Mentoring in a Nigerian University: An Analysis of Mentor- Protégée Relationship and Benefits Ifeanyi P. Onyeonoru 1 Oluchi Okoli-Ikedi 1 Joshua Onuenyim Nweke 2 Fred Ahmadu 3 1 Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria 2 Department of Sociology/Anthropology Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria 3 Department of Sociology Covenant University Ota, Nigeria Email: Ifyonyes@yahoo.com, Onyeonoru@ui.edu.ng Abstract The association of mentoring with “in loco parentis” situates it in institutional growth and development discourse in Nigerian University System. The study examined mentor- protégée relationship and the benefits accruing from the mentorship Programme instituted in the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan in 2006. A triangulation of research methods was utilized in the collection of data. The mentorship programme was found to be beneficial to the mentees in several aspects of their academic life in spite of mixed bag of mentor-mentee relationships. Background to the Study The issue of mentoring is tied to the initiative of “In loco parentis” in Nigerian tertiary institutions. This was gradually lost in practice over the years due to the economic recession and institutional decay of the 1980s and 1990’s. The type of mentoring which existed then was however informal in nature. The Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan in 2006 took the initiative to introduce a quasi-formal mentoring programme to address the yawning mentoring gap – the first of its kind in the University. In the programme, students are randomly allocated to academic staff - based on the alphabetical order of the students’ surnames. Neither the sex of students nor that of academic staff is considered in the matching process. All undergraduate students and academic staff are involved in the mentoring programme - irrespective of their statuses and areas of specialization. This is distinct from the allocation of final year students to project supervisors which is based on students’ project topic and the area of specialization of the supervisor. As at the time of the study, the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, is the only Department that has instituted this type of Programme. DOI: 10.36108/NJSA/6102/14(0230)