Monitoring, Evaluation and Sustainability

6. Monitoring, Evaluation and Sustainability  

• Integration outcomes: academic success, retention, social inclusion, language proficiency, social and cultural codes. 

• Feedback mechanisms (student surveys, focus groups): regular monitoring with students and groups, focus groups with volunteers and students. These should be at regular intervals, for example 3 months, 9 months and 15 months post-arrival. Feedback should also include reflections from volunteers on their workload, wellbeing, and the effectiveness of group processes. 

• Strengthen continuity and reduce burnout: by sharing responsibilities across groups rather than individuals, building collaboration between staff and students, and creating accredited or placement-based roles to ensure dedicated people remain in key positions. 

• Build a resilient volunteer ecosystem: through team building, partnerships with other student groups, increased collaboration with societies across campus, and word of mouth recruitment to grow engagement organically. 

• Embedding support in institutional policies and frameworks. This could be at a university level or support from local NGOs.  

• Funding continuity and capacity development; evaluating funding models and whether these are sustainable.  

• Updating and evaluating training for group member volunteers on a regular basis. Encouraging volunteers to feedback on the process.  

• Ensure that complaints mechanisms are in place for both student beneficiaries and group members. One possibility is to create a report team that will handle complaints for students and group members. It is important that this is done in a safe and confidential way and to take this information into account for the future design of the programme.