(Archive) Mentors and Mentoring

i would also really appreciate if someone who has passed the RAP already can share some helping materials and guidance with me on topic 8. I am with a tight budget and would be obliged if someone could share some helpful information and insights.

Thank you.

Thank you for your response.

Well I will be submitting in Period 35 and am waiting for information pack release.

I have previous thesis writing experience so I only need helping material to guide me to success as I want to pass in the first attempt, due to sensitivity of funds. I am not asking for samples but materials that many mentors offer in their paid packages.

Will surely look into T17 forum to get help from fellow students and hope I will be able to find a mentor who is able to provide me with basic mentoring required to by the OBU for at least a cheap cost, if not free.

The thing is everyone has started charging more. learningluminarium is charging around GBP 460 for their basic package which was less than half about a year ago. Given that OBU might also increase their fee for period 35, I am not in a situation where I can choose from such luxurious services.

So if any mentor gets to read it, I will be obliged to hear from them. If someone knows about a mentor who charge within USD 100 for their basic services, kindly let me know.

I just don’t want to give up on this degree opportunity just because of funds. I hope someone will share some valuable information.

Thank you.

People may have posted complementary comments about their mentors on the results forum. Register as a student on the OBU mentoring website to find names of mentors you may email. Our recommended mentors based on all round value and experience are the Learning Luminarium (see our forum) that is not to say other mentors are not suitable and qualifies.

However ensure you choose wisely and beware anyone who offers to write the RAP for you. OBU will impose a a fail in every section and a penalty resubmission fee for anyone found guilty of Misconduct and even takes steps to have the degree withdrawn if they subsequently discover it was not your work. This can come as a nasty surprise and cause a lot of stress especially if employers check the degree credentials with the University and uncover this.

@TrephenaI – believe it is faster to reply you here. The two main mentors in OBUTraining is

Adeyemi Timothy

Obadina Adewunmi

I will like to know please if making such recommendations is not welcome as this was to give an awnser to @rajausama007

Thank you

REPLY FROM TREPHENA: Thank you for your information

The OT rules prohibit direct solicitation of students by anyone (including our recommended mentors, The Learning Luminarium). We welcome informed posts by legitimate good mentors at any time but students are recommended to approach the mentor about potential mentoring via the OBU BSc mentoring website in the first instance (which students may now do as you have now provided names). We offer a mentor on production of their OBU mentoring certificate (to my email address), the ‘Badge’ of mentor appended to the name of the mentor in place of ‘participant’ so this appears against their names in every post they make.

However as a website with its own costs we cannot provide free advertising space for people and the correct place for students to place recommendations is normally on our results forums (so the student post has been reposted there)

We reserve the right to verify pass rates claims made for any mentor
with OBU. This is because we are aware that false claims have been made in the past by unscrupulous individuals seeking to exploit students and we want to protect students from this. We will also check ACO records as recently we have heard of 6 students in Pakistan having degrees taken back as a consequence of the mentor providing templates /writing the RAPs and a similar number of students in Africa (whose mentor wrote work for them on fictitious companies) who now face a GBP 550 resubmission fee. In addition ACCA is informed about all these cases. As student futures are affected Opentuition takes its responsibilities to ensure that everyone can rely on high standards and ethics in our forum very seriously

@rajausama007/ – regarding your query about a suitable mentor for someone needing minimal support at a low fee -you could try Hamad Ahmed Quereshi who has posted answers on this forum previously as a mentor and operates under the umbrella of the Virtual Mentoring Network. When I last checked he had a reasonable pass rate and was reputable (the latter is very important as if you end up using a disreputable one then it might lead to an ACO referral and extra stress and cost for you).

Being on the OBU mentor list is no guarantee of expertise or integrity as OBU cannot monitor every mentor however it will remove those who have low pass rates and high Academic Conduct Office referral rates. Each session many mentors and their students are investigated by the ACO for breaching the University regulations.

In fact a few of the UK markers also may sometimes act as mentors for about GBP350 -400. They tend not to advertise their services and although for professional reasons they can never guarantee a pass (work will be marked anonymously a different marker) they obviously understand the assessment criteria inside out and therefore are the best mentor anyone could have.

It depends on your budget. Have you tried the Learning Luminarium? (After the student above asked for the OBU specific mentor details and I put him in touch with an OBU marker who mentors he messed them around so am reluctant to waste their and my time again….)

I am afraid that being a listed mentor just means that someone passed the online OBU mentoring course. OBU will only take action against a listed mentor if there is evidence of malpractice in relation to the university’s rules. These would include offering to write the RAP or giving the student files to work from e.g. a spreadsheet that just needs new figures plugging in but all the calculations and formulae etc. have already been done.

OBU will also take action if the mentor has implied that they have a connection with the University e.g. has used the OBU logo to imply any sort of endorsements

On OT we always advise students to choose their mentor carefully. Quality and mentor integrity come at a price and I try to point out that as every submission attempt costs GBP 250 it is worth getting a reputable mentor the first time as this is probably cheaper overall and certainly less stressful.

No mentor currently is allowed to mentor than 50 students. In fact in my opinion no mentor can adequately mentor more than 20 if they are doing the job properly.

@obu2018a – you are obviously a considerate person as you state “I do not wish to harm anyone’s reputation”. Part of whether you can get a refund may depend on the terms and conditions you agreed between yourselves. This would be the legal position. However there is also a moral position in addition to this as you point out.

I would have expected a professional mentor with a decent reputation to have been keen to know how they had failed you so that they could improve their service and possibly to accept that, for whatever reason, you feel that you don’t have a proper working relationship. In these circumstances then most or all of the deposit should be refunded.

Unfortunately in reality it is harder to establish what he should have done, what he has actually done and your expectations of these as the two positions could differ significantly. You do also have to consider how much time the mentor may have already expended on you -whether this is negligible in terms of how much you have paid or whether it could be significant.

I am not really in a position to tell you how to retrieve your money as the legal remedies vary from country to country and the effort and cost involved are often not worth it unless the amount is significant.

As a final resort you might have some redress (though this would not amount to any money) via OBU. The role of the mentor is set out in the Information Pack. Many mentors go beyond these guidelines -sometimes this can be a problem (as in extreme cases mentors have been known to assemble most of the work for a student leading to Academic Conduct issues). However if he has not provided the minimum as set out in the OBU mentor guidelines then you should inform OBU of this supplying evidence and they may take the issue up with the mentor (more so if there are numerous rather than individual complaints). Mentors can be suspended e.g. removed from the official list in certain instances.

Probably at this stage if I were you I would ask him to justify why he thinks he can keep the money – what grounds does he have? He will probably ignore you, however if he has NOT complied with the OBU guidelines in a follow up email point this out and copy it to ACCA@Brookes.ac. UK – he may then possibly relent in the face of adverse publicity. (However I think as it just you against the mentor at this stage in reality OBU would not actually do anything and if he is carrying out the role in accordance with the Info Pack they would never take any action.)

No the mentors are not in a direct relationship with OBU so cannot in that sense influence your subsequent submission. When submitting you need to select the name of your mentor in the dropdown box but otherwise you do not need to inform OBU.

If you feel really aggrieved about the actions of your previous mentor, you could put these in an email to me at Trephena@opentuition.com I could pass them on informally to a member of the Marking Team, who may be able to check whether he has had other complaints made against him if I think it merits it.

Hi, Anna,

Is there any way to send you a personal message regarding mentoring me?

Many thanks

A mentor does not have to be local to you provided there is Skype in your country. ALthough I do not mentor BSc Applied Accounting students, I supervise Students for MBA dissertations and none of them have ever lived in the same counry as me! The internet means you can usually communicate successfully worldwide and my supervisees have lived in such diverse locations as Africa, USA and Hong Kong.

Only the INDUSTRY SECTORS for Topics 8 and 15 will change and all of the other topics remain the same.

They should be available when the 2018/2019 Information Pack for P37 and P38 is published the end of June /beginning of July

A mentor is only supposed to offer guidance and direction they are not expected to be experts on the company. However I would expect them to offer advice on research methods and things like referencing skills (having said that I suspect our ‘OT Ultimate Guide to referencing your RAP’ is so good many mentors probably use it for themselves – especially the Golden Rules).

Depending on your skill set if you are intending to do Topic 8 and you are waiting to know the sectors you could in the meantime practice producing presentation slides and developing your PowerPoint skills. Ditto with Excel