An expert panel came together on 20 March 2024 to explore how HE institutions around the world can benefit from embedding coaching and mentoring programmes and learn about the different strategies and challenges.

Access the recording here.

Coaching and mentoring are two distinct approaches to learning and development. Coaching is a short-term process that focuses on specific goals and tasks, providing guidance and feedback to help individuals improve their performance. Mentoring, on the other hand, is a long-term relationship that is more holistic in nature, where a mentor shares their knowledge, wisdom, and experience to guide the mentee’s personal and professional growth. While coaching is task-oriented, mentoring is relationship-driven.

Coaching and mentoring are essential in higher education as they help to encourage, challenge, and motivate students to be focused on their specific goals. Coaching and mentoring also provide learning opportunities as well as support and growth for academic and research staff. Through coaching and mentoring, students and staff can gain new perspectives and insights that can help them to develop their skills and knowledge and make a direct contribution to a person’s learning and development.

Hear this expert panel explore how HE institutions around the world can benefit from embedding coaching and mentoring programmes and learn about the different strategies and challenges. Many thank to Sharon Parkinson for organising this webinar.

Access the recording here.

PANELISTS:

Charlotte Bonner-Evans, Partnership Manager, Future Leaders Fellows Development Network, UK

Charlotte is a professional services team member at Cardiff University, and Partnership Manager with the Future Leaders Fellows Development Network, supporting ECRs through the development of a mentee-led mentoring scheme. Her career has been mainly in the education and training sector, working in Further Education and the Private Work-Based Learning sector for many years, developing to senior management level in the private sector. Five years ago, she moved to Higher Education at Cardiff University, managing multi-million-pound research projects. She combines her passion for people management and encouraging others to develop with supporting researchers and their valuable outcomes in research.

Professor Beena Giridharan, Curtin University, Malaysia

Prof Giridharan is a registered higher degree by research supervisor in Education and Applied Linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities and Health Sciences at Curtin University, Malaysia. She served as Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor at Curtin University, Malaysia for two terms (2016-2019 ; 2019- 2022) and was also the Dean for Learning and Teaching for two terms (2010-2016; 2021-2022). Prof Giridharan is a recognized global leader in higher education and is the Country Director (Malaysia) for International Higher Education Teaching and Learning (HETL- USA). ).She attained a doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics and Education from Curtin University, Western Australia.

Professor Carol A Mullen, Virginia Tech, USA

Carol A. Mullen, PhD, is a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, USA, and a J. William Fulbright Senior Scholar alumnus. She is Editor Emerita of the journal Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning. The work she does in mentoring and educational leadership employs social justice, equity, and critical perspectives. Her books on academic mentorship include The SAGE Handbook of Mentoring and Coaching in Education (Fletcher, S. J., & Mullen, C. A., Eds., 2012, Sage). Of her 28 published books, most of the early material deals with mentorship. Mentorship is similarly a theme in more than 240 of her journal articles and book chapters. Mentoring in education is also the general focus of journal issues she has guest edited, including for Mentoring & Tutoring (2020, Routledge) and the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education (2021, Emerald Publishing). The recognition she has received for mentoring include the 2022 Master Professor Award and the 2016 Jay D. Scribner Mentoring Award from the University Council for Educational Administration. Her PhD is from the University of Toronto, Canada.

MODERATOR:

Dr Madasu Bhaskara Rao

Dr. Madasu Bhaskara Rao is Associate Professor in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour at the ICFAI Business School (IBS), a constituent of the Icfai Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), Hyderabad. Currently, Dr. Rao is the Coordinator for ICFAI Staff College and for Accreditations and Rankings for IFHE. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Management from the University of Hyderabad. In addition, he holds Post Graduate Diploma in Statistical Quality Control and Operations Research from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata; Post Graduate Diploma in Training & Development from the Indian Society for Training and Development, New Delhi; Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) and Bachelor of Engineering from Andhra University, Vizag.