In the last academic year, the University piloted a new initiative for early career researchers in the shape of mentoring circles. One circle per college, comprising 8-10 mentees and 2 mentors, met four times throughout the year with topics set in advance for each meeting ranging from getting work published, networking and collaborating to researching in a teaching intensive institution, winning funding and promotions.
Expanding mentoring from a one to one, mentor to mentee relationship to a group discussion grounded in peer to peer accountability was intended to build a reflective space to consider topics important for professional and personal development and build a supportive network of peers and mentors from a range of disciplines.
The circles continued to be home to constructive discussions after the move to online working and you can read a report evaluating the first iteration of the scheme below:
Westminster Mentoring Circles Evaluation Report
A mentor and mentee who took part in this will be speaking about their experiences at the Researcher Development at Westminster event on 29th October. The event will also give an overview of the new Researcher Development Programme to be implemented in 2020-1, with updates from the Vice-Chancellor, Research Communities, Research and Knowledge Exchange Office and beyond. You can book your place here.
Latest posts by Joshua Mead (see all)
- Carbon Impact Project – Information for organisations - November 14, 2022
- Research information and reporting at UoW - May 30, 2022
- Westminster Community Consultancy Programme (WCCP) – Information for Students - May 5, 2022