Barriers To Mentorship For Academic Returnees: Experiences From Pakistan Higher Education

The Changing roles of an academic

The role of an academic in higher education has greatly changed over the years. The changes make it a challenge to re-orient faculty who have been in service for many years and got absorbed into teaching. Traditionally most universities had put much emphasis to teaching. The emphasis on research by the higher education commission is a recent development which started in early 2000 and faculty are finding difficulty in coping up to the new focus.

“All organisations are struggling very hard to promote this research culture, teachers [are] having this problem; the traditional teachers in Pakistan only have to deliver lectures in classes. They just use to go to classes, whatever they are teaching, students accept it rigidly or not rigidly or passively or whatever. They hardly question you, they hardly try to ask you so many questions so I find my students very gentle and kind towards me that they don’t ask tricky or critical or such type of questions. This was the traditional teacher in Pakistan. But when it comes to the latest, new or modern teacher, they have lots of requirement from HEC, that from associate professor to professors they need this much publications not only publications but publication in high quality journals”

The change in academic role comes at a time when the Pakistan higher education is still at infancy and the workload for academics also continues to grow. The teaching workload has increased because of the increasing information overload made available from digital libraries and the mounting pressure to internalize and update lectures. Academics are also required to teach these many courses. Sometimes the courses may not even be directly related to subject of specialization.

In addition to teaching, faculty has a responsibility to do research, publish as well as supervise student research. The impression is that due to the comparative lagging behind, Pakistani institutions are exerting much pressure on faculty to accomplish too much within a short time. While there were publication requirements in the past, today it is not mere publishing but even the numbers of publications and the number published in high impact journals matter towards promotion. Therefore, the challenges of teaching and research are diverse. They may not be so unique to Pakistan but cover most countries. Teichler and Hohle’s (2013) account of collections of data from 12 European countries shows similar changes across European higher educational institutes and with consequences for academic careers.

The key problem in Pakistan is that research is not a deep-rooted culture in many institutions. Even faculty with a PhD often find themselves in circumstances where they are unable to do research and are therefore equally inexperienced and need mentorship. As stated by an academic, “Yes, of course I mean I did research primarily for my PHD. It leaves me very little time now for researching actively”. Therefore, although some of the colleges were founded many years ago, they are unable to run postgraduate programmes because of the limitations of research experience. Many of the staff requires mentorship in order to restart the research component of their careers. One of the respondents observed “So if you look at research culture it’s barely a decade old you can’t compare it to universities that have been doing research for long” Expertise in research is built overtime and it calls for mentoring by more senior colleagues.

In many respects mentors are scarce, and mentoring is informal. As a result, mentoring relationships come with an overload of expectations from mentors. Young faculty sometimes has to deal with compromising situations that could border integrity as illustrated in the following extract.

“…. he said I should be writing a research paper, I said kiya hota hai ye research paper (what this research paper is?) I had no idea what it is, he said; ek raan le ao bakray ki (Bring a goat/lamb’s leg) then I will tell you how to write a research paper. So, I asked Dr [X], my chairman then, I said sir he was asking for a bakray ki Raan (goat/lamb’s leg), how can I bring it, at that time it was more expensive. He said my dear he is asking you to bribe him to get the knowledge you want”

Unfortunately, in this particular case, the only source of information was human beings. Possibly, such conduct would be unlikely today when research thesis and journal papers are available on the Internet. However, the point is that mentoring relationships are better managed under formal than informal arrangements. Many academics express the need for support in terms of writing a paper and also in terms of publication in an international journal. Writing is a difficult task for both students and faculty and whoever does it is not ready for another round. Many find the rigors of research and academic writing taxing. Although a research paper is an extract from a whole paper, the need to keep updating to meet the requirements of the publisher is discouraging.

The infant research cultures

The strength of an institution in terms of research infrastructure is important for career development and therefore the possibility for mentoring. The absence of infrastructure is more problematic in infant institutions. Part of the expectations of academics in emerging universities is to have a research institute that sets mechanisms for inspiring students into developing a research culture. Besides the role of institutes, academics expect to find laboratories as a crucial component for promotion of research especially in the science disciplines. Without such basic infrastructure, academic mentoring in the sciences is rendered difficult.

“That was a well-equipped highly established university and this was a new university with no labs and nothing like that. Why I am saying something about labs because I’m a science person and my specialisation is molecular microbiology and did PHD and there were well-equipped labs but when I came here there was nothing”.

Sometimes the absence of infrastructure leads faculty to opt for better-facilitated institutions. An academic who left a well-established university indicated having no interest in leaving for other universities with inadequate or no labs. However, instead of leaving the academic decided to stay and use the situation as an experience of setting up a laboratory.

“My bad luck was university being new and I was not having a facility to continue with my research work but I tried to fill the gaps with my personal efforts collaborating activities and after developing this thing, I’m spending some extra time”.

In some cases, therefore, academics opt to take up the challenge and rather than leave the institution, they set up the required facilities but it also comes at a cost of sacrificing personal research plans for the benefit of mentees to come.

“Frankly speaking in the start, it [the university] definitely didn’t support my own research. As I told you my specialisation required a highly equipped or well-equipped laboratory. That was lacking in this university and my department. I belong to environmental sciences and there wasn’t any such laboratory where I could work and my students can enhance that thing”.

For faculty in the sciences, the challenges of laboratories indeed constrain mentorship. Although it is the dream of an academic to continue developing the particular research project following the PhD, and benefit from the experienced research mentors, this cannot be done without lab facilities.

In recent times however, the situation in Pakistan is beginning to change. With facilities being installed in some of the institutions, young incoming faculty has opportunity to develop their careers. Unlike some of the senior staff who found no research infrastructure in place, the young academics may find labs and a few senior faculty as mentors to provide guidance.

“yes, it has changed for the newest staff because like I told you when I joined at a junior position I needed a lab which I had not. Since now I have, I am supporting my juniors. Now there are two assistant professors working in my lab, supporting their students and I’m supporting them as well. And they don’t have any administrative responsibilities so they are focusing on research. Things are change for them. What I suffered and felt that it shouldn’t be there, I’m just trying to support them that should the work”.

Such initiatives by the few senior faculties could allow universities to build up a strong research culture for Pakistan. The availability of some support provides a good basis for developing a strong mentoring culture where administration function does not constrain the research roles of young faculty.

Administrative challenges

Administrative responsibility at an early stage of career is perceived as a hindrance to career development and faculty in young institutions often find themselves with administrative roles that stifle research. At infancy institutions have limited staff levels and therefore are more inclined to involve all available staff in administration. The approach to mitigating for staff shortages makes leads to skepticism about the positive role of the new institutions in providing enabling environment especially in terms of developing a research career. Due to absence of mentoring, the administrative function becomes a tough experience for young academics.

“I think it’s very much supportive but with this administrative thing I find it difficult so administration is really a tough job I must say I must admit. With this I have to do research, I have to convince myself two hundred times, X be brave enough to do certain things”.

Administrative assignments at the beginning of academic career can affect the development of researcher career. Yet today, there is greater emphasis in the research component of academic career.

The change in the roles of academics is consistent with Bentall (2015) view of the changing nature of job role of new academics who have expectations of developing their expertise in a specific discipline. Administrative duties in addition to teaching and research overstuff the mentoring process and would require multiple mentors. Yet young faculty requires ample time to develop their research potential at an early stage. This requires focusing more on research so as to tap from a single mentor. Academics in the context decry the administrative workload. As a result, young faculty are becoming frustrated. In their view, administrative work is often reserved for senior faculty in some institutions and expects the same in all institutions. To their surprise and dissatisfaction, young faculty find themselves overloaded with administrative function. This kind of situation imposes challenges on academic mentoring relationships who are more engaged in administration than research. One of the academics reflecting on the experience as a young academic stated;

“I was inducted as faculty member and the responsibility of a faculty member basically is teach and do some research and yes I understand that administration is also a part of it but the administration responsibilities are always given to a faculty member if he/she is quite senior after becoming a professor or something like that. In my case I was given these responsibilities right from the start so I had to and I have to spend much of my time in the administrative work”.

Offering advice in terms of mentoring is closely linked to the nature of the role of the mentee. As Higgins & Kram (2001) state, the changing nature of organizational structures and the diversity of mentee roles in an organisation may constrain the mentees ability to rely on one mentor. The situation could be compounded in institutions where there is lack of information flow to faculty who need mentoring.

While alternative sources of mentoring including a postdoc abroad are ideal, the information about opportunities is rarely available to young academics. As indicated in participant responses;

“So, there are facilities but you don’t know about it, there is no talking out anyone is telling you about it so you have to dig and find out the facilities available yourselves. It should be communicated to the professionals; these are the facilities and benefits. And I also got to know with somebody who was teachers’ association leader who told me verbally that you can do this and you can get paid leave so I tried and I did it. So, people talk and you came to know, no proper information sharing, no written document, no circulation”.

Uncertainties about opportunities for faculty undermine the process of building of new mentoring relationships with more experienced academics in other institutions. Successful mentoring relationships are often built on the basis of confidence that the relationship will continuity overtime. A Postdoc experience is an experience that ensures development of desirable mentoring relationships in more specialised fields that may not be available to the employing institution given the infancy of most of the universities in Pakistan. In the absence of mentoring within the institutions, information becomes elusive to the young academics.

Another alternative to young faculty is when senior visiting faculty comes from abroad. Attracting foreign faculty on short-term assignments is an important aspect in forging mentoring relationships abroad particularly for infant institutions having few senior faculty. Potential target faculty is mainly from western countries where faculty obtained doctorates. However, owing to the rampant insecurity and terrorism, attempts have not been as successful as expected.

“We are plagued with the problems of terrorism, insecurity and in fact foreign governments including your own has been hesitant and reluctant to encourage people to come here. The state department in U.S for example has an advisory out recommending U.S citizens not to come here. So, under those circumstances it has not been easy to bring foreign faculty here, even so from time to time we do have groups visiting us, staying here on campus and had any untoward incident”.

The situation may be considered even worse for women because they are more vulnerable and are potential targets and in some of the universities, it could be more serious. For example, in Bacha Khan University a hostel is provided inside the university and the men had firearms, the neighbors and people in the villages carry firearms and yet the women are not armed. Sometimes the staff and students are given trainings from the rescue 112 so that they provide guidance to the people on safety. The safety concerns for women is different because of the vulnerability involved. The security problem complicates the potential of getting female mentors.

Even without the security concerns, the universities face funding challenges that may inhibit on the capacity to attract foreign academics to mentor the young academics. Public universities are governed by prescribe rules and regulations on funding. The higher Education Council of Pakistan provides funding for salaries and Universities are required to generate funds for the rest of the activities. The government of Punjab determines the policies of the higher education and although the government may provide no funding for other activities, the rules and regulations have to be followed and it has an impact on financial capacity to attract foreign faculty, funding research and the provision of safety on campus among other obligations.

“Just one example is the security situation in the country, I think we have to invest like, 8 million rupees on security arrangements and they said find your own funding, but we have to, if we don’t, they have to come again and again and put us on the mate”.

Clearly funding could have a serious impact. It could have implications for security of female staff and also the ability to cope in volatile environments. As a result, it becomes a majority constraint to the development of mentoring relationships.

In summary, females face diverse challenges. Three key challenges stand out. The changes in the academic role for higher education faculty, infrastructure constraints especially for the sciences and the influence of administrative issues in the performance of faculty. These factors have affected faculty performance in various ways and have a link with the importance of mentoring relationships.