Yesterday, NSERC released this year's PGS-M and PGS-D competition results. Departments of successful applicants have already been notified, but results otherwise remain confidential, until the Minister of Industry has made a formal announcement. That said, however, the release of the results to the Deans triggered some heavy number crunching on my part. Without going into details, I want to share a general observation, which corroborates conclusions drawn from recent tri-council scholarship competitions.
More than in previous years, the success of applications was highly clustered. Successful applications mostly came from programs, which stringently adhere to two principles: early, pro-active indentification of talented students and quality mentoring. For the remainder of this blog, let me dwell on the latter.
Effective mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students by faculty members is one of the most important keys to a successful graduate programs because of the one-on-one nature of most research-intensive programs. That said, one would have expected that academic administrators alike recognize that mentoring takes work, experience, patience, and time. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily the case. To quote from Nature “Of all the activities that take place [in the lab], perhaps the least remarked upon and the least rewarded is that of the mentorship of young researchers." This is why in 2005 Nature launched its annual awards for outstanding scientific mentorship.
The roles of mentors constantly vary. Often simultaneously, mentors need to be:
- Disciplinary guides.
- Skills development consultants, honing
- Oral and written communication skills,
- Team-oriented/interdisciplinary skills,
- Leadership skills,
- Grantsmanship skills.
- Career consultants.
Quality mentoring greatly enhances graduate student success in many aspects. Graduate students who receive effective mentoring demonstrate greater:
- Productivity/Competitiveness: in research activity, conference presentations, pre-doctoral publications, instructional development, scholarship/grant writing, and awards.
- Academic success: in persisting in graduate school, taking a shorter time to earn a degree, and performing better in academic coursework.
- Professional success, with greater chances of securing tenure-track positions if seeking employment in academe or career advancement if seeking leadership positions in other educational settings or economic sectors.
In summary, good mentoring can make the difference between not only recruiting good students but also retaining the student and helping the student to be marketable upon graduation. With good mentoring, a student will be well prepared to enter his or her profession not only with the requisite disciplinary knowledge and skills but also with an understanding of the pathways to success and the self-reliance to embark upon them with confidence.
Becoming a mentor is like making a wise investment; it can be costly at first but the long-term returns are surprisingly large. Being a mentor can be a personally fulfilling experience, one in which the mentor benefits at least as much as the mentee. The rewards continue long after one's student becomes one's colleague, often for a lifetime.
When does quality mentoring start. As early as possible, but latest in the two senior undergraduate years. This not only helps in identifying students dedicated to research early, but also in setting them on the right path to a successful career.
Have a good weekend.
Dieter