Mentoring

• Have you just started your doctoral studies?
• Are you about to finish your PhD and are you wondering what to do next?
• Are you in postdoctoral stage and thinking about further professional growth in or outside academia?
• Do you need a new impulse in your research activity, such as a new perspective on your research topic or new contacts?
• Would you like to pass on your knowledge and become a mentor?

If you answered yes in one of the questions above, you can check the sections bellow and become a mentee or a mentor in mentoring programmes at UHK.

Basic functions 

Mentoring provides mentees with role models, psychological support, and practical help. It contributes to the development of competencies, knowledge, attitudes, self-confidence, professional identity, and motivation for further work and growth.  

Successful mentoring is usually beneficial for both sides: not only a mentee but also a mentor. Mentors usually report to get new perspective on their work and career, to broaden their research horizon and to increase their awareness of the situation of early-career researchers which is helping them with their leadership tasks. 

Mentor  

A mentor is someone who is more experienced in some area than a mentee. The mentor can be from the same institution as the mentee but it could be also beneficial if the mentor works in a different institution or even field, because it could broaden the mentee´s horizons and imagination what is possible to do.   

There is an important difference between a mentor and a supervisor or a superior. The mentoring relationship is informal, less structured, does not require any specific qualification and both parties are independent on each other. Thus, both parties can be more open without putting in danger their own position in the workplace. The content of the cooperation is based on the mentee´s needs and interest and not on the requirements of a Ph.D. study programme or working contract.  

I want to be a mentor

Database of mentors

Mentee  

A mentee is someone who is interested in support in setting and pursuing goals. Being a mentee does not have to mean dealing with some problem and searching for solution. A mentee can only be looking for inspiration and broadening their horizons and networks. Mentoring could also be an effective tool for newcomers (e.g., international Ph.D. students and postdocs) which is helping them with quicker orientation and embedding in the new environment. 

If you want to become a mentee choose your status:

I am a Ph.D. student I am a Postdoc