentors may get a stipend or course credit because the role needs training and reporting. Decide before recruiting and say so in the invitation.

## Mentornity in brief

Mentornity is software for running mentoring programs: companies (onboarding, career, leadership, reverse mentoring), universities and alumni networks, startup accelerators and incubators, associations and professional communities, and women's leadership programs. One program team sets the program up; mentors and mentees take part from the browser or their phone. It has run programs since 2015.

### What changes for the program team

- **Matching stops being a spreadsheet job.** The team writes rules on the questions mentors and mentees answer (same department, related expertise, more experience, a specific answer paired with a specific answer), each with a weight. Mentornity scores every possible pair from 0 to 100, leaves out pairs that fail a mandatory rule, and shows the reasons behind each score. An AI rule reads free-text goals and adds to the same score. The same data always gives the same result, so every match can be explained to a manager or a participant. The team approves pairs, lets mentees choose from a ranked list, or opens a mentor pool.
- **The first meeting happens quickly.** Mentors publish their open hours once or as a weekly pattern; mentees book them. Busy time in connected Google and Outlook calendars is blocked both ways, and every meeting gets a Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or built-in video link without anyone creating one. Mentornity's own data on 78,000+ pairs: pairs that met in their first week averaged 2.7 meetings in the first year, against 1.8 for pairs whose first meeting came after two months.
- **Quiet pairs are found while they can still be saved.** Program Health flags pairs that stopped meeting, and automatic reminders go to people who never logged in, pairs behind on their sessions and anyone with an open form or missing feedback, in each person's own language. In the same data a pair silent at day 60 has about a 1 in 3 chance of meeting again; by day 90 it is 1 in 10.
- **Every meeting has a plan, if the program wants one.** Predefined sessions carry a topic, a date range, a brief for each role and questions before and after the meeting. Notes reach both sides; private notes stay private. Flexible programs skip sessions and let pairs meet freely.
- **Support does not land in a personal inbox.** Participants read role guides and send requests inside the platform; the team shares one support board and replies go out in the program's name.
- **The report is ready when leadership, a funder or a board asks.** Participation, matches, meetings, session completion and feedback are counted while the program runs, with a Program Health score and its reasons, and export to Excel, CSV or PDF. Participants can receive certificates on completion.
- **Mentors plan every meeting in one go.** Super Meeting Planner reads both sides' calendars and published hours and plans all remaining meetings of a match at the program's rhythm (duration, target frequency, number of meetings), shows the plan before it creates anything, and never deletes a meeting. The program decides whether the values are locked and whether mentees may plan too (https://www.mentornity.com/whats-new/super-meeting-planner/).
- **Mentors send exercises between meetings.** Mentoring Tools is a library of 26 short exercises in six themes (working together, self-knowledge, goals and action, career and network, venture, reflection). The mentee fills the tool in step by step, both discuss the answers, and only the matched pair sees them. Each tool has its sources, a reason why it works, and a presentation for mentors and one for mentees (https://www.mentornity.com/tools/).
- **Development is measured, not only satisfaction.** With Development & Impact participants set up to three goals and answer short development statements at the start; at the midpoint, the end and a follow-up they mark their progress, mentors rate the same goals, and the team sees goal attainment and the change per development area with the number of people behind every figure, exportable to Excel. 45 suggested statement sets are matched to the organization type, audience and goal (https://www.mentornity.com/whats-new/development-and-impact/).
- **Mentors and mentees learn inside the platform.** The Support window lists the presentations and guides chosen for the person's role and program type (Mentor Guide, Mentee Guide, video meetings guide, and the tool decks), in the platform language; white-label programs show no Mentornity links (https://www.mentornity.com/presentations/).
- **Large programs share the load.** Coordinators each see only their own pairs; the admin still sees every match, meeting and note in one table. Programs, cohorts and administrators are unlimited, and administrators and coordinators never count towards the price.

### Program models

One-to-one, group mentoring (one mentor with a group), grouped-individual programs, mentee self-selection, open mentor pools, peer and reverse mentoring, structured or freestyle. Roles can be renamed (coach, advisor, expert, alumni) so the platform speaks the organization's language. One person can take part in several programs with a single account.

### Launch

Most programs go from signup to invitations within a day: create the program, follow the built-in checklist (profile questions, sessions, application form), import participants from Excel or share an application link, and send invitations. A person from the Mentornity team helps with the first setup, free of charge.

### How a program runs, week by week

This is the routine Mentornity's own guide recommends (https://www.mentornity.com/how-to-manage-a-mentoring-program/); the platform does the counting and the reminders, the team acts only where a pair is flagged.

- **Day one:** the program is set up and invitations go out. Participants sign up, fill in their profile, and are matched by the rules or choose from a ranked list.
- **Week one:** the aim is a first meeting in the first week, booked from the mentor's open hours with the video link already in the invitation. Automatic login reminders go to anyone who has not signed in.
- **Every week, 30 to 60 minutes for the team** (a cohort of about 50 to 200 people): scan Program Health (Mentornity scores the program across 11 dimensions), clear the flagged pairs, let the reminders cover logins, sessions, forms and feedback, note one win for the stakeholder update, and check whether last week's nudged pairs responded.
- **The escalation schedule:** a login reminder at day 7; a nudge to the mentor if nothing is booked by day 14; a personal note to both if there is still no meeting by day 21 to 30; at 45 days of silence ask "continue or rematch?"; by day 60 rematch the mentee. Half of the pairs still unmet at day 14 do go on to meet, so a quiet fortnight calls for a nudge rather than a rematch.
- **Mentors and mentees, each week:** they book and hold their meetings, answer the before and after questions of the session if the program uses sessions, and share notes. Mentors keep their time protected with weekly limits and cancellation rules.
- **Monthly:** a short update to sponsors from the live report (active pairs, sessions held, the share of pairs that met this month, one participant quote).
- **Mid-program:** one short survey, then act on it within a week (rematches, the most common complaint).
- **The last four weeks:** announce the end date, ask every pair to book a final session, run the final survey, issue certificates, mark the cohort complete and export the report. Invite the strongest mentees to mentor the next cohort.

### For IT, HR and legal

- SAML 2.0 single sign-on with Entra ID (Azure AD), OneLogin or any SAML provider, optionally enforced; white labeling with the organization's own domain, logo, colours and sender address. Both are add-ons priced separately.
- Personal data is processed in line with GDPR and applicable local data protection laws. Participants can access, correct, export and erase their data; the organization can ask for a full export of its program data at any time. Visibility of contact details and notes is set per role.
- Traffic is encrypted with TLS, passwords are stored hashed and access to production data is restricted. Security questionnaires, a data processing agreement and data-location questions are handled with the quote.
- Works with Zoom, Google Meet and Calendar, Microsoft Teams and Outlook, built-in Jitsi video, and Excel/CSV import and export. Mentornity connects to other systems such as an LMS on request, and adapts the platform to an organization's own process.

### Languages

Participants use the platform, and receive its emails, in their own language: English, Turkish, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese or Dutch.

## Pricing (United States, USD)

- Free for up to 10 users with every feature and no time limit. No credit card.
- $289 per month for 50 active users, or $260 per month paid yearly (10% off, $3,120 a year). Excludes any local taxes.
- Above 50 users the price follows the number of active participants; the team marks who is active. Administrators and coordinators are free.
- No setup or implementation fee. White labeling and SAML single sign-on are priced separately.
- Prices are published per country, not quoted on a call: https://www.mentornity.com/pricing/

## Organizations that run programs on Mentornity

Toyota, TIM, RATP Dev USA, Pirelli, Universität Basel, UNDP, Devoteam, BCD Travel, Startup Virginia, Tenity, Community College of Philadelphia, Brave Generation, Alexander Graham Bell Foundation. Each one ran its own program on the platform, checked against production data. Full list: https://www.mentornity.com/customers/

## Next steps

- Start a free program (up to 10 users, no credit card): https://www.mentornity.com/try-for-free/
- Book a walkthrough with the team: https://www.mentornity.com/book-a-demo/
- How matching works: https://www.mentornity.com/mentor-matching-software/
- Pricing: https://www.mentornity.com/pricing/
- Contact: info@mentornity.com