Group Mentoring for Professional Development in Higher Education:

An Analysis of two Case Studies and its Prospects in Bangladesh

Abstract

: Mentoring is an effective medium to guide, support and facilitate the learning of an
individual. Group mentoring, also known as "mentorship circles”, is a mentoring process
where a group of experienced personnel guides one or a group of apprentices for professional
development. Like traditional mentoring, it is also a powerful tool for professional development.
There are numerous examples of successful implementation of group mentoring in higher
educational institutions all over the world. The higher educational institutions in Bangladesh
require professionally skilled teaching staff but official mentoring programmes are absent. In
this circumstance, group mentoring can be a possible way to transform higher education as it
can train multiple persons at the same time with a limited number of mentors. Moreover, it is
less time-consuming and costs less than other professional training or mentorship programmes.
Considering all these things, this paper defines group mentoring, discusses its effectiveness and
challenges with the examples of two case studies and shows how far higher educational
institutions in Bangladesh can be benefitted by implementing it.