Benchmarking supervisor development

Stan Taylor

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Historically...• Necessary and sufficient condition was to be

research-active;• Reason was, as Rudd (1985: 79-80) put it, ‘if

one can do research than one presumably can supervise it.’

• Massive changes in doctoral education over the past three decades or so have transformed the roles and responsibilities of supervisors and the attributes required to be successful.

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Responses

• Many, if not all, institutions established professional development programmes;

• In many cases, these tend to focus on regulatory matters;

• Can leave supervisors very unsure of their roles and how to fulfil them.

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Example

...although [it] was insightful and engaging, we did not learn much more than we already knew. The programme dealt mainly with the mechanics (form-filling, administration, recording of attendance, and other administrative tasks) of supervising PhDs, but not the realities of supervision: that is, the emotions, the mentoring of students (both domestic and international) and the softer issues of dealing with students and their needs. So this left both of us with anxieties and questions concerning the supervision of doctoral students; more so as every member of staff was expected to take on more doctoral students by the school and the university. Feather and McDermott (2014: 169)

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Purpose of paper

• Need for supervisors to reflect on their expertise and identify their developmental needs

• Calls for a tool to enable them to do this (see e.g. Turner 2015)

• Purpose of the paper is to derive such a tool.

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DerivationDevelopments in research education

Implications for research supervision

Implications for research supervisors

Domains of supervisory practice

Benchmarks

Questionnaire

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Developments in doctoral education

• Formalisation• Growth and diversification of the candidate

population;• Diversification of modes of study;• Diversification of purposes.

Hammond et al 2010

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Formalisation

Commodification

McDonaldisation

Regulation

Collectivisation

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Growth and diversification of the candidate population

Massification

Internationalisation

Economic and social

diversification

Austra

lia

Belgium

Czech

Rep

Franc

e

Irelan

d

Korea

N Zea

land

Portu

gal

Sweden

Turke

yUS

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Source: Pederson (2014: 634)

Increase in doctoral students 2000-2010

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Diversification of modes of study

Growth of part-time

study

Growth of distance

study

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Diversification of purposes of study

Training cross

disciplinary researchers

Training ‘researching professionals’

Training key workers for the ‘knowledge economy’

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Implications for doctoral supervision

Suggested implications for doctoral supervision are set out in the final column of Table 1.

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Implications for doctoral supervisors

Implications in terms of the general and specific attributes needed by research supervisors are set out in Table 2.

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Domains of supervisory practice• The regulatory context;• Sources of support;• The supervisor and the student (i)

pedagogy;• The supervisor and the student (ii) diversity;• The supervisor and the student (iii) career

development;• Co-supervision;• The supervisor and timely completion.

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Regulation

• Know and understand institutional policies and procedures for:• Recruitment and selection • Health and safety • Research ethics • Intellectual property rights • Roles and responsibilities of supervisors • Roles and responsibilities of students • Monitoring progress • Complaints and appeals • Examination • Quality assurance (code of practice)

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Sources of support

Are aware of institutional sources of support for students including:

• counselling • careers• visas and immigration• student union and societies • family support groups • ombudspersons

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The supervisor and the student (i) pedagogyKnow and understand the pedagogy of supervision including:

• supervisory styles • determining student needs • aligning styles and student needs • maintaining alignment during the project • supervising students in groups • cohort-building

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The supervisor and the student (ii) diversityCan respond effectively to diversity including supervising:

• international research students • non-traditional domestic students • part-time students • students studying at a distance • students from other disciplines

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The supervisor and the student (iii) career developmentCan play appropriate roles in supporting career development including:

• academic careers

• careers outside academia

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Co-supervision

Can work effectively:

• in supervisory teams

• with supervisors from other disciplines

• with non-academic supervisors

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The supervisor and completion

Can support timely completion including:

• understanding the causes of delay • being aware of strategies to enhance completion

times and rates

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Self-review questionnaire

Domain benchmarks used to develop a self-review questionnaire.

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Self-review questionnaire

• So far piloted on small sample (20) of supervisors in the social sciences from a range of European countries;

• Feedback suggested they found it a useful exercise;

• Key development needs identified included pedagogy, diversity, non-academic careers, and supporting timely completion.

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Conclusions

• Massive changes in doctoral education;• Transformed supervision and the attributes

required of supervisors;• Paper has sought to support supervisors to

review their expertise and identify areas for development;

• Embodied in a questionnaire which supervisors can complete and identify any gaps in their development.

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Questions?

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Thank you