Academic Mentoring: Enhancing the use of scarce resources

For some time concerns have been raised that early in the 21st century there will be a crisis in Australian higher education. High levels of retirement and low levels of recruitment in institutions of higher education have been the trends for some time. Mentoring, as a workplace learning approach, could be used to address some of the problems associated with the recruitment and attrition of academic staff. This article aims to present a strategy for how mentoring, as a workplace learning approach, can be used within an academic environment and the benefits that can be expected as a result of its successful implementation. Although reference is made to the needs of Business Schools many of the principles are applicable to all branches and disciplines within higher education.