Comment after comment at last week’s launch of Thuso Connect reinforced how this online mentoring platform for early career researchers is fulfilling a need in higher education.
Professor Stephanie Burton, project leader of Advancing Early Career Researchers and Scholars (AECRS), the Universities South Africa (USAf) programme that developed Thuso Connect – and the online toolkit Thuso Resources – said many institutions had expressed the need for mentorship of emerging academics.
This gap had first been identified in two national studies, followed up with extensive interviews and mapping of resources. Now the intervention Thuso Connect “provides an effective, ethical way of introducing mentors and mentees”, she said.