Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of student engagement in UCL’s Transition Mentoring scheme upon the individuals who take the role of mentor.

Design/methodology/approach – The study used data gathered from questionnaire responses from four cohorts of mentors from 2008-2011.

Findings – The findings suggest that by assuming the role of mentor, students experience a development in their ability to critically reflect on their skills, knowledge and approaches to learning. From this increased awareness of their learning conceptions, and critical evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, mentors actively develop new methods to accelerate their academic and personal development. In this way, the act of mentoring other students seems to enable the mentors to develop a more critical learner self-concept. Through this process, many mentors experience a transformation from the learner they were before they took the mentoring role.

Originality/value – This paper explores the role peer learning plays in the development of students’ learning conceptions and is of value to researchers and practitioners with an interest in student engagement and the development of learner identities.