Students' Perspectives on Graduate Student Mentoring

TitleStudents' Perspectives on Graduate Student Mentoring
Faculty/College/UnitGraduate Studies
StatusCompleted
Duration1 Year
Initiation04/01/2014
Completion08/31/2015
Project Summary

We aim to explore graduate students' perspectives on mentoring to inform and improve mentoring as an integral part of teaching and learning at UBC. Mentoring is defined as a 'rewarding transformational relationship' (Fletcher, 2007) and 'journey of teaching and sharing' (Lafosse, 2007). Mentoring includes formal and informal approaches (Chao, 2009), e.g. faculty, peer, and industry. The literature suggests international students, minority ethnicities, LGBT students, and women perceive limited mentoring (Park-Saltzman et al., 2012); however, studies representing students' perspectives are limited. Mentoring benefits for graduate students include: job satisfaction, enhanced psychosocial development (Patton, 2009), and student retention (Barker, 2011). The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS), Graduate Student Society (GSS), and Office of the Ombudsperson for Students (OOS) will collaborate to recruit 150 graduate students to participate in an interpretive qualitative study with data collection strategies including focus groups and document analysis. Data will be analyzed using inductive content analysis.

Funding Details
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2014/2015
Year 1: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorWendy Hall
Year 1: Funded Amount7,916
Year 1: Team Members

Wendy Hall, Professor, School of Nursing
Jenny Phelps, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Jacquelyn Brinkman, Graduate Pathways to Success Manager, Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Natalie Johnston, Graduate Student Advocate for Graduate Students Society
Christopher Roach, President, Graduate Students Society
Colum Connolly, VP Academic and External Affairs, Graduate Students Society
Shirley Nakata, The Office of the Ombudsperson for Students

Project Report14-051-TLEF-Hall-Final-WEB.pdf