Building an Effective and Inspirational Mentor & Mentee Relationship in Higher Education: Reciprocal Learning and Emotional Needs, Challenges, and Best Practice (Keynote speech)

This presentation focuses on the Mentor & Mentee relationship in the academic context. Mentoring is a consolidated pedagogical practice that is crucial for fostering professional skills, self-confidence, scholarly productivity, career advancement, reducing stress, and enhancing job satisfaction. Three key dimensions will be analysed: 1) mentees’ (early-career academics) and mentors’ (senior academics) reciprocal learning needs and benefits; 2) mentoring relationship challenges; 3) strategies and best practice. Two case studies will be discussed: 1) A structured online mentorship scheme of early career researchers: evidence from Ireland; 2) StudyCircle: a peer mentoring programme implemented in Italy, Ecuador, and UK. Final considerations and recommendations will be presented for enhancing mentoring relationships among academics to improve learning and teaching quality.