RESEARCH MENTORING POLICY

Rev / Date / Purpose of Issue/Description of Change / Approval Date / Review Date
1 / August 2017 / New Policy
Policy Officer / Senior Responsible Officer / Approved By / Date / Equality Impact Assessment
Training and Development Officer / Deputy Director HR (Development) / RSTG
HRTG / August 2017
August 2017

RESEARCH MENTORING POLICY

BANGOR UNIVERSITY

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1INTRODUCTION

The University supports and encourages research mentoring in order to develop its research capability and support for research staff.

Mentoring is a very useful intervention to support professional and career development by helping staff to reflect on their work and progress and plan professional and career development in a way that is timely and specific to their needs.

2PRINCIPLES

  • Everyone is entitled and expected to participate in a mentoring scheme; however participation is voluntary.
  • Mentoring is about career development and therefore should be available to all staff, not just permanent members of academic staff.
  • Everyone can choose the type of mentoring/mentor they need, if not the mentor.
  • Mentoring is not the same as, or a substitute for, Performance Development Review.
  • Mentoring can be different in different Schools and Colleges, the only universal rule is that it must be available and have integrity.
  • Adequate time should be made available for the sessions during the working day.
  • The existence of a mentoring relationship is not confidential unless requested with the mentee. Also, the the mentoring discussions will not be discussed with any third party unless agreed. However, a general outline of the discussions can be shared by the mentor (following a request by the mentee) in the mentees Performance Development Review.
  • A degree of formality is essential; i.e. a minimum number of meetings recorded in a year, but formal written records are not a requirement.

3PROCESS

  1. New staff will automatically be assigned a mentor: permanent academic staff will have a mentor throughout their probationary period; fixed term contract staff will have a mentor for the first three yearsthey are employed at Bangor University.
  2. Following employment for three years the College must address requests for mentoring from more senior staff. Mentoring does not have to be one to one mentoring but those with common objectives from their mentoring may wish to undertake peer mentoring or group mentoring from a senior PI.
  1. Staff will be encouraged to be mentored by staff one grade up to themselves so that mentoring skills are developed early on in the career and to provide senior academics with time to contribute to group mentoring or mentoring on the University’s Senior Academic Mentoring Scheme.
  1. A member of staff’s mentoring contribution should be recognised in any workload allocation plan by Schools.
  1. Mentors should be responsible to the Head of School / Institute for their contribution as a mentor.
  2. Staff contribution to mentoring early career staff and academic staff in general should be used as evidence of wider contribution and leadership for promotion and should be discussed in the annual PDR.
  1. Each College should work with their Schools to develop a process and approach that suits their culture. Schools should also develop an effective process to manage the mentoring scheme in their Schools / Colleges.
  1. A list should be kept of all staff that are being mentored so that it will be possible to survey staff and measure its effectiveness.
  1. It will be strongly recommended that new mentors will undertake a short training session to ensure a common understanding of mentee/ mentor expectations.

4RESPONSIBILITIES WITHIN THE SCHEME

a)Mentor
The mentor’s main focus is on the professional and career development of their mentee and the mentor should:

  • Ensure that the mentee is aware of the research and teaching objectives within the School/Research Institute and University.
  • Act as a sounding board and provide alternative perspectives.
  • Share expertise and individual learning.
  • Interpret and discuss any feedback given to the mentee.
  • Critiquing and commenting on grant proposals.

Mentors can help inform the developmental aspects, however they should not normally be involved in contributing feedback on performance or formally addressing performance issues.

b)Mentee
The mentee must be committed to the process and be clear about the purpose and aims of the relationship. The role of the mentee can vary depending on the context and purpose of the mentoring but will, in principle, include:

  • Taking responsibility for identifying and achieving their own goals.
  • Managing meetings and discussing the objectives for discussions within the relationship.
  • Share feedback with the mentor about how the relationship is progressing in order to improve the outcomes they are achieving from mentoring meetings.

c)Line Manager

The mentor/mentee discussions take place outside the line management relationship and they should be handled in confidence to enable the appropriate level of trust and support. With the development of the electronic PDR system there will be a section on the form for the mentor to include very briefly the range of discussions that have been held. This is optional by the mentee as they may wish to keep discussions confidential.

The line manager is responsible for managing the mentee on a daily basis and is responsible for; setting objectives; monitoring performance and providing feedback. The line manager is also responsible for reviewing progress to achieve any agreed objectives and their professional development plan.

The line manager should remain open to any ideas from the mentor that will assist in the continued development of the mentee.

5MENTORING’S RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER PROCESSES AT BANGOR

Mentoring and PDR – the objectives of the PDR system which are to; reflect on progress, agree on new goals and identify what development will help to support the achievement of those goals are very similar to the objectives of mentoring discussions. However, mentoring potentially provides access to a different skills and knowledge-base than the line manager and a different perspective which may be useful in terms of developing and effective research agenda and developing key research skills.

Mentoring and Professional Development – the University provides research workshops and presentations and with the development of the Researcher Development Programme during the 2018 academic year developmental support for researchers will be expanded. Most of these workshops will concentrate on transferring information and knowledge – the development of a mentoring process will allow staff to further explore and implement their new knowledge which is appropriate to their individual needs.

Mentoring and Promotion - the importance of mentoring and the key part it plays in developing researchers is a key component of the Senior Lecturer and Reader and Professorial promotion criteria and mentoring staff is an expectation of those who are emerging and recognised research leaders it the Schools and Colleges. The contribution of senior academic staff to mentoring is recognised informally and through the promotion criteria but the development of a mentoring process will allow this to be recognised and evidence more formally and also encourage the development of these skills across all grades.

Mentoring and the Research Concordat – the Research Concordat emphasises the need for support and career development for contract research staff and mentoring should be a key component of addressing the fourth principle which is ‘The importance of researchers’ personal and career development, and lifelong learning, is clearly recognised and promoted at all stages of their career’.

5MENTORING GUIDELINES
Please refer to the Research Mentoring Guidelines for more detailed information about research mentoring at Bangor.