Development of Student Mentoring in the Research and Educational Sphere in a Classical University

The development of an institution of student mentoring can be one of the tasks of developing student self-governance in a university. We provide grounds for the development of student mentoring in the research and educational sphere in a classical university. Based on an analysis of the literature, we propose the following working definitions of the terms “mentoring” and “student-mentor”. Mentoring is a special individual or group form of work by a more experienced and professionally developed specialist with the younger generation to transfer additional knowledge, practical experience, a work ethic and a culture of interaction in a team with the aim of improving the qualitative and quantitative results of their professional activities. The student-mentor is a senior student (3rd or 4th year undergraduate or graduate), attaining “good” and “excellent” grades, engaged in research work in one of the academic associations of the university under the guidance of a professor or associate professor, taking an active part in the university's public life, who knows and has experienced many difficulties in educational and social-educational work and research activity, and is able to share his/her experience with less competent, junior students. As an example of the implementation of the mentoring institute in the academic research field at Tambov State University named after G.R. Derzhavin, two research and educational projects are described: “The Decade of Professional Literacy” and “The School of Competences”. Each of them was fully developed and implemented by students of the University and was aimed at popularizing academic research among students of secondary general schools in the region and university students, and also at the formation of a number of additional professional and general cultural competencies of students.