Mentor/Student Relationship Analysis

710 Words2 Pages

Academic Institution
The institution itself bears much of the responsibility in the outcome of the advisor/student relationship. Before faculty and students can engage in a productive relationship, the universities must make clear the importance of quality faculty mentoring. Faculty development and training is essential. The most direct way for institutions to improve the quality of mentoring is to reward good mentoring. Universities exist to educate and make future leaders of the graduates. The development of the students should be as important as the research dollars that come in but it is not. I have personally witnessed outstanding junior faculty mentors denied promotion because of the lack of grant support on their CV. The message …show more content…

At the university where I work, faculty members are expected to support 70% of their salary through governmental and non-profit grants and contracts. In 2004 US-based organizations funded 57% of the world's biomedical research; in 2012 the number was down to 44% (Tijan, 2015). Funding further declined by -an estimated 7.1 percent decline from fiscal year 2012 to 2013 (Boroush, 2014). More pressure than ever was placed on research faculty resulting in stressed out professors with less money, more competition and little time for anything else. Faculty are often overcommitted with teaching, advising and conducting current research, the decline in funding changed the game and put even more strain on the mentor/mentee relationship.
Time management is essential for the faculty mentor. They must have protected time to work on their own projects. Often they are required to teach and participate in other ancillary types of duties for the school or the department. Without an effective time management system in place, students can fall through the …show more content…

This is failure on all levels and must be fixed. At the graduate level, students' choice of a research adviser is one of their most important decisions-and yet some of them exercise less care in this decision than they do in the purchase of a car (NAS, 1997, p. 24). Students have an important role in the process, understanding the importance of the relationship is crucial. Researching their mentor early, speaking to them, even interviewing the mentor, could save them a great deal of grief in the long

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