Challenges of the time: on the issue of the mentor’s values in higher education

The article analyzes the key challenges of our time – fragmentation of values, the growth of individualism, technological dependence and the erosion of trust in authorities – and their impact on the professional identity of a mentor in higher education. The author shows that in the context of the crisis of traditional attitudes, the effectiveness of mentoring depends less and less on formal methods and digital tools, and more and more on the moral stability of the mentor himself. The sustainability of mentoring practice in the 21st century is ensured not so much by methodological innovations as by a return to the deep values inherited from the Russian pedagogical tradition: a sense of duty, personal and professional responsibility, respect for the personality of the ward, the continuity of generations and the service of the highest goal – human development. Based on theoretical analysis and empirical data, the author determined that the haphazardness and inconsistency of institutional support, insufficient training of mentors themselves create risks of turning mentoring into an episodic, formalized process. The author argues that it is precisely value attitudes, rather than external stimuli and regulations, that allow the mentor to act not as a technical supervisor or tutor, but as a moral compass and a carrier of the cultural code, capable of guiding the student in conditions of uncertainty, forming a holistic picture of his perception of reality, civic maturity and professional ethics. In conclusion, it is emphasized that mentoring is currently becoming a system- forming element of the sustainability of the academic community, and its qualitative transformation requires not scaling up, but restoring cultural and moral understanding as professional virtues of teachers.