Supervising PhD students

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.