A Cross-Age Peer Tutoring Program to Prevent Academic Failure and Drop-Out among First Year University Students

After implementing the Bologna Process for seven years, it is quite clear that Spanish Universities still have to make a significant effort to meet the standards of quality set by the whole European Space of Higher Education. Such a process involves the implementation of teaching initiatives aimed at improving key quality education indicators, and particularly during the first year. Our cross-age peer tutoring program (PTEC) involved final year or postgraduate students, after receiving a specific training, tutoring freshmen students for about one hour and a half weekly throughout one semester, on basic issues like personal, positive academic habits, study skills, planning and time management, and so on. After implementing the program with Civil Engineering, Economics, Pharmacy, and Chemical Engineering departments and colleges, we have significant data to conclude that such interventions do have a psycho-pedagogical impact on some of the Spanish Education Secretary suggested indicators, such as GPA, performance rate, success rate and drop-out rate