Journal of Engineering Education Transformations

Abstract

Mentoring in engineering education is a critical aspect of success for all student population. Undergraduate mentors can provide young engineers invaluable guidance and support early in their career. Enhancing undergraduate engineering institutes' perspectives on mentoring at wellestablished levels is necessary to ensure the engineers they provide to the industry are capable, both academically and professionally. By qualitatively analyzing student perceptions, the study investigates how freshmen engineering students perceive mentorship in engineering institutes. A questionnaire with open-ended questions was created and given to 26 first-year engineering students in an autonomous institution HITAM (Hyderabad Institute of Technology and Management) in South India. The analysis of students' responses revealed the following themes: Mentoring in engineering education, mentor focus towards physical and mental health, short-term and long-term goal setting, skill development and trust and confidentiality in mentor-mentee relationship. The analysis focused on how theresponses of the students varied depending on their discipline and gender. Comparatively more thorough experiences and views were provided by participants in computer sciences and its applied discipline than by participants in other engineering disciplines. The results of this study will help engineering institutions to better understand mentorship for freshmen protégés and serve as a reference for implementing better and advanced goal-based mentoring practices. Keywords— Mentoring, Mentee, Physical and Mental health, Roles of mentoring, Skill development, Trust and confidentiality