Mentoring plays a pivotal role in academic and professional development in Higher Education (HE). It offers mentees access to accumulated expertise, institutional knowledge, and career insight. Central to this dynamic is the process of knowledge transfer—the transmission of skills, practices, and values from mentor to mentee. Yet, a persistent tension arises between a directive approach and one that fosters mentee autonomy.

Traditional models of mentoring position the mentor as an authority figure as someone who "knows best" and can dispense advice. In these cases, knowledge transfer can risk sliding into what Boud and Walker (1998) call the "substitution trap," where learners adopt strategies without critical reflection. One example sometimes seen in an academic setting is when an academic mentor suggests that a postdoc follow specific steps to achieve future career 'success'. The postdoc follows the guidance, only to realise after a while, that they might have liked to have gone in a different direction, but were never really given the freedom to work out where, or how, or what they really wanted their career to be.

Instead of a more directive approach, contemporary theories of mentoring, informed by constructivist and developmental approaches (and, in part, by the fact that most of those training mentors in Higher Education come from a coaching background), emphasise empowerment, encouraging mentees to critically engage with knowledge, challenge assumptions, and make informed decisions (Zachary, 2011). In practice, this may involve a mentor guiding a junior academic through reflective questioning rather than giving explicit instructions—facilitating not just knowledge acquisition but epistemological growth.

This tension is especially salient on the academic side of HE where roles are often centred very particularly on the individual and their own personal research, teaching and citizenship. What works for one person almost certainly won't work for another. In the above example, rather than prescribe a "successful formula," it might have been better for the mentor to support the mentee to identify personal strengths and goals, and to think about the academic work environment, and and assess how much the different facets and requirements of an academic role appealed to them.

Effective mentoring in HE requires navigating this balance intentionally. Crisp and Cruz (2009) argue that the most impactful mentoring relationships integrate both instrumental (knowledge-based) and psychosocial (developmental) support. Mentors can offer concrete guidance while still creating space for exploration by—for example, taking time in the midst of giving an example, to ask the mentee how the story that they are telling might be relevant, and what might be different, rather than assuming that they fit the scenario exactly.

Ultimately, knowledge transfer in mentoring should not be a monologue, but a dialogue. As HE institutions increasingly value diversity, interdisciplinarity, and innovation, mentoring must evolve to support not only the transmission of knowledge but the transformation of knowledge through collaborative enquiry.

Works referred to:

Boud, D., & Walker, D. (1998). Promoting reflection in professional courses: The challenge of context. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 191–206.

Crisp, G., & Cruz, I. (2009). Mentoring college students: A critical review of the literature between 1990 and 2007. Research in Higher Education, 50(6), 525–545.

Zachary, L. J. (2011). The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships. Jossey-Bass.