Mentor the Mentee for Academic Excellence: The Forgetting Value in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

Study explored the value of mentorship in Nigerian Universities. Mentorship is an 
academic norm that sustain value of academic excellence in the University system. Academic 
mentorship refers to the training, knowledge, skills, orientation, attitude, discipline, and ethic 
standard acquired by protege from senior academic toward achieving the core value of 
teaching, research and community service in the university. Academic mentor is senior 
academic who has obligation to share expertise knowledge of teaching, research and 
community service experience with junior academics for the purpose of guiding protege on 
career path, setting goals, developing contact and offer personal support toward attainment of 
academic excellence. So, he who call for academic mentorship, call for academic excellence. 
University is a collegial system for building Centre of academic excellence. Meanwhile, a 
number of factors have been observed as clogs on the wheels of academic progress in the 
university system which hindered mentorship on teaching and researches for the attainment of 
academic excellence in Nigeria. Incidentally, some university academic staff suffered with 
mentorship practices where preferred mentors sometimes decline protégés' requests for 
mentorships. Today, mentorship programme in Nigerian universities is declining and seems to 
collapsed the value of academic system because some of the newly employed academic staff
were unconsciously idle to perform their obligation. They avoid classroom teaching, jettisoned 
academic research and publication, avoiding local and international conferences due to lack of 
sponsorship, engaged in sexual harassment and examination malpractice in the university. The 
study concluded that mentorship is an academic value established for attainment of academic 
excellence and integrity. Therefore, it is recommended among others that university 
management should implement mentorship policy and programme through seminars, 
workshops and conferences for training the junior academic towards achieving the academic 
excellence in teaching, research and community service.