A Quantitative Analysis of PhD Students' Views of Supervision

Challenges in Postgraduate Studies: Assessments by Doctoral Students in a Swedish University

“…Wadesango and Machingambi (2011) studied postgraduate students' experiences with research supervisors in South Africa and found that only few students were satisfied with their supervisors and the challenges they face include lack of supervisory support and supervisor's other work load as well as poor feedback in relation to their research work. However, Heath (2002) found that most PhD students at the University of Queensland, Australia expressed satisfaction with the expertise of their supervisors. Moyer et al (1999) studied professional and personal concerns and suggestions from white and non-white women doctoral students in the USA and found that the most frequent concerns were finding employment, financial stability and developing professional experience.…”

“…This implies that the success of the system depends more on the supervisor because she or he need to provide the expertise, time and support to foster in the student the skills and attitudes of research and ensure the production of a thesis of acceptable standard (Heath, 2002). People who preside and influence institutions of higher education are often not very diverse as doctoral students and are more likely to have inadequate information of how structures within academia may affect different students (Moyer et al, 1999;Gainen and Boice, 1993).…”

Challenges Confronting the Quality of Postgraduate Research Supervision and Its Effects on Time-to-Degree and Throughput Rates: A Case of a South African University

“…The supervisory relationship often leads to lifelong friendships (p.18). Against this background, the importance of the supervisor's role in enhancing quality supervision cannot be gainsaid. For this reason, helping students to develop skills in scholarly writing is one of the key roles of supervision (Heath, 2002). In most cases students who are studying in a second language or even third language (Holtzhausen, 2005) normally experience this problem and usually have difficulties in the use of correct grammar.…”

A Good Supervisor–Ten Facts of Caring Supervision

“…The relationship has been analyzed from many perspectives, for example, as a role relationship (Ellis & Dell, 1986) or power relationship (Manathunga, 2007). In addition, students' (Heath, 2002) and supervisors' (Delamont, Atkinson, & Parry, 2000) perceptions of good or failed supervision relationships have been studied. Several phases of the process or flaws in supervision can threaten or hinder the completion of the doctoral thesis (see Burton & Hoobler, 2006;Grant 2005;Lian, Ferris, & Brown, 2012).…”