Mentoring for Quality Research, Helping both Faculty and Students

Writing a research paper, irrespective of the field of study is mandatory in every academic career. Writing a research paper is intimidating at first, however, it is still a great opportunity to explore a topic that is particularly interesting and allows the student to gain expertise and understanding on a deeper level of the topic. Effective writing involves learning, comprehension, application, and synthesis of new information. It also brings up creativity and problem-solving ability which reflects on the paper. 

Students may also develop writing skills along with various other benefits. The majority of students do not possess the skills necessary for writing. This will enable them to push themselves into understanding the importance of such skills and become successful upon graduating. 

The exercise of writing helps the student to organize and examine the information gathered in a careful way. Many colleges and institutions promote faculty mentorship to the students for the same. Every faculty member mentors a few students towards the writing of their research papers and helps them out through their writing journey. They guide, support, and encourage them, and direct them towards effective research paper writing.

Mentors value their mentee’s research work and guide them towards making their work even better and more effective. Sometimes the research work of the students reaches levels that even a professional would fail to reach and undress several facts, problems, and solutions of the society or a particular field. There are almost 1.8 million research papers that are published every year [1], which are mostly written by Ph.D. students or scientists. 

Unfortunately, not everyone takes this seriously and doesn't consider it as important as it seems. There are 98.615 million students that graduate in India alone [2], and it is mandatory in every field to work on their research reports. Still, only a handful of them gets published. Students often neglect to take the work sincerely and complete it for the sake of grades and marks by finding loopholes. 

Most students don’t even do the research work and simply copy-paste others' work from the internet. They take it as a burden and a lot of labor work that has to be put in for something that they feel isn’t worth it, as they are unaware of its importance. They feel it is a waste of their time and their efforts. Even if someone gave a thought about doing it, they were often clueless about where to start and what to do or how to do it.

They struggle by themselves for quite some time and when they fail to find answers, they eventually give up. This scenario ends up being a waste of valuable resources and a pile of research papers on the desk which are just ignored as they aren’t good enough to get published, or read as they aren’t that impactful. Students are simply awarded a few marks for the project and no kind of actual learning or development is experienced.

 If this problem is sincerely considered by all the institutions globally, it would result in a huge positive impact on students as well as the faculty mentor. When the students are pushed out of their comfort zone, they gain a new skill and increase their knowledge. They grow into an individual that is ready to take up challenges and face them with positivity. 

These students can be guided into becoming the best versions of themselves. This is possible when the faculty takes this up as their mission and truly mentors their students with the research paper and supports them throughout their journey. The faculty would definitely start receiving some remarkable research work done by the students that are worth publishing and will also increase the mentor’s credibility as they guided their mentors towards achieving such remarkable results from their research paper. 

This also enhances the CV of the faculty member and makes them a better leader and mentor, as when the student's report gets published the faculty mentor is acknowledged for guiding and supporting them in their journey which looks good for the faculty and establishes them as researchers globally. The students feel overwhelmed and acknowledged for their work and a sense of satisfaction is derived from contributing to the research and receiving positive results for it, which is much more valuable than just submitting it and gaining a few marks. 

Also, the feeling derived from being the mentor to such students is far more valuable than just being their professors and grading their projects just for the sake of it. 

This article can be concluded by acknowledging how important research is for the students of higher education and those pursuing a degree. They get to choose the topic according to their field of work and can gain higher inputs and knowledge about the same, but are blindsided from the importance of it because of the unwillingness to do so and the fact that loopholes can be adapted. 

Such adaptations can be discouraged by the faculty and they can instead focus on mentoring their students towards achieving their desired research paper by helping them out throughout their research journey and pushing them out of their comfort zone into doing a remarkable job and contribute to society. 

When the work of their mentees gets published and the research gives positive results it increases their mentor’s credibility and enhances their CV where it reflects how the mentor supported their students into reaching greater heights and achieving success. 

Such research works are a gem to society and thus should be taken with utmost seriousness. Students should make the best out of the opportunity that is available to them which would be fruitful for the students in the long run.