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Cited by 139Mentoring and Academic DevelopmentHigher Education Teaching and EvaluationHigher Education Research Studies

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Conceptualizing mentoring in higher education: A systematic literature review

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Nuis, Wendy, Segers, Mien, Beausaert, Simon·2023·Educational Research Review
DOI 10.1016/j.edurev.2023.100565
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Abstract

Mentoring has nowadays become a prevalent educational practice in higher education, as it allows for personalized learning trajectories and competence-based education. However, the effectiveness of mentoring programs is difficult to measure due to a lack of conceptual clarity about the mentoring concept and the broad variety of measurements used. Therefore, a systematic literature review was conducted to conceptualize mentoring by looking at the definitions, characteristics, and measurements. A total of 106 studies were reviewed and a summative content analysis was applied. The results of this study are three-fold. First, a synthesis and integration of existing definitions resulted in a newly developed, holistic definition of mentoring. Second, evidence-based characteristics of mentoring are discussed that give insights into how to design and implement mentoring programs. Third, an overview of existing mentoring measures is presented, and a subsequent in-depth analysis shows their alignment with the proposed conceptualization on mentoring.

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  • The results suggest that GenAI can allow mentorship in CURE settings to more closely resemble mentorship in independent graduate research environments that typically provide a far greater degree of intellectual freedom.

    “However, our results suggest that GenAI can allow mentorship in CURE settings to more closely resemble mentorship in independent graduate research environments that typically provide a far greater degree of intellectual freedom (Minshew et al. 2021; Nuis et al. 2023; Wang et al. 2026b).”

    From Generative AI Expands the Intellectual Reach of Course Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) (2026) · cites this paper as Nuis et al. 2023

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Research works printed but not linked: 84

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Metadata

Authors
Nuis, W., Segers, M., & Beausaert, S.
Affiliations
Maastricht University (NL)
Corresponding author
Nuis, Wendy
ORCID
Venue
Educational Research Review
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2023-11
Volume
41
Pages
100565
ISSN
1747-938X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.edurev.2023.100565
OpenAlex
W4388793139
Cited by
139
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 76 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 2
FWCI
5.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Educational Research Review (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Nationaal Regieorgaan Onderwijsonderzoek (40.5.21945.007/12116)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Mentoring and Academic Development
  • Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Teaching and Evaluation
  • Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
Keywords
mentoring, higher education, mentoring program design, personalized learning, competency-based education

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