Page 159 - Academic and Research Book_WEB

women faculty, women students were at a clear disadvantage in finding mentors. This situation seems
to have changed as far as the college and university scenario in India is concerned. Probably now we
have a sufficient senior women faculty who can serve as mentors, although in some disciplines their
number may not be adequate even today.
A detailed survey-based study (Sands, et al., 1991), revealed that only about a third of graduate
students and assistant professors were mentored by a colleague at the university in which the study
was conducted. The largest proportion of mentors described by male and female protégés in this study
were full professors. Another noteworthy observation was that mentoring between faculty seemed to
be a voluntary arrangement. Departments rarely assigned mentoring relationships. The article also
pointed out that mentoring of young faculty by senior faculty of the same department faced some
problems. The protégés found themselves in an unequal and vulnerable position in relation to the
persons who, sometime in the future, may be making decisions about their promotion, etc. This is
indeed a valid point and needs to be addressed in the suggestions for future mentoring programmes.

The essential qualities of a mentor: A mentor should be an established person in his profession;
possess core values, and be able to spare his/her time for this noble cause. The mentor has to be
inclusive and interested in continual learning. Unfortunately, there is no instrument to measure
these qualities and therefore objectivity in choosing mentors is a crucial part of the mentorship
programme for the Ph.D. students and young faculty. This commitment should be for at least two
years. Preliminary suggestions for formulating the guidelines of a nationwide mentorship programme
under the auspices of the UGC and AICTE are given below.
1. The programme will be open to all the Ph.D. students during the first two years after registration
as well as to the recently recruited young assistant professors working in Indian colleges and
universities. Participation will be voluntary and with the approval of the research supervisor
and the head of the concerned department as applicable. A protégé will have two mentors: an
alumnus mentor and a faculty mentor. He/she will receive mentoring for two years after being
admitted to the programme, typically for one session of two hours every month from each
mentor.
2. The alumni mentors will be selected from the senior, distinguished alumni of the concerned
department. Most college and university departments, which are active in research, have
produced many Ph. Ds who have reached top positions in academia, industry, or other walks of
life. Many of them retain a sense of attachment to their alma mater and are willing to spare their
time for it. However, we have not made any systematic attempt to seek their contribution for
furthering the standards of our academic departments in colleges and universities in India. Each
department needs to compile a list of the distinguished, senior alumni who are physically active
and are willing to spare two hours of their valuable time every month for mentoring one or two
protégés assigned to them. The desirous alumni should be requested to submit a statement of
interest with a one-page CV and all contact details.
3. Active and retired faculty members from a college/university should be similarly selected. In this
way, a central pool of academic mentors can be made after careful selection, based on academic
experience and research achievements, keeping the criterion of inclusiveness in mind.
4. The lists and CVs of the selected mentors can then be made available to the Ph.D. students and
young faculty. They will select one or two mentors each from the two lists with the advice of
their Ph.D. supervisor and a senior professor or the head of the department (HOD) respectively.
The mentor will select two or three protégés from the list and work with them for the next two
years. There will not be more than three protégés working with a mentor at any time.

148 | University Grants Commission