EVALUATION OF MENTORING STRATEGIES AMONG ACADEMICS

Abstract

Quality of research outputs by young academics in recent times in this country are less than expected. This could be as a result of extent to which young academics are mentored by the more experienced or exposed academics. This study therefore sought to evaluate/ascertain the status and strategies of mentoring young academics for research. This will expose whether there is need for policy decision making toward improvements. This evaluation study is aimed at ascertaining the current status and strategies involved in mentoring amongst academics. A sample of 160 participants (mentors and mentees) were drawn from 372 academics from 6 (six) out of 11 (eleven) faculties of Imo State University, Owerri using proportionate random sampling techniques. They were given a set of strategies to rate under a 4-point scale. The rating scale has 27 items clustered under four subheadings: general mentoring, research teaching, research supervision and research networking. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha and found to be 0.694. The instrument was administered face to face and this enabled the researcher to augment the scale with oral interview in which the respondents were asked to express their personal views about mentoring in the university. Mean and standard deviation scores, z-test and ANOVA F-test were the methods of data analyses. Results show that the mentoring strategies were largely informal where the mentors and mentees are allowed to freely establish relationships which have inherent loopholes. It was recommended that there is need to strengthen mentoring through institutionalization.