Mentoring encompasses more than serving as a role model. The Consortium has outlined the following mentoring roles to guide the relationship between faculty, alumni of European Joint Master’s in Strategic Border Management and students. Teaching Staff, alumni and students must realise that, while the Module Convenor will be the primary Mentor throughout the duration of the programme, many of the mentoring ‘functions’ defined below may be performed by the programme teaching staff other than the Module Convenor and alumni. An important consequence to this recognition is that teaching staff and alumni must realise that much of their interaction with all students has an important mentoring component to it. Students also have responsibilities to ensure successful mentoring and these are also indicated below.

Mentoring has been defined as:
a) guiding students through Degree Programme requirements;
b) providing a clear map of the Degree Programme requirements from the beginning, making clear the nature of the requirements and assessments, and defining a timeline for their completion;
c) providing clear guidelines for starting and finishing dissertation work, including encouraging the timely initiation of the dissertation, as well as exploring a wide range of possible fields of research throughout the programme when choosing a topic for the dissertation;
d) encouraging an open exchange of ideas, including pursuit of the student’s ideas;
e) checking regularly on the student’s progress;
f) evaluating clearly the strengths and weaknesses of the student’s academic performance and research competences;
g) providing and discussing clear criteria for authorship of collaborative research and project work;
h) being aware of the student’s learning and research needs and helping in obtaining required resources.;
i) providing constructive feedback and advice on the student’s performance;
j) guiding the students through professional development;
k) providing guidance and serving as a role model for upholding the highest ethical standards;
l) advising students on the fair and equitable distribution of tasks and a workload within a team;
m) encouraging peer learning, cooperation, team work and a stimulating learning atmosphere within the student group;
n) encouraging students to keep in contact with each other throughout the programme, meet online, provide mutual support, seek and provide constructive feedback, consult on their group and individual work;
o) facilitating interactions with other students, the faculty and the wider professional community;
p) advising students in all matters related to the Degree Programme;
q) providing support and advice to students on non-academic matters and referring them to further assistance if required.