(Archive) Mentors and Mentoring

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

Hi
I’ve got a few questions:

1- How to check if the mentor is reputable with good pass rates? Do the students have any way to tally with while selecting a mentor?

2- Which topics from Period 37 Topic list require only secondary data?

3- Like for topic 17 there is a forum on OT, are there forums on all or a few more topics aside from T17?