Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Supervision: How To Choose A Supervisor?
Supervision: How To Choose A Supervisor?
Supervision: How To Choose A Supervisor?
• Principal Supervisor
– Responsible for daily and strategic direction
– Member of School staff or from an Associated Institution who has
been approved by College
• Second Supervisor
– Must be from School staff if principal supervisor is not
– If outwith School appointed and agreed by Graduate School
– Role varies depending on project
Student-supervisor relationship changes over time
• 1st meeting: “What do I want from my PhD?” (career aspirations, skills,…)
• Months 4-6: "This is what I've done so far - what should I do next?"
aha ... I've got a clue what the project is now!
• Months 6-36: "This is what I've done and this is what I'm going to do next -
is that OK?"
it's your project! – take ownership
Groundrules (from Code of Practice)
Student to:
• Work diligently, and meet expected standards
• Be responsible for the academic quality of the thesis
• Maintain regular contact with the supervisor, and submit work as
required
• Publish and present conference papers
• Play a full role in the intellectual life of the School
• Seek advice from supervisor (or others as appropriate),
immediately if a problem arises
Survey of Supervisors’ Views
Characteristics encouraged in research students
– Enthusiastic, curious, open-minded, creative, critical
– Soon takes ownership of and responsibility for project
– Uses time effectively
– Regular meetings/communication with supervisor
– Appreciates that research does not always goes smoothly; takes constructive criticism
well
– Views PhD as an apprenticeship in research; small amount of good quality work
Unhelpful characteristics
– Does not inform supervisor of progress
– Stuck in subordinate role, passive
– Reactive rather than proactive
– Thinks can write up in last 6 months
– Avoids interaction with intellectual community
Groundrules (from Code of Practice)
Supervisor to:
• DO Tell your supervisor now if you have any specific constraints or expectations
– “I will be leaving to spend 6 months in France……”
• Potential Challenges
• Potential Benefits
• Working within uncertain timelines
• Better positioning for future career
(postdoctoral fellowships or jobs), • Developing a thesis that is coherent
• Gaining publishing experience – • Structuring and formatting, as there
something every academic needs, maybe very different audiences and
purposes for the various papers
• Potentially increasing research efficiency,
• A longer time commitment may be
• Potentially leading to more practical and
required because:
useable results,
– Publication process takes time
• Allowing greater depth, breadth and
comprehensiveness, • Circumstances may change while
completing the research preparing the
• Opportunities for real life learning
thesis, e.g.
(manuscript preparation, submission
process, peer review, etc.), and – Unfavorable results of a review;
• Undergoing a more rigorous process in – Unexpected (or null) study results.
preparing results for publication than for a • Inclusion of others (reviewers/editors)
traditional thesis (monograph), with the into the research process
resulting thesis potentially being high • Publishing work early on that may not
quality. reflect your level of sophistication at the
end of your thesis
Standards for research (PhD) degree
• Independence
• Originality
• Contribution to knowledge
• Suitable for publication
Independence
PEAR
• Keep to protocol
• Record accurately
• Flexibility
Analysis
• Check data
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Communication Skills
• Present one idea at a time
• Keep it simple
• Make it brief
• Personalize it to the other person
• Use the right tone of voice and body language
• Get acceptance of each idea
• Respond to the emotions of the person
• Appreciate your listener’s concerns
• Encourage listeners to express themselves
Steps to improve listening skills
• Ask questions
• Concentrate – stay focused
• Identify the main idea
• Listen for the rationale
• Listen for key words
• Organize in your mind
• Take notes
Praise with a reason
• Mean what you say
• Balance your praise
• Immediately after the event
• Public or private
Background to this workshop
• Supervisors’ approach to supervising research has a profound
influence on how they will supervise.
• Shared experience, there are often no right or wrong answers,
but there are a range of approaches from which we can
choose.
• Discussion, and using the Surrey and Harvard research results
will help to create that range of approaches.
• Approach to supervision can be linked to core beliefs about
what research is.
• This is only the beginning of a dialogue. If, as is likely, at the
end there are still unresolved questions, we will bring them
together and find the best way forward.
Some Influences on Supervision
Lee 2008)
•Dependency
•Not admitting to problems
•Poor progress. Not understanding
the required standard of work and
showing insufficient initiative
•Supervisor not interested in topic
•Conceptual difficulties
•Differences between supervisors
Some Problems: the students views
•Loneliness
•Not enjoying the topic
•Not knowing what is expected
•Practical issues: money, lifestyle, getting hold
of the supervisor
•Ethical issues: are we being used?
•Stress (especially at transfer and viva)
•Supervisor being too prescriptive ‘my way is
the only way’
•Lack of confidence – is my work good
enough?
Observations on training
supervisors
• Supervisors have learned most from how they
were supervised themselves
• Understanding a range of approaches is
important
• Co-supervision can be helpful if the roles are
clearly allocated
• Those who need training can be the most
affronted when the suggestion is made that
they need it
Occupational influences
,
METHODS OF STUDENT
SUPERVISION TOPIC
department norms, previous experience, occupational
co-supervision, contacts, knowledge fertility
team supervision,
group supervision aptitude, skills,
financial aims
UNIVERSITY
SUPERVISOR’S PROCEDURES
CONCEPTIONS recruitment,
contacts, own PhD upgrading,
experience networking
financial support