The Academic Supervisor of Higher Education Students’ Final Projects: A Gatekeeper of Quality?

Abstract

The production and presentation for public discussion of an end-of-programme project, thesis or dissertation are unavoidable elements for the conclusion of academic training in study programmes of various levels, namely bachelor’s, master’s and PhD. Although these end-of-programme projects may take on various forms, as well as different levels of demand, supervision in the production of these projects is one of the critical elements for their success. This article aims to analyse the supervision process, examining the supervision strategies that faculty members may mobilise in their role as academic supervisors. To this end, the authors carried out a bibliographic collection, which made it possible to substantiate the proposals set out throughout this piece of research. The results allow concluding that, to be effective and efficient, supervision strategies need to consider, as a basic assumption, that this is a pedagogical relationship, with asymmetric powers between the supervisor(s) and the student(s), in which it is paramount to acknowledge the different duties of each party. Furthermore, this relationship entails the need for flexibility on the part of the supervisor, taking into account both the characteristics of the supervisor and of the work designed and the development of the entire process, which may motivate and involve several supervision strategies in the same supervision over time/process. This whole dynamic takes place in a context where it seems important to (re)think the final product of the academic supervision process.
 
 Received: 30 October 2020 / Accepted: 3 December 2020/ Published: 17 January 2021

Sociology and Education in an Academic Career

“…My inclusion in a higher education organization implied, both at the beginning and throughout this period, more or less formal interaction with other people, for example, in management, namely directors, colleagues, administrative staff, students, individuals outside the University who needed to be contacted. This interaction is unavoidable even if, more recently, digital technologies have, to some extent, transformed the way it is implemented (22,23).…”

“…Less directly, reviewing papers reviews and belonging to editorial boards of scientific journals (for example http://bonoi.org/index.php/si/about/editorialTeam; https://publons.com/researcher/859777/sandro-serpa/) help to (i) systematize ideas, (ii) become aware of the most recent research in my scientific areas at the international level, (iii) create international networks of relationships; and (iv) convey information in a methodical way. All of this can and should, if relevant, be transported to teaching for the benefit of our students and our growing professional quality (23,30,31,40).…”

Revisión sistemática integrativa del Trabajo Fin de Grado: aspectos contextuales y pedagógicos

“…El Trabajo Fin de Grado (TFG) o su equivalente internacional, el Final Project, es, una materia con unas características particulares y de interés pedagógico para docentes e investigadores, por la complejidad que encarna. Estudios recientes apoyan a los estudiantes en su escritura académica (de Villar et al, 2019) mientras que otros se centran en la mejora de los resultados mediante la evaluación continua y uso intensivo del campus virtual (Subiela-Hernández et al, 2020) y las estrategias de supervisión que emplean los docentes (Sá et al 2021), entre otros aspectos.…”