Academic Partnerships at a Regional University Campus: A Fresh Look at Faculty Mentoring

Early in 2005, Joy Penman and Kerre Willsher, lecturers in nursing at a regional university campus, initiated a mentoring programme aimed at assisting Kerre.s smooth transition into a university academic role. Kerre is an experienced clinician but without experience in teaching at tertiary level, while Joy is an experienced academic both locally and abroad. The mentee-mentor relationship quickly developed into an academic partnership, where both of us were profiting from the relationship personally and professionally. The horizontal, one-on-one, and personally-driven relationship that eventuated was viewed to be more satisfactory in comparison with the vertical relationship described by most faculty mentoring programmes available. This paper presents a description, evaluation and analysis of the academic partnership that developed, highlighting the benefits of undertaking such learning partnerships in tertiary institutions.