To supplement the Faculty/Department-based mentorship program, a Female Professorial Staff Support Network was launched in 2016. The Network aims to promote professional and social interactions among female academic faculty and to assist female junior faculty in the pursuit of their goals through mentoring by senior professors as advisors.
In order to broaden the impact of this mentorship program, new enhancements were introduced in August 2022 by inviting male professors to serve as advisors, widening the choice for advisees to up to 2 advisors regardless of gender and expanding the scope of advisees to include female Postdoctoral Fellows. In this connection, the Female Professorial Staff Support Network was renamed as “Female Researchers Support Network”. Further enhancement was made in the following year by expanding the scope of advisees to include female appointees on Lecturer ranks, among whom Senior Lecturers and Principal Lecturers could be advisors for Assistant Lecturers and Lecturers. Following this expansion, the Female Researchers Support Network was further renamed as “Women Academics Support Network”.
Full Professors, Research Professors, female Senior Lecturers and female Principal Lecturers are welcome to serve as advisors. Appropriate matching will be made based on the areas of interest provided by applicants and the background of advisors. The form of mentoring will be decided by the Advisor and Advisee. For effective communication, advisor and advisee are encouraged to meet, face-to-face or virtually, every two months.