Mentorship: COACHE 2024 Thematic Report

Mentoring is critical for faculty members’ professional well-being, growth, and development. Thoughtful and insightful feedback from faculty mentors who are experts in their disciplines and who can offer specialized input is especially beneficial for new faculty members as they learn to navigate teaching, research, and service in their field. Likewise, as faculty members grow professionally, they continue to need mentors to help them maneuver critical career stages like mid- and end-of-career transitions. Mentoring can take many forms. All faculty benefit from a range of mentoring tactics such as one-on-one peer, mutual, team, and match mentoring. Faculty also benefit from formal, intentional mentoring policies because it normalizes participating in mentoring programs. Having a strong mentoring structure and network makes it possible for mentees to be able to reach out and get help in whatever context they need advice and support; mentors can also help anticipate their mentees' needs. This report covers the mentoring for pre-tenure, associate, and NTT faculty at UMass Amherst; data on the effectiveness of mentoring of full professors was not tracked. 

Areas of Strength

Image description: 91% see having a mentor in their department as important; 62% of asst. professors agree that mentoring in their department is effective; 70% find mentoring in their department effective; 71% find mentoring outside their department effective

The COACHE data suggests that mentoring continues to be deeply valued at UMass Amherst. Not only do 91% of faculty indicate that having a mentor in the department is important, 83% of those who mentor report that being a mentor is a fulfilling part of their job at UMass. Since the last COACHE report in 2020, the number of faculty who see having a mentor in their department as important has increased by two percentage points. Likewise, 68% of faculty report that having a mentor at UMass who is outside of their department is important and 78% of faculty see having a mentor outside of the institution as important.   

There are additional areas of strength for UMass when it comes to mentoring. First, UMass faculty indicate high levels of satisfaction with mentoring in their departments. Seventy percent of faculty report that they are pleased with the effectiveness of the mentoring they received from someone in their department. Moreover, 71% percent of UMass faculty report that they are finding mentoring from someone outside of their department to be effective, compared to 63% of our peers. Eighty-three percent of faculty reported that the mentoring they received from someone outside of UMass was effective.  

Two other data points suggest that mentoring of pre-tenure faculty is particularly effective at UMass. Out of all faculty ranks, pre-tenure faculty demonstrate the highest agreement that they receive effective mentoring in their department (76%), institution (70%), and outside of their institution (91%). Likewise, 59% of tenure-track faculty report that there is effective mentoring of pre-tenured faculty at the department level.   

Overall, this data suggests that not only do faculty value having and being mentors, but mentoring itself at UMass is viewed as important and effective. 

Mixed Results

Image description: Graph – Agreement that UMass Amherst provides support for mentoring: Disagree – NTT (58%), Assoc. (51%), Full (32%); Neutral– NTT (18%), Assoc. (20%), Full (31%); Agree–NTT (24%), Assoc. (29%), Full (37%) 

There are, however, some mixed results. When it comes to support for mentoring, UMass and our peers both report low scores. Only 31% of UMass faculty agree that there is support for faculty to be good mentors. While higher than our peers (22%), this is still quite low. 

Although overall faculty see mentoring as an important aspect of their careers, the data suggests that there is dissatisfaction among the faculty in the support that UMass gives for faculty to be good mentors. Forty-six percent of faculty disagree that their institution provides adequate support for faculty to be good mentors (only 31% agree). NTT faculty in particular report the highest level of discontent; 58% of NTT faculty report that they disagree (24% agree) that their institution provides adequate support for faculty to be good mentors. 

In another mixed result, although pre-tenure faculty indicate high levels of satisfaction in mentoring effectiveness at the department level, when they are set against our peers, UMass pre-tenured faculty rank slightly lower. While 61% of pre-tenure faculty report that in general, mentoring in their departments is effective (in contrast with the mentoring they personally receive noted above), 65% of pre-tenure faculty at peer institutions report satisfaction. This suggests that UMass departments might create additional support for their pre-tenure faculty. 

Another mixed result is that across all tenure statuses, when faculty were asked about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the mentoring that they received, all faculty rate the mentoring they received as effective (70% effective at department level, 71% effective at the institution level, and 83% effectiveness outside UMass). This is true even when faculty are broken into tenure status.

In the department, 76% of pre-tenure, 69% of tenured faculty, and 69% of NTT faculty rate mentoring as effective; in the wider institution 70% of pre-tenure, 71% of tenured, and 72% of NTT faculty rate mentoring as effective; and, outside of UMass 91% of pre-tenure, 87% of post-tenure, and 67% of NTT faculty rate mentoring as effective.

Yet, when NTT and tenured faculty were asked if the mentoring in their department was effective in general, agreement was low. Only 32% of NTT faculty agree (55% disagree) that the mentoring of NTT faculty in their department is effective, and only 30% of tenured faculty agree (56% disagree) that the mentoring of associate professors in their department is effective.   

Areas for Growth

As mentioned above, although as a whole faculty report that mentoring in their departments is effective, when asked about how effective mentoring is in their departments for different populations, faculty indicated there was room for growth.  

Only 30% of tenured faculty agree that there is effective mentoring for associate professors and 56% disagree. Looking at the demographics of race and gender indicates that there are further areas of growth at the department level, especially for certain populations of faculty. Sixty percent of women-identified, tenure-track faculty indicate that there is not effective mentoring of associate professors in their department. Likewise, Black (53%), Latiné (59%), and white (44%) faculty disagree with the assertion that the institution provides support for being a good mentor.   

Image description: Graph 1 – Agreement that there is effective NTT mentoring in my department: Disagree (55%), Neutral (12%), Agree (31%); Graph 2– Agreement that there is effective assoc. professor mentoring in my department: Disagree - Assoc. (74%), Full (44%); Neutral - Assoc. (11%), Full (19%); Agree - Assoc. (16%), Full (38%) 

The data also suggests that a high percentage of faculty agree that NTT faculty need more effective mentoring in their departments. Fifty-five percent of NTT faculty disagree that NTT faculty receive effective mentoring in their department. Similarly, associate professors (74%) disagree that there is effective mentoring of tenured associate professors in their department. White NTT faculty (57%) and women-identified NTT faculty (58%) note that mentoring for NTT faculty in their departments is ineffective.  

This data suggests that NTT and associate professor mentoring are areas for growth. They also indicated that the institution could provide more mentoring help to NTT and tenured faculty. The data points out that both mid-career and NTT faculty are seeking more robust mentoring support on their path to promotion and as they develop new directions and opportunities in their careers.   

Recommendations & Resources

The following recommendations and resources are in place to help support mentoring efforts by faculty, departments, schools, colleges, and beyond:  

• As found in the 2020 COACHE report, because mentoring within the department is of highest importance to faculty, departments may consider reviewing the effectiveness of departmental mentoring plans for early and mid-career faculty of all ranks, and especially those for tenured professors and NTT faculty. Written, department-specific guidelines help support mentors and mentees in part because they outline clear expectations for mentors and mentees.
• Given that mentoring plans have become common across departments, departments should consider evaluating the quality of mentoring and, as research into best practices by the COACHE initiative suggests, ask both mentors and mentees to participate in the evaluative process.
• The ADVANCE program offers several toolkits for the best practices and other resources on mentoring of faculty such as templates for mentoring plans and inclusive departments.
• The Office of Faculty Development (OFD) provides several programs that support faculty mentoring:
  • OFD Early Career Programming offers a mentoring event for new faculty (both tenure-track and NTT) and librarians early in the fall semester
  • Your Mid-Career Mentoring Network workshop and Crafting Your Mid-Career Development Plan both help faculty develop a mentoring network to address pivoting in mid-career, shifting their research focus, navigating the path to next the next promotion, moving into leadership, and/or becoming a community engaged scholar.
  • Mutual Mentoring team and micro grants support innovative, faculty-led projects that support their growth as researchers, teachers, and leaders in their fields.
  • OFD’s Mutual Mentoring webpage has tips, tools, and resources for mentors and mentees alike.
  • Writing Circles are peer facilitated; faculty receive informal peer mentoring on their writing practices and scholarship productivity.
  • OFD Scholars is a unique program for mid-career faculty to work on writing projects alongside their peers.  In each session, mid-career faculty offer peer mentoring to each other as they navigate new writing projects post-tenure.
  • Mutual Mentoring Incubators assist faculty in forming mutual mentoring groups for accountability and support in an area of common interest.
  • OFD and ADVANCE have partnered to provide a training on “Mentoring Faculty Colleagues: A Guide to Best Practices,” which will be offered on a regular basis.
• UMass is a member of The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, which provides many mentoring resources including customizable mentoring maps.
• Mentors should be recognized and rewarded for the critically important work they perform in supporting their colleagues’ professional development and success. Department heads/chairs may promote mentoring by lauding such activities in their faculty members’ annual faculty reports.
• The ADVANCE program celebrates mentoring efforts through the ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Awards that recognize contributions to equity through mentoring of colleagues.