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Looking for Professor Right: mentee selection of mentors in a formal mentoring program

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Abstract

Finding a suitable mentor is crucial to the success of mentoring relationships. In the mentoring literature, however, there is conflicting evidence about the best ways to support the pairing process in organisational mentoring programs. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the pairing process in an academic mentoring program that has implications for building a mentoring culture in higher education. The program which began with a pilot and has continued for five years with one hundred and twenty one participants, was conducted with mentees selecting their own mentor from a pool of mentors who volunteered to be part of the program. In the pilot program, where mentors and mentees first met as one group, some mentees reported that the process of selecting and approaching a mentor was uncomfortable and intimidating. Nine of twenty-three potential mentees did not form mentoring relationships. Analysis of subsequent program evaluation data pointed to the importance of two factors in the pairing process: personal connections and facilitation of the selection process. This study at a research-intensive university demonstrates that when the pairing process is tailored to individual mentees, they are comfortable selecting a mentor and to then develop a successful mentoring relationship.

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Acknowledgments

We thank our colleagues who participated in the programs, at writing retreats in December 2006 and January 2007 and members of the pilot project team: Robyn Ewing, Mark Freeman, Simon Barrie, Fran Waugh, John Shields, Donna O’Connor and Paula Spicer. We also thank colleagues at the Institute for Teaching and Learning who provided valuable feedback on drafts. We are grateful to Chris Sykes for assistance with the literature review and Barbara Grant for suggesting Professor Right for the title.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Sydney, Level 3, Carslaw Building (F07), Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Amani Bell

  2. Office of Learning and Teaching in Economics and Business, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Lesley Treleaven

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  1. Amani Bell
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  2. Lesley Treleaven
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Correspondence to Amani Bell.

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Bell, A., Treleaven, L. Looking for Professor Right: mentee selection of mentors in a formal mentoring program. High Educ 61, 545–561 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9348-0

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