We wanted to write a book to guide the practical activities of effective PhD
supervision, and to focus on actions that supervisors could undertake. And so, we’ve
focused on some of the main processes that relate to PhD supervision: the personal
motivations of supervisors, recruitment, clarifying expectations, how to run productive
meetings, providing effective feedback, academic writing, the interpersonal challenges
that arise during the PhD, the PhD examination, and professional development. We
address these key supervisory practices by offering a range of practical advice and
activities that can inform and guide supervisors. Throughout the book, we highlight
examples of good and bad practice that are inspired by real-life examples.
We offer a range of templates and supports that supervisors can provide to their PhD
students. This reveals one of our strongest motivations for writing this text – to help
supervisors to improve the experience of doctoral research not just for themselves,
but also for their PhD students.
For convenience, we use the term ‘PhD student’ throughout the book, although we
acknowledge that the term ‘student’ inadequately recognises the level of research
competence, maturity and independence associated with the conduct of doctoral
research. We also assume that there is more than one supervisor involved, and hence
regularly refer to ‘supervisors’ throughout the book. For simplicity, we usually refer
to ‘the university’ as being the institution that awards the degree and where the PhD
student is located. Of course, there are other research
institutions that are not universities and which award
degrees and/or host PhD students.
We recognise that supervisors are faced with many
competing demands for their time. In tackling this
topic, we try to address the challenging question,
‘How can busy supervisors make the most of the time
that they devote to any one PhD student?’ By actively
managing the progress of the PhD project and the
development of the PhD student, this time can be
more productive for the supervisor and the PhD
student.