Academic Staff Mentorship at Makerere University: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Mentorship involves exchanging knowledge, skills, and experience between a more knowledgeable and skilled individual and a less experienced and skilled one. Mentorship fosters professional skill development, confidence, scholarly productivity, career advancement. It also helps in stress reduction, and increasing job satisfaction. There is limited research on academic staff mentorship in tertiary institutions in Uganda. This study sought to address this knowledge gap by examining how mentorship is undertaken by academic staff, the challenges it faces, and how it can be improved at Makerere University in Uganda. This study was conducted using a qualitative research design. The participants were purposively selected from three colleges at the university. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and manually analyzed using a thematic approach. The major results revealed that mentorship among academic staff at this institution was practiced informally as there were no formal structures to guide and facilitate mentorship practice. Therefore, we recommend that formal structures be implemented to guide, facilitate, and enhance this practice.