UMass Chan Mentoring Survey: Faculty
The UMass Chan Mentoring Survey was conceived, initiated, and implemented by Dr. Julia Andrieni as part of her project for the Joy McCann Professorship — with the assistance of, and in collaboration with, the UMass Chan Mentoring Advisory Board, the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA), and the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences. A total of 778 faculty responded to the survey (43% response rate) providing detailed data about the current UMass Chan mentoring environment and the mentoring needs of the faculty.
Results
Mentoring Gap
 |
A third of all faculty responding to the survey stated that they were not receiving guidance but needed mentoring (the "Mentoring Gap"). The Gap was larger for clinicians compared to investigators and for female faculty compared to male. But a larger fraction of female faculty stated that they were receiving guidance compared to male respondents. In contrast, a larger fraction of male faculty stated that they did not need mentoring. |
Mentoring Gap in Departments
The Mentoring Gap shows a wide variation by department. In some cases, particularly in small departments, the numbers of responding faculty are low and may not reflect the department as a whole.
Faculty Mentoring Needs
The faculty who responded that they needed mentoring were asked to rate their interest in receiving mentoring in specific areas; the top five responses are shown below.
Changing the Mentoring Environment for Faculty
The OFA is implementing mentoring programs for faculty using a three-step strategy:
1. Drive Implementation with Data. Data from the Mentoring Survey and other sources is used by the OFA to design mentoring programs and allocate resources effectively.
2. Target Selected Faculty Groups. Several mentoring programs are being designed and implemented by the OFA to meet the needs of specific, targeted groups of faculty:
- Junior faculty preparing for promotion to Associate Professor within the next two years - Peers for Promotion Program
- Tenure track faculty - Pathway to Tenure Program
- Minority faculty
3. Build Partnerships. OFA mentoring resources are being extended by forming partnerships with academic departments to develop mentoring programs. OFA is partnering with departments to design, implement, and evaluate departmental mentoring programs using data from the Mentoring Survey to match program goals and objectives to the needs and structure of the department.
Resources
A poster describing the use of the data from the Mentoring Survey to inform the OFA strategy for mentoring at UMass Chan was presented at the AAMC Annual Meeting, November 2013: Read abstract, View poster.