The faculty-to-faculty mentorship experience: a survey on challenges and recommendations for improvements

Abstract

Faculty at research institutions play a central role in advancing knowledge and careers, as well as promoting the well-being of students and colleagues in research environments. Mentorship from experienced peers has been touted as critical for enabling these myriad roles to allow faculty development, career progression, and satisfaction. However, there is little information available on who supports faculty and best ways to structure a faculty mentorship programme for early- and mid-career academics. In the interest of advocating for increased and enhanced faculty mentoring and mentoring programmes, we surveyed faculty around the world to gather data on whether and how they receive mentoring. We received responses from 457 early- and mid-career faculty and found that a substantial portion of respondents either reported having no mentor or a lack of a formal mentoring scheme. Qualitative responses on the quality of mentorship revealed that the most common complaints regarding mentorship included lack of mentor availability, unsatisfactory commitment to mentorship, and non-specific or non-actionable advice. On these suggestions, we identify a need for training for faculty mentors as well as strategies for individual mentors, departments, and institutions for funding and design of more intentional and supportive mentorship programmes for early- and mid-career faculty.

Insights from a survey of mentorship experiences by graduate and postdoctoral researchers

“…Mentees need to also make an effort towards managing academic work and life expectations, particularly as the progress toward independence in the lab (Bartlett et al, 2021;Martin and Grimes Stanfill, 2023;Sarabipour et al, 2021). Some mentorship issues trainees reported in this survey are shared with our recent faculty mentee survey (Sarabipour et al, 2023). Consistent with our faculty mentee survey, the need for multiple mentors is important for trainees, as it can be challenging if not impossible to find expertise and guidance on all issues in a sole advisor.…”

“…Some mentorship issues trainees reported in this survey are shared with our recent faculty mentee survey (Sarabipour et al, 2023). Consistent with our faculty mentee survey, the need for multiple mentors is important for trainees, as it can be challenging if not impossible to find expertise and guidance on all issues in a sole advisor.…”

“…We asked faculty mentees in a previously published survey (Sarabipour et al, 2023) on whether they created a lab website, posted a welcome letter (Bennett et al, 2014) on their website and whether they composed a lab expectations manual for their group. We asked the same questions this time about mentors from trainee mentees in the trainee survey.…”

“…Improving mentorship initiation and interactions.Responses by all trainee mentee respondents and all faculty respondents to questions on whether the trainee mentee's faculty mentor or faculty mentee (in a faculty-to-faculty mentorship survey) created a lab website, wrote a lab welcome letter, wrote a lab manual (also known as lab culture expectations document) (TableS119-S124). Faculty mentee data for this figure panel originates from a faculty-to-faculty mentoring experiences survey(Sarabipour et al, 2023), shown here for the first time for comparison with faculty mentors of trainees in the trainee mentorship survey.…”