Research Supervision Notes

The ANU Research Supervision Notes provide an overview of issues for those wishing to learn about supervising PHDs and other research students at university. The content was developed with Oxford University (UK) and McGill University (Canada).

Contents

1. Developments
   • Global developments
   • National developments
   • Research education
   • Quality assurance
2. Research Environment
   • Avoiding Isolation
   • Candidate and panel
   • Intellectual climate
   • Interdisciplinary research
3. Candidature Stages
   • Recruitment Clarifying
   • Expectations
   • Topics and proposals
   • Learning Needs Analysis
   • Communicating Research
   • Feedback
   • Dissertation
   • Examination
4. Being a Supervisor
   • New supervisors
   • Experienced supervisors
5. Experiences and Conceptions
   • Conceptions of Research
   • Student Experiences
6. HDR Candidates
   • Motivation to Study
   • Conceptions of Research
   • Student Experience
   • Demographic Information
7. Examination
   • Preparing for Examination
   • Selecting Examiners
   • Examination Process
   • Following examination

If the priorities of coursework students are any guide, then perhaps these should be dealt with in a different order, with "examination" first, as that is the top priority for students.

Here is the table of contents from the Oxford Learning Institute (Oxford University) version of the notes:

1. DPhil students
   • Student motivation to study
   • Varied conceptions of research
   • Life as a doctoral student
   • Reasons for delay
   • Student diversity
   • International students
   • Demographic information
2. Being a supervisor
   • New supervisors
   • Experienced supervisors
   • Graduate admissions
   • Supervisory styles
   • Student-supervisor relationships
   • Co-supervision
   • Improving your supervisory practice
   • Giving and receiving feedback
   • Monitoring student progress
   • Problems: avoiding them and dealing with them
3. Stages of the doctorate
   • Getting started
   • Clarifying expectations
   • Defining the research topic
   • Identifying training needs
   • Integrity and ethical practice
   • Reading and writing
   • Skills development
   • Transfer and confirmation of status
   • Presenting at seminars and conferences
   • Publishing during the doctorate
   • Writing the thesis
   • Careers - academic or otherwise?
4. Examination
   • Preparing students for examination
   • Selecting examiners
   • Being an examiner
   • The viva
   • The outcomes
5. Research environment
   • Infrastructure and resources
   • Intellectual climate
6. National and international context
   • Quality assurance
   • Purpose of the doctorate
   • Trends in doctoral education
   • Research into doctoral education

Oxford University also provide a Website overview in a two page (126kb) PDF document. But a web site should not require a separate two page set of printed instructions in order to use it. The problem seems to be that the notes are intended for several different audiences: research students, their supervisors and university staff. It would be better if these groups were specifically addressed on the web page (students, supervisors, other staff ...), rather than having a separate download guide to the guide.

Academic authors are used used to creating conventional printed documents with a hierarchical tables of contents. So it might be better if they used that format for their web pages, rather than trying to be too clever and then having to provide a separate cheat sheet to explain a hard to navigate web site.

One interesting item in the Oxford University Website overview is on Meeting minutes:

"As soon as possible after any formal meeting with your
supervisor about your progress, write a brief descriptive text that summarizes the direction of the discussion including what was clarified, ending with next tasks and timelines. Send this to your supervisor to verify that you have understood exactly what has been agreed. Writing these regularly provides you with a log of your progress."

This is good advice, but seems out of place with the general guidance about how to navigate the web site about the web site. Also it raises the question of where the student logs their minutes. The obvious place for the student to keep the minutes would be in their e-portfolio (I use a Mahara "Journal"). A blog could be used for this purpose, although these do not meet records management standards (the student could go back later and amend the minutes). The question also needs to be asked as to why the supervisor has no obligations for record keeping, given that they are being paid by the university to do the supervision and why the university is not providing an online system which meets standards for electronic records management.