Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences

UniLink is a new, university-wide, peer support program aimed at supporting the transition of students who are new to Perth.

In many cases these are international students, although they may be regional and rural students or those relocating from interstate.

Volunteers join the program of their own accord and are assigned one or more ‘friends’ to assist and support.

Funding for UniLink was achieved via the Central Teaching and Learning Performance Fund earlier this year and the program is being piloted in semester 1, 2009. UniLink has incorporated the existing International Friendship Program (International postgraduate research students) and is open to all students commencing study at UWA who are new to living in Perth.

How you can support this program as UWA staff

Spread the word

• By speaking with your colleagues about it
• By telling students about UniLink
• By displaying promotional material in your area
• By helping us to reach new students before they arrive

Work with Student Services

• To expand the possibilities of UniLink
• To promote a positive student experience

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What Student Services does

Recruitment of volunteers

In the pilot stage, volunteers will be recruited from existing mentors from the UniMentor Program and from existing International Friendship Program volunteers. A wider recruitment email will be forwarded to the wider student population where required. Posters and postcards have been developed to promote the program to existing students to encourage participation.

The Volunteer’s role

The volunteer contacts the new student via email as soon as they are assigned. The introduction is friendly and outlines the ways in which the volunteer can assist the new student. The new student is then invited to keep in touch via email as they prepare to come to Perth. Volunteers will answer general questions that new students have about living in Perth and studying at UWA. It is expected that they will refer the new student to relevant services at the university for more assistance as required.

Volunteers are not permitted to:

• Give students advice related to course enrolment, unit selection or any other academic matter
• Give students advice related to immigration, visas or employment in Australia
• Provide temporary accommodation for new students or participate in airport pickup

Once the new student arrives in Perth, where possible and with the agreement of both parties, the volunteer will meet with them during orientation. Where a new student arrives outside of regular orientation times, the volunteer will arrange to meet with the new student and show them around UWA.

Resources for volunteers

Volunteers will receive an information pack when they first participate. This will include the information to enable them to perform the role. In addition, where students who arrive outside regular orientation time, volunteers will be provided with a bag of information to give the new student when they arrive at UWA.

Promotion to new students

All new students who qualify for the program will receive a promotional flyer in the information they receive from UWA. They then have the option of signing up online to participate in the program.

Matching

Students will be matched with volunteers primarily by Faculty, although this might not always be possible. We will also match by gender in cases where, for cultural or religious reasons, a new student requests a specific gender. We are unable to match based on country of origin or ethnicity. One of the aims of UniLink is to help new students adapt culturally to their new environment and part of that adaption is mixing with others from diverse backgrounds.

Modes of contact

UniLink is focused on linking students who are ‘new to Perth’ with existing students before they arrive in Perth to start their study. The primary mode of communication is via email, although, as the program develops we are hoping to link in with existing and emerging technologies to enable linked students to engage with each other in a variety of ways.

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