Postgraduate Supervisors’ Conversation 4: Mentoring the Next Generation of Supervisors
Tue, 27 September 2011 (12.00-2.00) in the Upstairs Lounge, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts
Discussants: AProf Lynda Johnston, AProf Wendy Drewery, Dr Chris Eames, AProf Eva Collins
KEY SUGGESTIONS:
Selection of students
 Adhere to the flowchart in the Higher Degrees Handbook (page 8) outlining the application process. Strictly followed,
the applicant must contact the supervisor before submitting an application to enroll.
 Emphasize quality of students rather than numbers. When students enquire about doing a PhD, challenge them to
select a supervisor with a research and publication history they would follow.
 Undertake a range of negotiation before signing up students:
→ Panel members and candidate discuss and agree on their preferred way to work, expectations of who will meet,
how often they meet, the candidates’ expectations and how the team will meet together. If students are
international, this can be via Skype or a phone call.
→ Supervisors meet so they have the same expectations of what to do with drafts. They also meet to discuss how the
project is developing. Share supervision right through to the end.
→ Vary the frequency of supervision meetings depending on the stage of the PhD, but always have the next meeting
time set.
 Tell students the roles of different supervisors explicitly, i.e. whether the supervisors’ focus is on shape of the thesis,
writing, methodology, etc.
Selection of Supervisors
 Identify staff who want to supervise and how to mentor them.
 Ensure that people supervise in their areas of expertise.
 Use the PGS process to support this.
 Involve chairpersons in the process of identifying topics and how people are brought in.
 Don’t give ‘problem candidates’ to new supervisors.
Supervision Process
 Learn from own experiences of being supervised, bring out issues and set a standard.
 Negotiate the process of supervision with guidance provided by the chief supervisor.
 Co-supervise right through the process. As much as possible, all panel members should meet together to allow junior
supervisors to learn from the different styles of mentoring and supervision. Where joint meetings are not possible, the
supervisors should brief each other after the separate meetings.
 All members of the supervision panel and the student formally record each meeting on a supervision record form. Use
this record as a basis for the next meeting.
 Confer with each other before meetings with the candidate. Be transparent about comments given to the student.
 Deconstruct the supervision after the meeting. As with teaching, the supervision process would benefit from a
conscious engagement with practice.
 A year out of completion, set in place a deliberate process with timeline for the students.
 Never contradict the chief supervisor.
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Mentoring New Supervisors
Reinforce to chief supervisors that supervision is more than supervision of the candidate but also teamwork and a
mentoring situation. Mentoring is a collaborative, co-constructed process and builds capacity. Chief supervisors should
create a professional situation and supervisors present a united front.
Model the process of supervision, such as how to build rapport with students, clarify expectations, outline the journey,
judge the pace, and handle situations when students fall behind.
Tell new supervisors the ‘technical side’ such as necessary paperwork and a description of the process.
Support new supervisors with moral issues, advice on how to manage the process and keep students on task.
Entrust new supervisors with roles showing encouragement, faith in their skills and providing them with opportunities.
 Bring conversations about supervision to a Faculty/School level. Teaching Advocates could run sessions focusing on
supervision.
 Actively involve co-supervisors’ in the supervision process, so that achieving the requirement of three successful
doctoral candidates in order to become a chief supervisor has value.
 Initiate a “peer support” system partnering new supervisors with a supervisor from a different department or not on
the same panel.
 There are two generations of supervisors: those who learned from ‘osmosis’; and others who are not content to do it
that way. Focus on developing the new crop of supervisors.