Advance HE Teaching & Learning Conference 2018: Peer Doctoral Mentoring: Creating a diverse social learning community

This paper explores a doctoral peer mentoring scheme we set up at our institution to support students entering doctoral study. Drawing on Communities of Practice (Wenger 2010) we describe how the mentor programme facilitates the production of a social learning space and contributes to the development of learner identity. We focus on the relationship between the informal flexible nature of the mentoring scheme and the institutional support provided by the university. Creating a diverse social learning community not only fills a gap left by institutional provision it also challenges the roles of staff and students in supporting doctoral study.