With a little help from their friends

Sharing skills and experiences will give students the edge in the job market,

"Twenty years ago there were maybe 20 lecturers and 10 or 11 technicians for only 45 students," says Stuart English, lecturer in industrial design at the University of Northumbria. "Now we have five lecturers, two technicians and about 135 students." It is a familiar story to anyone working in higher education today. The conundrum is to maintain or improve quality in these conditions.

Why not just pack them into a bigger lecture hall? Impossible, says Darren Mullen, a final-year student. "Industrial design is embedded in craft," he explains. "The degree is like an apprenticeship. I don't think design is something tutors can teach you. You have to be hands-on, doing it."

Stuart English says: "Each student is working on a separate project most of the time and the requirements for that project are usually different. What we were able to do before was give each student individual tutorials right through their project work. Now, with more students that's not always possible, so they have to get advice from somewhere else." His answer has been to get the students to take over some of the day-to-day advice and help themselves.

It is part of a growing trend, particularly in the new universities, where students act as "mentors" for one another. The core of the scheme at Northumbria is an idea, contributed by the students, called "Open Folio". One wall of the studio is devoted to A5 boards, each with a photograph of a student and contact address plus list of his or her experiences, special skills and, most important, areas where they need help.

Neal Kirkpatrick, an undergraduate now on an industrial placement, says: "When I get back to college I'll definitely use this skill I've picked up." Open Folio puts people who may want to learn about this skill in touch with him, and lets him see what others have learnt on their placements.

The scheme acts as a skills register, especially useful for putting first- and second-year students in touch with those in the final two years who have the benefit of industrial work experience. By sharing their skills, the students become more marketable. "Communication is the key to selling our ideas," says Darren Mullen. "If you can't communicate with a client, you've lost the game."

Stuart English sees it as a direct response to decreasing resources. Networking between students, especially those returning from placements, was happening anyway. "Now we are trying to develop the self-help system; the way we taught in the past was very intensive, with a lot of tutorials." Still, the students I saw seemed happy that the lecturers were available if required.

Does this "self-mentoring" culture transfer to more traditional undergraduate fare? Judith Turner, principal of Van Mildert College at the University of Durham, can point to instances where this occurs informally within the college, although she accepts it is difficult to formalise.

One area where students are more directly involved is in management of computing facilities within the college. "Several of them make themselves available to all the students in college and teach them how to use the packages required for their courses," she explains. "In turn, they learn about committees, they learn about the ins and outs of taking decisions and gain management experience through their involvement."

A design student at Northumbria and one on a more traditional course at Durham share something important: both must make the transition from empty vessels into which knowledge and ideas are poured, into users and disseminators of these.

Getting undergraduates to teach each other seems, superficially, like a cop-out to save money. Structure it so students can, in the process, learn communication skills and you might just be giving them an edge in an increasingly competitive job market.