Supervision: Towards the Ideal

The ideal supervision relationship is a rewarding one which enriches the student's research. In reality, this important academic relationship does not always mirror the ideal; but there are strategies you can adopt to bring the real and the ideal closer together.

Useful Things to Do

  1. Thesis Writing GuideIf you are a PhD student, become familiar with the PhD Handbook. If you area Masters or Graduate Diploma student, read up on your course guide and the faculty handbook. These publications have guidelines on supervision and other common issues that students face. The GSa also has an online publication called the Thesis Writing Guide which contains tips on supervision and thesis writing issues.
  2. Set up an appropriate consultation schedule with your supervisor early on in your thesis. Ask her or him about any planned absences throughout the course of your degree; and about regular commitments your supervisor has in terms of research / teaching / supervision. In your first meetings negotiate what your expectations are in the supervisory relationship—for instance how often you should meet.
  3. Find out who your graduate student co-ordinator is and where to track her or him down in your department or school. Use this person as another source of information about graduate student entitlements within the department (eg. access to facilities such as office space, computers, photocopyior school ng, conference or research funding).
  4. Get to know the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and our services, including the Graduate Student Group in your department/school. Find out about other support services within the University, such as the Academic Skills Unit and the Counselling Service.
  5. Become familiar with the code of conduct for research, intellectual property, and other common issues that you might face during your research. The GSA has information about these issues and you can always ask for advice from a GSa advocacy officer (phone 8344 8559 to make an appointment or email adviser@gsa.unimelb.edu.au
  6. Take control of the situation by asserting and informing yourself of your rights and responsibilities.

Common Problems

The Graduate Student Association has identified the following common supervision problems:


  • Lack of feedback on content, style or appropriateness of thesis;
  • Lack of expertise or knowledge on the part of the supervisor about your area of research;
  • Lack of guidance, including prolonged delays for a response to simple queries;
  • A personality clash between the student and the supervisor(s);
  • Lack of assistance in accessing facilities and funding;
  • Lack of availability (eg. the supervisor has too many commitments or is frequently overseas);
  • Lack of opportunity to pursue your area of interest or adopt your own research approach;
  • Difficulty in making appointments;
  • Clashes between supervisors and co-supervisors.

What to Do if Things Go Wrong

Firstly, try speaking to your supervisor. If you encounter a problem with a supervisor which cannot satisfactorily be resolved between the two of you, seek the counsel of the department's graduate student co-ordinator or graduate research manager or the head of department or school. You can also approach advocacy officers at the Graduate Student Association, who can advise you on how best to proceed.

Seeing a Graduate Student Advocacy Officer

The Graduate Student Association employs advocacy officers to counsel graduate students on the appropriate course of action for various difficulties. All consultations are free and confidential, and graduate students are encouraged to make use of our service. An appointment is usually made to see an advocacy officer by phoning (03) 8344 8657 or you can consult by email or over the phone.


Supervision

It is traditional for research—ranging from a minor thesis that forms part of your course assessment to PhD research—to be supervised by one or more experienced academic researchers in the field of choice. The following is a general guide to supervision for all graduate courses. For information on PhD studies, see the publication from the Melbourne School of Graduate Research Studies entitled The PhD Handbook. Also see the GSA's web pages on Advice and Advocacy. 


Associate supervisor(s)

An associate supervisor is defined as a supervisor who has a secondary or lesser role than the principal supervisor (see The  PhD Handbook). This definition can bear little relation to reality, however, as some students rely far more on their associate supervisor(s) than on their principal supervisor, who may be nothing more than a token signer of forms.

Choosing a supervisor

How do I find a supervisor?
It’s the responsibility of the head of department or school to ensure that appropriate staff are available to supervise you. Upon accepting you as a student, (s)he tacitly acknowledges that academics are available in the department or school with the appropriate methodological and theoretical expertise and enough time to adequately supervise you.

If you don't yet have a supervisor, speak to your graduate student co-ordinator or head of department or school about their responsibility to assign you an ‘appropriate supervisor’. Ideally you should also meet with your proposed supervisor(s) before taking them on officially. In some cases you have no choice, but wherever possible you should play an active role in the selection of your supervisor(s). Here are some suggestions:

  • Meet with several academics in your department or school to discuss your project and the possibility of one or more of them becoming your supervisor(s).
  • Contact other students in the department or school and ask for their opinions of potential supervisors you have in mind. 
  • Read the staff profiles on your department's or school's website.
  • Visit websites of other related departments. You may wish to select a supervisor from another department or school.

The University guidelines on PhD supervision can be found in The PhD Handbook. These guidelines outline the roles of the supervisor, department/school and student in the research. There is a generic handbook for Masters students from the School of Graduate Research at www.gradresearch.unimelb.edu.au  For other students, your faculty should have similar guidelines.

Feedback from your supervisor

What sort of feedback can I expect from my supervisor?
Feedback, both verbal and written, that is timely, constructive, supportive and sensitive. The supervisor is expected to read written work thoroughly in advance of meetings, and to provide regular feedback on the student's work. However, a supervisor is not obliged to read numerous drafts of the same section or chapter. If a supervisor has criticised your work, (s)he must explain the 'problem areas' and provide you with ways to deal with them. Your supervisor should also confirm the strong points of your thesis. Ticks and crosses and one-line statements are insufficient feedback, and you can ask your supervisor to comment further on these.

Meetings with your supervisor

How do I first approach my assigned supervisor?
Good supervisor(s) will appreciate a student's initiative, so take it upon yourself to arrange a meeting with your supervisor. Either phone, visit the department or email to make a time and date to meet. Unless you already know your supervisor, it is best to remain formal in your initial contact.


What should I discuss in my first meeting with my supervisor?
Decide what you want to discuss in your first meeting and let your supervisor know your topics in advance, thus giving her or him a chance to prepare for the meeting. Don't let your supervisor entirely control the agenda. Set some suggested topics to discuss at your first meeting, for example:

  • Setting ground rules and mutual understandings about what you expect from one another.
  • An outline of your supervisor's availability, including weekly availability, plans for leave, overseas travel, retirement or resignation. If your supervisor is planning to be overseas or on leave, be sure it is not at a critical time in your research and find out what alternative arrangements will be made during her or his absence. Also obtain a guarantee that your supervision meetings will be free from distractions, such as phone calls, other students, staff members etc., so that time can be focused exclusively on your project.
  • Your areas of research interest and/or proposed research project and what type of direction you need at this stage of your degree.
Prior to meeting with your supervisor it is advisable to familiarise yourself with the University guidelines on supervision. PhD students can find guidelines in The PhD Handbook. Masters students should see the Masters by Research Generic Handbook on the School of Graduate Research website at www.gradresearch.unimelb.edu.au.

What sort of records should I keep of meetings with my supervisor?
Academics are advised by the University to keep records of their supervision meetings. These consist of just a few sentences, noting date of supervision, issues considered and decisions reached. The GSA recommends that graduate students keep similar records, including times when meetings were arranged and cancelled or forgotten, either by you or the supervisor. These may never be needed but are a safety net, offering evidence should you need to make a formal complaint about supervision.


I can't get in contact with my supervisor—what should I do?
Ring your graduate student co-ordinator or the department's main office and find out where your supervisor is. There may be a reason why (s)he has not responded. If your supervisor is present in the department, try to contact her or him again.


How often should I meet with my supervisor?
There is no single answer to this question. The University's supervision guidelines state that ‘supervisors and students should ensure that they confer at what are agreed by them to be 'appropriate and regular intervals’. The principal responsibility for maintaining contact rests with the supervisor. Frequency of meetings is dependent on a number of factors. These include:

  • The stage of your research. It is common to meet weekly in the early stages of your project and at strategic points throughout the project, including the final stages.
  • The nature of the project. Lab-based projects may involve weekly or daily meetings, whereas projects based on the humanities may only require fortnightly meetings.
  • Needs of personalities involved. If you are most productive when you work independently, you may prefer to meet less regularly with your supervisor than a student who thrives on a structure provided by regular meetings. Your supervisor may also have a preferred style of supervision.

How do I organise meeting times with my supervisor?
Arrange your next meeting time at the end of the current meeting, or contact your supervisor by phone or email to make arrangements.


Supervision problems

Who should I talk to about problems with supervision?
One or more of the following:

  • Your supervisor. The solution to some problems lies in bringing them into the open. It is important not to apportion blame, but rather to communicate your impressions of a situation and why you think the problem exists.
  • Your graduate student co-ordinator. This person exists to listen to such matters and to provide information on ways to deal with problems.
  • Your head of department or school. If you are unhappy with the outcome of discussions with your graduate student co-ordinator or cannot get in contact with her or him, meeting your head of department/school about the matter would be an appropriate next step.
  • The GSA advocacy officers.

What happens if my supervisor goes on leave or overseas or resigns?
If your supervisor is absent from the department/school for more than two months, arrangements for alternative supervision must be resolved both to your satisfaction and that of the department/school. Approach your graduate student co-ordinator or head of department/school and ask that suitable supervision be arranged for the period of your supervisor’s absence.


Changing supervisors

How do I go about changing supervisors?
Reasons for changing supervisors vary from irrevocable breakdown in the supervision relationship to change in the direction of research or contact with a more appropriate supervisor. Once you have decided change is necessary, you need to:

  1. Seek alternative supervision arrangements (see ‘Choosing a supervisor’, earlier in this section).
  2. Arrange a meeting with other potential supervisors to discuss your project and the possibility of their supervision of you. PhD students and some Masters students have the option of changing faculty or department, or moving to a different university. Other graduate students are generally limited to the department or school in which their course is run.
  3. Once an academic has agreed to become your new supervisor, it is a simple administrative process to make the change formal. This involves filling out a 'Change of Supervisor' form. You can find this form online via your student portal. Go to the admin tab on your student portal and click on the link for RHD canddiates labelled 'Manage my enrolment'. Then go to the 'Track & submit changes to candidature' link and when that opens up you'll find that one option is the 'Change of supervisor' form. You will see that the supervisor who is being replaced needs to sign the form, as well as the new supervisor and the head of department or school.

This process is simple. However, the politics involved in changing supervisors and departments can be a little tricky and your supervisor or head of department/school may be reluctant to sign your form. If this is the case contact a GSA advocacy officer.

Can I have a supervisor from outside the University?
Yes. This is known as an external supervisor. On the whole the University does not encourage the appointment of external supervisors. Nonetheless, many students liaise with appropriate people about their research project at an unofficial level. The motivating force for the external person in this case is that (s)he is extremely interested in the project being undertaken.


Can I have a supervisor from a different department, school or faculty?
Yes. In fact the University encourages this, especially in the case of inter-disciplinary projects. In this instance the supervisor from the different department, school or faculty is usually assigned as an associate supervisor. Be aware that different disciplines may have different theoretical approaches to a project that will need clear, three-way communication between you and the supervisors.