Faculty mentoring is widely acknowledged as essential to academic success. It supports research productivity, retention, and career advancement, etc. However, many faculty report receiving ineffective mentoring,
Why? Because good intentions alone don’t build sustainable mentoring systems.
This conversation was at the heart of Rethinking Faculty Mentoring: What Institutions Can Do Differently, a recent webinar co-hosted by NCFDD and Harvard’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE).
The session built on the ideas explored in NCFDD and COACHE’s joint white paper, bringing together academic leaders from Emory University, Stanford University, and The University of Iowa to examine how institutions can move from values to action where mentoring is concerned.
Here are three big ideas that shaped the conversation, and why they matter now.
Faculty Mentoring Isn’t Just a Program; It’s a System
One of the most persistent challenges in higher education is the tendency to treat mentoring as a one-to-one relationship rather than an institution-wide system. But as NCFDD CEO Geoff Watson and COACHE Executive Director Todd Benson noted, that mindset limits scale, sustainability, and equity.
Dr. Pearl Dowe, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Emory University—who was also featured in the original white paper—shared how Emory restructured its approach by integrating mentoring into institutional leadership strategy.
“You have to embed mentoring into the fabric of the institution,” Dr. Dowe said. “That means resources, clarity, and leadership buy-in.”
Building a mentoring system means more than matching people up. It requires clear goals, defined roles, and consistent expectations across departments and ranks.
Traditional Mentoring Models No Longer Work
Faculty roles and faculty needs have changed. Yet many mentoring models still rely on a single senior mentor to provide support across every dimension of a junior colleague’s career.
Dr. Rachel McLaren, Associate Professor at the University of Iowa and a longtime NCFDD facilitator, challenged that assumption.
“We can’t assume everyone wants or needs the same kind of mentoring,” she explained. “Flexibility and responsiveness are key.”
Today’s faculty benefit most from network-based mentoring: multiple mentors, offering different perspectives and support across research, teaching, identity, and career navigation. The institutions making real progress are the ones building capacity for this kind of adaptive, distributed support.
Leadership Makes—or Breaks—Mentoring Efforts
Institutions often say that mentoring is “everyone’s responsibility.” But when responsibility is diffused, mentoring becomes no one’s job, and it loses momentum entirely.
As Dr. Steven Lee, Assistant Dean at Stanford University and Principal Facilitator with CIMER, pointed out, “When no one owns mentoring, it becomes invisible.”Institutions that are serious about mentoring establish ownership. That means assigning leadership roles, providing mentor training, and ensuring that department chairs and deans understand their part in the system.
Ready to Rethink Mentoring on Your Campus?
Improving faculty mentoring isn’t about adding more to everyone’s plates. It’s about designing systems that work: systems that are clear, strategic, and aligned with faculty needs across career stages.
Check out the full webinar recording to learn how institutions like Emory, Stanford, and Iowa are turning mentoring from a challenge into a strategic advantage.
NCFDD Institutional Members are encouraged to continue the conversation, ask questions, and share best practices in Community—our new hub for connectivity.