Navigating uncertain times: mentoring roles and dilemmas in the contemporary university

This paper explores a relatively neglected dimension of the changing culture of academic work: the implications of changing models of academic professionalism, and specifically the rise of ‘organisational professionalism’, for academic mentoring. In the paper, ‘organisational professionalism’ is used to signal a cluster of trends, including productivist currents and more progressive changes reflecting inclusion and identity concerns. After summarising the inherent complexities of mentoring and setting out the additional challenges posed by contemporary university conditions, we use illustrative dilemmas to explore questions about how individual mentoring relationships should respond to organisational professionalism and the balance between planning and ‘directing’ mentoring practices and letting them emerge in more organic ways. Our core argument is that, unless we take a more conscious, critically reflexive stance to the enactment and organisation of mentoring, we will neglect its value, the risks it is under, and its potential to respond to change.