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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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:<\/p>\n
Westminster Mentoring Circles Evaluation Report<\/a><\/p>\n A mentor and mentee who took part in this will be speaking about their experiences at the Researcher Development at Westminster<\/em> event on 29th<\/sup> 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.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … <\/p>\n