Supervision of Graduate Students

Abstract

Graduate education is an essential component of universities; it also contributes substantially to national economies. However, problems in graduate education, especially with respect to completion and quality, have emerged in many countries, including Canada. To address these problems and related issues and practices, a comprehensive three-year research project has been conducted involving questionnaires and interviews in Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and other countries. This paper presents information from questionnaires completed in 1993 by 736 supervisors of graduate students in 37 universities across Canada. Many substantial differences were obtained between the means for items when respondents were classified into eight discipline areas. The responses related to master's and doctoral programs were generally similar.

Responsibilities of Graduate Student: The Review of Research Student Policies

“…In other words, research students have to take responsibility for managing their own learning and getting a PhD. They are also responsible for determining what is required as well as for carrying it out and must always keep in touch in regular meetings with the supervisor [4][5][6] . Moses [7] argues that supervisors expect students to be diligent, hardworking, energetic, keen, tenacious and conscientious and to have a sense of urgency.…”

“…They are also responsible for determining what is required as well as for carrying it out and must always keep in touch in regular meetings with the supervisor [4][5][6] . Moses [7] argues that supervisors expect students to be diligent, hardworking, energetic, keen, tenacious and conscientious and to have a sense of urgency. They also expect students to be enthusiastic and motivated towards research work, to be pleasant at work and to contribute to a good working environment.…”

“…This can be linked with other parts of the PhD task, like the development of a relevant body of knowledge, placing the research in the context of the literature and originality [3,8,11] . Moses [4] and Phillips and Pugh [2] elaborate this statement mentioning that the process of defining the research topic varies across disciplines. The supervisor in a science discipline has to take the lead in obtaining the physical resources and the research personnel required.…”

“…In contrast, in the humanities and social sciences, students often come with their own topics within the field in which the supervisor is expert. Additionally, after surveying aspects of graduate education in Canadian universities, Holdaway et al [12] report that in education, social sciences and humanities, graduate students choose their thesis topics themselves more frequently than those in other disciplines do.…”

Doctoral Mentorship Practices in Canadian Political Science

“…Other studies have focused on the frequency of specific mentoring activities. A 1993 survey of Canadian faculty found “‘Some’ to ‘Substantial’ support for assistance in preparation of journal manuscripts (mean = 3.83), preparation of conference paper proposals (3.69), development of teaching skills (3.58), and development of skills in preparing research grant applications (3.48)” (Holdaway et al, 1995: 13).…”