Helping your students succeed
Help your students succeed through our valuable mentoring and volunteering programmes run by NTU's CenSCE team.
Students in Classrooms

Could your students be role models for disadvantaged young people who are considering undertaking higher education?
Students in Classrooms (SinC) schemes are paid opportunities for students from NTU and the University of Nottingham to gain valuable work experience. They'll work with children and young people from a range of disadvantaged backgrounds.
Students receive full training and support to undertake the role,as well as valuable access to CPD activities. Students are expected to balance the position alongside their current academic studies.
Find out more by contacting the Widening Access and Outreach Team, or by getting in touch with your personal CenSCE adviser.
Volunteering
Students who engage with their local or global community get better results in their own degrees.
Community Engagement and Volunteering has a huge array of opportunities for students to get involved and make a difference with the community. All information can be found on our Community Engagement and Volunteering website.
Email NTU Volunteering if you have any questions: volunteering@ntu.ac.uk.
The Collaborative Engagement and Retention Team (CERT)
The Collaborative Engagement and Retention Team (CERT) works in partnership with academic schools, professional services, and the Students’ Union to cultivate strong student communities that enhance learner engagement and retention.
They offer a variety of opportunities for students, including:
- The Student Mentor scheme
- Mature Student Mentor scheme
- Grit Development Days
- Welcome Workshops
- Goal-setting Workshops
Please contact CERT@ntu.ac.uk for more information.
Student Mentoring
The Collaborative Engagement and Retention Team's (CERT) largest initiative is the Student Mentor programme (formally CERT Student Mentoring). Out staff play an integral role in the success of this scheme.
Student Mentors are recruited, trained and deployed across the University to support every undergraduate first-year student with their transition into university and throughout their first year. Mentors welcome first-year students onto their course and offer encouragement and academic guidance. Mentors are integrated into the curriculum and coordinate independent activities to encourage and foster a sense of belonging amongst our student community.
CERT also recruit Mature Student Mentors who offer specific support to mature first year students.
Staff can support the scheme by:
- Signposting first-year students to contact their Student Mentors and/or Mature Student Mentors as appropriate. If they’re not sure who their Mentor is, they can contact their Mentors via the First-Year Community site for their academic school on MS Teams (all);
- Working with School Project Leads (see below) and/or CERT to coordinate Student Mentor activity within each undergraduate course. This could be aligned to the curriculum or focused on community building (academic colleagues);
- Letting CERT know about opportunities for first-year students that Mentors can promote to mentees (all);
- Promoting the role to students who are going into their second or final year of undergraduate study, or progressing to the first year of a postgraduate course (all).
School Project Leads coordinate student mentoring activity within their school and play a crucial role by attending monthly meetings in which they share best practice with one another and steer the development of the project.
For further information, please contact your school's Project Lead.
Contact zena.rashid@ntu.ac.uk.
Contact duncan.grewcock@ntu.ac.uk.
Contact adele.lloyd@ntu.ac.uk.
Contact liz.radice@ntu.ac.uk.
Contact matthew.homewood@ntu.ac.uk.
Contact jenny.sanders@ntu.ac.uk.
Contact julie.johnston@ntu.ac.uk.
Contact rachel.welton@ntu.ac.uk.
Contact will.jennison@ntu.ac.uk.