New bachelors, the link at the end of the phone
From November 2 to December 18, the UM is setting up an original telephone monitoring service for new baccalaureate students. It's called Connect: premier contact. Its mission: to listen, inform and guide students, and to identify any difficulties they may face. Why original? Because it's based on a peer-to-peer relationship. A success already confirmed ten days after its launch.
Due to the health crisis, the 2020 edition of the JANE (Journée d'accueil des nouveaux étudiants) will not take place this year. However, there's no question of leaving the UM's 5387 new baccalaureate holders alone in the delicate transition from high school to university. In this context, and inspired by an initiative set up at the University of Sherbrooke, a partner of the UM, the Student Life Department - part of the Campus Life Division - and Alexis Vandeventer, student vice-president, have come up with an original concept that is unprecedented in France: the Connect telephone watch service, run by students, for students. " We thought these young students would find it easier to talk to their peers than to agents. "explains Jérémy Estèves, Head of Student Life.
Forty students from different departments - seven in this pilot version - were recruited. Their mission: to contact new baccalaureate holders enrolled in the same courses as themselves, one by one, in order to assess their knowledge of student services and facilities, and thus compensate for any lack of information. The second objective, a major one in the current situation, is to identify students facing financial, social or psychological difficulties, so as to better direct them towards the appropriate services, such as the Handiversité service or preventive medicine services, or to call on the Fonds de Solidarité et de Développement des Initiatives Etudiantes to help them financially....
A comprehensive questionnaire
" Students received training to make them more comfortable in this process, and it was very important to us that only law students, for example, contact new law graduates, because they will be more competent and feel more legitimate to give them practical advice," explains Jérémy Estèves. To better guide them through these calls, the student life department has worked on a comprehensive six-point questionnaire. First of all, a training section aimed to determine the student's state of mind and motivation. Was their enrolment their first or second choice? Are they satisfied? Secondly, daily life, including housing, resources, health and disability issues.
Information on services other than SUAPS or medicine, which are generally well identified by new bachelors, comes third. "It' s sometimes important to remind them that they have access to all facilities, not just those on their respective campuses," explains Jérémy Estèves. Next come students' preferred means of communication with the university, their current concerns, generally centered around Covid and confinement, and finally the evaluation of the Connect system.
Very positive" feedback
After ten days of operation and 2,312 calls, the initial results " are very positive ", says the manager. A large number of new students have expressed their " pleasure at knowing that the University is interested in the well-being of its students", continues Jérémy Estèves. None expressed a negative opinion. The same satisfaction was expressed by the students recruited to make the calls. "Theyare very committed, and we help them with sensitive issues such as housing problems or disabilities. All this proves to us that this system really does meet a need. The Student Life Department is already planning to repeat the experience next year, in addition to the long-awaited feedback from the JANE.