Mentoring is a great thing
MA did. The fact that disciples get a gift too is great. But this system can be and will be abused. People will farm it by making new accounts - now that is so easy. To graduate in mining, and even in hunting will take only few days and few peds. It is just too easy to exploit this system
Having a mentoring system, I think is good if mentors actually help new players, and not just feed them some BS for few days until they get their gift, and after that bye bye.
In my opinion, disciples should have an easy time graduating, and getting their gift. However, a mentor should only get its gift only when a disciple will reach naturally 280 ped TT (around 6000 skill points) in any skill, and that should be reduced if the disciple ever chips out from that skill.
If a disciple decides to kick its mentor after the disciple graduates, the most TT skill that disciple generated should be transferred to a buffer, and the mentor should be able to claim its gift whenever that buffer reaches 500 ped TT (from all the other disciples one may have).
Also, a sum of TT in more skills can be used, since many people go multiple professions. A fair system can be made.
Such a change will prevent people from exploiting the system. I would also make mentoring gifts and mentoring skills more meaningful.