The new inductively generated framework regarding the benefits of the buddy programme are included as follows (in the order of the most to least prominent theme):

1.

Improved social resources

2.

Expanded skillset and increased confidence

3.

Increased enjoyment and motivation

4.

Career advancement

5.

Improved ability to navigate postgraduate applications and postgraduate life

6.

Developed a sense of belonging

7.

Improved coping through COVID-19 Lockdowns

8.

Encouraged collegiality

Table 1 summarises each theme and the relevant findings and Supplementary Table 1 includes quotes as supporting evidence.

Table 1 BeBenefits of the Buddy Programme Improved Social Resources

This theme was the most prominent and complex to arise from the interviews. Improved social resources manifested in four ways: (i) positive affect for individuals, (ii) a structured safe space to share concerns, (iii) the building of horizontal and vertical friendships, and (iv) offered perspective on individuals’ own experiences by comparing across different departments, degree structures, and disciplines.

Positive Affect for Individuals

Participants reported reduced feelings of imposter syndrome and improved self-compassion—e.g. treating setbacks with kindness and recognising one’s shared humanity [31]. An exemplar quote demonstrates this:

“It made me feel more confident in the environment that I was in and therefore made me feel better about what I was doing and it made me feel like I could belong there, and I didn't have imposter syndrome as much anymore.”

Further, participants reported that these social resources improved their wellbeing with feelings of being supported and the stability from seeing a regular group of people. An exemplar quote is shown as follows:

‘I think the biggest thing was the social factor of it, just being able to have people to support each other. I didn't even realize that the two people that was part of [my] buddy group- they were in my classes and before that I thought I was all alone in those classes. Not many of my friends are doing the same thing as me so it was just reassuring to know that I had people around me.’

Structured Safe Space to Share Concerns and to Receive Validation

The structured safe space at the buddy group catch-ups afforded participants more comfort in sharing their academic concerns in contrast to sharing with their supervisor—particularly if it concerned their supervisor. Aside from supervisory issues, participants also reported feeling more comfortable sharing emotionally difficult situations (e.g. embarrassing work situations, lack of motivation, and repeated experimental failures). This structured safe space allowed participants to better utilise their social resources to meet increased challenges and reduced adverse internal feelings. Furthermore, participants also felt these buddy catch-ups validated their concerns from shared hardships amongst other buddy group members. An exemplar quote is cited as follows:

‘I think having that space to share your concerns and get that validation by people sharing their concerns back with you, it stimulates trust and a real openness and validates your experience, which I think in turn, increases your competence and even if it's not directly related to how I can undertake research I think feeling like you are capable of it, and by talking about it and talking about problems that you may have and potential solutions that you can come up with; I think puts you in good stead to feel more capable of problem solving.’

Building of Horizontal and Vertical Friendships

The building of both horizontal friendships (i.e. peers at similar stages of study) and vertical friendships (e.g. BGLs at later stages of study) was particularly beneficial for participants. Buddies recognised the importance of having horizontal and vertical support networks as a protective factor to ameliorate encountered personal or academic problems. Buddies could also expand their social circles as their BGLs could introduce their buddies to mutual friends or departmental colleagues. Furthermore, these buddy group relationships often organically continued beyond the scope of the buddy programme. Participants felt able to continue contacting their buddy group members after the buddy programme had ended, felt more comfortable in their work environment due to these established relationships, and importantly, felt able to use these social friendships for support when faced with challenges. For example:

‘just having someone who had already been through it that you could talk to, and outside of your lab as well; a few times I had issues that I didn't necessarily want to take my supervisors, because they were you know, maybe to do with my supervisors.’

Offered Perspective on Individuals’ Own Experiences by Comparing Across Different Departments, Degree Structures, and Disciplines

Participants also felt it was beneficial in knowing the range of experiences across different departments, degree structures, and disciplines. In some buddy groups, participants belonged to the same degree structure (e.g. all buddies were Honours students completing research projects in similar departments) and in other buddy groups, participants belonged to varying degrees (e.g. across different departments or across different levels of study—e.g. masters versus honours). The advantages of groups with similar students meant that students could better relate to each other and understand each other’s experiences, and BGLs were able to tailor their help to all buddies more efficiently. Alternatively, the advantages of groups with dissimilar students were that participants could gain a wider perspective of how their own experience compared to others’ from different departments. As such, balancing the commonalities and differences between participants was often cited as an improvement, for example:

‘Maybe doing more of a questionnaire beforehand and aligning the buddy group leader better with the student or the buddies that they have. So I know there was another girl in my group who was with the [another department], and so it wasn't very helpful for her- my buddy group leader couldn't really help her in the same way that she could help the rest of us so maybe having more of an idea of what students would fit best with an appropriate buddy group leader. I know I benefited a lot because my leader was in the same department as me.’

Further suggestions for improvements are detailed in Supplementary Table 1.

Expanded Skillset and Increased Confidence

BGLs reported improved leadership and communication skills. As the BGL, they practiced communication skills including active listening without judgement, leading the conversation by asking open questions, exhibiting empathy regarding problems facing their buddies, reflection skills, and navigating social dynamics within the group to ensure everyone was heard. An exemplar quote is shown as follows:

‘it was really good – I did find myself listening more and more this time… I really tried to actively listen to the concerns of students and not insert myself into what they were experiencing- there's a fine line between sharing your experience to inform people but also not to discredit or devalue their experience to share with you, so I found myself putting more effort to actively listen and I really found that very easy to do by the end of our sessions.’

Both BGLs and buddies reported feeling more confident in using academic skills such as writing one’s thesis, using citation tools, creating figures via software such as Biorender, public speaking, presentation skills, and organising readings. Though BGLs already had experience in these aspects, they often felt the need to revise their gathered resources in order to talk about these topics. This resulted in mini communities of enquiries within their buddy groups generating ideas for everyone to use. An exemplar quote is shown as follows:

‘So definitely the citing tools that our buddy group leader introduced us to – that really helped me because I’ve got 100 references for my thesis so it was really helpful to just have a quick way to do that and an efficient way to do that. As well as getting to know those software tools like Biorender, for example, you can create your own diagrams, your own little cells; that's something that I'll be using in my introduction and I've already talked to my supervisors about getting a Biorender account or setting one up for the department.’

Lastly, BGLs and buddies developed confidence in seeing themselves in a future leadership position. BGLs paralleled these buddy groups to starting their own lab groups; and buddies drew parallels to one day leading these buddy groups. This buddy programme evidently provided a strong platform whereby participants could build one another up to pursue future goals. For example:

‘I would say that it helped my self-confidence, particularly around small group situations… I've been a part of several different lab groups and it's been interesting seeing how PIs go about managing their research teams and I've always wondered how I will be in that situation, so it was nice to think that this might be an early indicator, that it won't be a problem if I get into that situation, that I'd be able to do that as well, so yeah I would say it helped my self-confidence.’

Increased Enjoyment and Motivation

The buddy programme and its associated buddy catch-ups were enjoyable affairs which enhanced intrinsic motivation in participants’ own studies. All participants felt that the time commitment of the buddy programme meant that they had to better manage their time and schedule around these catch-ups, and forcibly take a break around lunchtime. None of the participants reported feeling the buddy programme detracted from their studies. BGLs reported that the affirmation received from knowing they had positively affected their buddies gave them a sense of achievement and re-energised them in their work. For example:

‘one thing that was quite nice- the affirmation that I got from [buddies], that I was doing a good job as their BGL. Because that was my goal to make it a nice environment for everyone to have a little bit of downtime and share problems or ask questions if they had any.’

Career Advancement

Career advancement was cited as a benefit for both BGLs to improve their curriculum vitae with evidence of service as well as for buddies to explore or better understand their personal career trajectory. The buddy programme facilitated interactions between pre-doctoral students and doctoral students as well as hosted career seminars aiming to explain the various ‘40–40-20’ research, teaching, and service aspects of the academic career. Therefore, these buddy programme activities afforded buddies much better clarity in what they wanted for themselves. Further, some participants remarked that the buddy programme could be improved with more resources (e.g. workshops, seminars) on other non-academic research careers. An exemplar quote below summarises the perspective of buddies with regard to career advancement in this buddy programme:

‘Now I know a lot more about what a career in research actually means and what that looks like, as well as in academia, as well as the fact that different institutes and universities have different rules and every place is different, different countries as well, so yeah I got to know what postgraduate life really means and even after postgraduate life what that means, like how to get a job and all that stuff.’

Improved Ability to Navigate Postgraduate Applications and Postgraduate Life

Participants reported improved clarity of the different postgraduate pathways afforded to students (e.g. Honours, Postgraduate Diploma, Masters, and PhD) as well as their application processes. For example, participants were better informed about the grades they needed to achieve to apply for certain programmes, timelines and deadlines for scholarship applications, etc. Furthermore, participants also reported more confidence in contacting lecturers and reaching out to other members of their department. These benefits extended to BGLs, as they were careful to give updated and correct information. An exemplar quote is shown as follows:

‘I think being in a position where you are a leader and you need to inform people about research in the academic space, you need to be well informed that you're not giving students misinformation so I tried really hard to educate myself on aspects of university life that I wasn't as familiar with and that also included career options for people in research. Obviously, I can only speak to things that I know, but I also tried to provide information on what else is out there, based on my experience but also experience of my peers and my friends and what they have done just to give a more well-rounded answer and information to students so, yes, [the buddy programme] really helped me navigate postgraduate space by educating myself on all aspects of postgrad space.’

Developed a Sense of Belonging

Participants reported feeling a greater sense of belonging to a wider group, department, or community through the buddy programme. BGLs enjoyed the camaraderie amongst other BGLs and how they could support each other along with supporting their respective buddies more. Buddies also enjoyed feeling more connected with their Faculty such that they could feel more comfortable in their space. For example:

‘I was looking to become more involved in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, I have friends that are also doing honours with me, but I did feel a little bit more isolated this year coming into the lab and sort of felt very disjointed compared to previous years, so I wanted to have a little bit more of a support system, a little bit more of community feel within the Faculty.’

Improved Coping Through COVID-19 Lockdown

Participants reported an improved ability to cope with studying specifically throughout the COVID-19 restrictions in New Zealand. The lockdown in August 2021 in New Zealand forced the remaining buddy catch-ups to continue solely on Zoom. Incidentally, participants reported that these catch-ups encouraged buddies and BGLs to talk with people outside their immediate social circles (i.e. family, flatmates, and close colleagues) and the social interaction helped motivate participants. For example:

‘I think the whole lockdown situation is quite difficult to get in touch with people and I think it can make you feel a little bit isolated. And so to have people there that you know you can contact for something or to show you who you should be getting in touch with or whatever has been really good throughout lockdown.’

Encouraged Collegiality

The buddy programme encouraged collegiality amongst postgraduate students where participants could give back and build towards better support systems for future students. For buddies, it was encouraging that there were so many BGLs willing to volunteer to help their colleagues. For BGLs, there were three main reasons underlying why BGLs joined the programme: a desire to have better support systems within the University, having encountered difficulty in their studies and wanting to mitigate the likelihood of negative experiences for future students, and also giving back to future students because they had received support from others. The buddy programme gave BGLs an outlet for contributing to a collegial environment. For example:

‘it’s also a good way to give back to undergrad students as well and people like me have had the privilege of going through this academic pathway. And I’ve done so well, partly due to my own efforts, but also because I’ve had a lot of people around me to really help me through that journey and so it’s definitely an awesome way to give back into it and ensure that you're that person for someone else.’