Mentorship as pedagogical partnership and infrastructure: institutionalising relational models in African higher education

Mentorship is increasingly recognised as a pedagogical partnership essential for learning, identity development, and academic progression in higher education. However, dominant models in Africa have primarily consisted of short-term, donor-led ‘capacity strengthening’ workshops, which rarely establish sustainable developmental ecosystems. This article examines how a partnership-based model was institutionalised through the British Academy Writing Workshop (BAWW, 2019–2025) and how it evolved into the Association of African Universities’ Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Early Career Researchers (ECRs). Using an integrated theoretical framework of communities of practice, social capital, and decolonial praxis, a qualitative case study examines how mentorship can be reconfigured as a long-term, relational infrastructure for academic growth. Results show that the model fostered enduring communities of practice, activated scholarly networks into practical career opportunities, and promoted epistemic justice by positioning African researchers as co-creators of knowledge. Unlike transactional training, this approach embeds mentorship within university policies, promotion systems, and budgets, supporting sustainability beyond funding cycles. We argue that structured, relational mentorship can reshape African higher education by linking pedagogical partnership with institutional reform and epistemic justice. The study contributes to global debates by demonstrating how African-led models can address local inequalities while enriching international understandings of mentorship as academic infrastructure.