Chapter 17: Wellbeing and Mentoring in Higher Education: An Analysis of the Present and a Blueprint for the Future

Throughout this book, the chapter authors have focused on the connections between mentoring and wellbeing in organizational cultures within higher education institutions. As was suggested at the beginning of this book, wellbeing is considered to be an important outcome as a fundamental indicator of an individual’s wellbeing as well as a predictor of positive educational outcomes in the context of higher education (Putwain, 2019). One of the instrumental views in this book is that wellbeing combines both hedonic aspects of feeling good (positive emotions) and eudemonic (conducive to happiness) aspects of living well (Keyes, 2003; Ryan et al., 2008, Seligman, 2011). Given that positive relationships, meaningfulness in life and work, sense of mastery and personal growth, autonomy and achievement are foundational to the notion of wellbeing, greater attention has recently been given to the role of mentoring relationships as potential support structures for promoting wellbeing among students, staff, faculty, and leaders in higher education (Kutsyuruba & Godden, 2019; Orsini, 2023). Critical in this regard is the focus on how the organizational cultures of higher institutions can help in establishing wellbeing for all in their community (Amaya et al., 2019).