Mentoring Graduate Students

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Mentoring Graduate Students
Rebeca Rufty October 18, 2008
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Mentoring is an Ethical Issue

• Mentors instill values
• Mentors address personal and social
  responsibilities
• Our duties as mentors (obligatory vs.
  supererogatory)

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Mentoring is a Practical Issue

• Reduces misconduct and grievances
• Reduces time to degree
• Reduces costs

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Mentoring is a Practical Issue

• Increases degree completion and lowers attrition
• Increases student satisfaction and employability
• Prepares better future faculty

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Mentoring is a Balancing Issue
Teaching
Faculty Member
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Ten-Year PhD Completion Rates
60
50
40
30
Cumulative Completion Rate ()
20
10
SSH
0
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Year
Source Council of Graduate Schools
Completion and Attrition Program Data
NOTE 10-Year completion rates include all
cohorts entering 1992-93 through 1994-95
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Ten-Year PhD Attrition Rates
STEM
SSH
Source Council of Graduate Schools
Completion and Attrition Program Data
NOTE 10-Year attrition Rates include all cohorts
entering 1992-93 through 1994-95
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Contributing Factors to PhD Completion and
Attrition
Professional/Career Guidance 6
Program Requirements 19
Personal Circumstances 25
Social Env./Peer Support 31
Program Quality 28
Family Support 38
Mentoring/Advising 75
Financial Support - 75
Source NC State University data, 2008
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Social-Structural Causes of Doctoral Student
Attrition

• What students bring vs. what happens to them
  after they enroll
• The character of graduate programs vs. the
  character of the students
• A function of factors deeply embedded in the
  culture of graduate education
• Leaving the Ivory Tower. Lovitts, 2001

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Retention and Cognitive Map Development

• Understanding faculty expectations
• Formal requirements (course work, qualifying
  exams, dissertation, etc.)
• Informal or unwritten expectations (academic
  tasks, social and political relationships)
• Leaving the Ivory Tower. Lovitts, 2001

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Retention and Cognitive Map Development

• Integration into the community
• Academic
• Social
• Professional
• Leaving the Ivory Tower. Lovitts, 2001

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Mentoring Questions

• Have we adequately discharged our obligation to
  facilitate students progress toward becoming
  competent scholars, scientists, and/or
  professionals and earning their degrees?

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Mentoring Questions

• Have we done anything to
• hinder their progress
• unnecessarily?

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Guiding Principles A Mentoring Compass
Right ethically sound, correct, adequate,
effective, fair.
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When Should Mentoring Occur?
Career Launching
Dissertation Defense
Research
G r a d u a t e C a r e e r
Preliminary Exams
Plan of Work Coursework
Advisor Committee
Admission
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Who Mentors Graduate Students?
Program Faculty
Thesis Committee
Research Advisor
Graduate Student
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The Departments Role

• Providing departmental orientation handbooks
• Making sure students know rules, deadlines, RCR,
  etc.
• Continuously improving program/curriculum

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The Departments Role

• Requiring regular meetings with advisor
  committee
• Making sure all students are assigned appropriate
  advisors in a timely manner
• Requiring annual progress reports to graduate
  admin., signed by mentor.

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Advisor and Committees Roles

• Aid in selecting, pursuing research topic
• Provide opportunities to develop professional,
  communication/technical/scholarly skills
• Provide historical knowledge of the discipline
  and norms of profession

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Advisor and Committees Roles

• Provide explicit vs. implicit expectations
• Evaluate student progress and performance
  (milestones, timely/constructive feedback)
• Be intentional, rigorous, when is it enough?

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The Advisors Role Good and Bad Models
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References

• Lovitts, Barbara E. 2001. Leaving the ivory
  tower the causes and consequences of departure
  from doctoral study. Rowman Littlefield
  Publishers, Inc.
• King, Margaret F. 2003. On the right track A
  manual for research mentors. Council of Graduate
  Schools, Washington, DC.
• PhD Completion and attrition project. Council of
  Graduate Schools. http//www.cgsnet.org/