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Your Academic Mentor Group

Your Academic Mentor Group

A key part, particularly of your initial experience in the Department of Social Policy, will be your Academic Mentor Group.

LSE is defined by excellent research and high-quality education, but also by the opportunity it gives you to make valuable connections and friendships which will not only support you this year, but will last long after you graduate.

In the Department, we want you to start making these connections early in your time here. An important way that we support the development of these initial friendships and support networks is through the creation of Academic Mentor Groups– small groups of students who have the same Academic Mentor.

While you will develop other groups and friendships through your time at LSE – study groups, Class or seminar groups etc, your AM Group is both an initial group of students on your Programme with whom you will experience orientation; and a group who share the same AM – who may organise to meet you as a group from time-to-time, as well as individually.

Here are some of the things you will experience, as part of your Academic Mentor Group, this year.

What will my Mentor Group do?

In your first few weeks of Autumn Term, each Academic Mentor Group will be asked to arrange to meet their Academic Mentor to find out about your Academic Mentor’s research/research interests to create a social media submission addressing the question ‘What is ISPP’ (for BSc and MSc International Social and Public Policy students) or ‘What is CCJP’ (for students of MSc Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy) in a way related to the work of their Mentor.

The results will feed-in to your Programme, and some of your submissions will be selected to feature on the Department's Social Media platforms. This will also help you connect not only with your Mentor Group but also with your Academic Mentor!

Your Meet your Academic Mentor briefs will be available here shortly:

  • For BSc ISPP students (all programmes)
  • For MSc CCJP students
  • For MSc ISPP students

Mentor Groups can be a great source of support for your Dissertation. You can get feedback on ideas, advice and discuss your thoughts with your fellow students. In addition, the SP498/SP499 Dissertation support teaching will provide exercises for Mentor Groups related to the teaching on those courses, designed to help you develop your ideas and approach to your dissertation.

  • You can also organise to meet with your Academic Mentor in a group setting where appropriate. You can talk to your Academic Mentor more about this in your first meetings with them. You can also find out more about this via the Academic Mentor Group meeting schedules, which you can find here for both BSc and MSc students.
  • Your Mentor group is also a good source of social support, and you should feel free to organise your own Academic Mentor Group events with one another!