The mentoring of new and inexperienced teaching Speaking to several academics across the faculty over the past year and exchanging information at the annual conferences on 'Transition' the issue of new and inexperienced academic staff has been to the forefront of conversation. The area of transition both to university from post primary and from university to the workplace has been an issue of concern for several years. I offer some thoughts. Teaching at the introductory level in economics ensures exposure to incoming students and provides valuable feedback on the students' initial impressions and experiences as to the shortcomings or otherwise of all facets of university life.
Students seem to have become more demanding since the principle of 'user pays' was introduced.
All associated directly or indirectly with education would agree. A conscientious teaching academic entering the university environment for the first time, without any teaching qualifications or prior teaching experience could find the initiation a daunting one. The initial experiences of new academics vary considerably from individual to individual, department to department, faculty to faculty. After listening to the experiences of several academics and recalling from the last few years the problems some, new academics have experienced, a policy of 'prevention is better than a cure' would appear the most appropriate course of action. The university has taken positive steps through CHED to ensure that both academics and students do not experience the aforementioned with the compulsory induction course Introduction to University Teaching.