University Affairs

Mentorship and success

A reader recently commented:

“Carolyn has raised a very important point. Career advising offices in various schools are doing a good job in guiding undergrad students. However, they have no clue about the needs of our grad students. Almost all grad students are on their own as far as preparation for job hunt in industry, government, and academia is concerned. Successful grads are usually those who are able to find a good mentor (career advisor) using one’s own network. — ahmad”

Ahmad’s point bears repeating – successful grad students are almost always those with strong mentorship relationships. Although I know of some really exceptional graduate student supervisors, I fear they are few and far between. But let me be clear about this. There are many graduate faculty members who would love to have the time to be the ideal supervisor. The sad reality is that they simply cannot with the number of students they are supervising, along with rising teaching and administrative demands they are negotiating. It is not at all uncommon these days for professors to be trying to supervise over eight PhDs – that’s craziness.

The University of Washington has prepared two thoughtful, comprehensive guides, one for graduate students (PDF) and one for faculty (PDF), on managing the mentoring relationship in grad school.

“Think of mentoring as the consistent and developmental evolution of wisdom, technical knowledge, assistance, support, empathy, and respect to graduate students through, and often beyond, their graduate education. In other words, mentoring is a constellation of activities—educational, interpersonal, and professional—that mean more than advising students on how to meet degree requirements, as critical as that is. Mentoring helps students understand how their ambitions fit into graduate education, department life, and postgraduate career choices.” [Faculty Guide, pg. 6]

Oh for a world where this was so – read it and weep!

Nonetheless, I encourage you to share these with your peers and the faculty in your programs – especially your supervisors. While it may not be possible to realize all the ideals outlined in these guides, maybe you could identify a couple of strategic places where you and your supervisor could improve your relationship in ways that make it more satisfying and productive for both of you. For more ideas on where to start, the University Affairs career section also recently published a piece on six best practices for supervisors, students and supervisory committees including “Sharing expectations early” and “Having a plan B” if research plans don’t work out as expected.

It also bears noting that the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies, which consists of all the graduate studies deans and their colleagues in graduate faculties, made a big push in 2008 toward establishing some national guidelines for student supervision. You can check those out on the CAGS website here (along with a similar document on professional skills development for graduate students, which I may post on another time). It’s an encouraging sign to see graduate faculties focused on supervision and mentorship – let’s hope it makes a difference!

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