Postgraduate research candidature support, support of supervisory teams, and assistance with examination and assessment requirements are some of the crucial elements in a successful postgraduate student's study experience. While there is a large body of research on Doctoral supervision, less is available on Master's level supervision and support.…

Discourse regarding modern doctoral studies criticises the traditional notion of doctoral education as being too narrow to facilitate knowledge creation and transfer towards the knowledge economy. This study considered the pedagogical links to supervisory practices to enable transformative learning experiences. The study, grounded in the…

The first time of many significant encounters is the most intense, raising awkwardness, anxiety and hope. This article presents data from doctoral students (n = 80) who described the first time that they submitted writing to their supervisor and received feedback. The first writing/feedback exchange is an initiation into the cultures of academia.…

This paper describes a study investigating the effectiveness of an online group supervision model developed to respond to the plight of postgraduate students forced to complete their research theses in China due to the COVID-19 pandemic border closures in 2020-2022. The supervisory group included academics with variable supervision experience who…

This study explores the views of doctoral students and supervisors about two doctoral thesis-writing models: the traditional monograph and the thesis that includes published articles in its body. Doctoral theses in biological and health sciences usually follow one of these two common models. Doctoral theses with publications are increasingly…

Supervision is generally recognised as playing a crucial role in the quality of a research student's doctoral experience and their academic outcomes and, in common with most areas of higher education, there is an oft-stated desire to pursue excellence in this important area. Excellence in research degree supervision is, however, an elusive concept…

This article presumes that supervision is a category of teaching, and that we all "learn" how to teach better. So it enquires into what novice supervisors need to learn. An anonymised digital questionnaire sought data from supervisors [n226] on their experiences of supervision to find out what was difficult, and supervisor interviews…

Doctoral supervisors aim for two goals. One is a strong thesis, timely in submission. The other is the fully fledged independent researcher who is able to write about research clearly within an epistemologically accepted framework. Feedback and feedforward on writing should address both goals. However, in many institutions, supervisors are under…

While the experiences of international doctoral students, especially those from Asian countries, have been well researched, fewer studies have explored the experiences of African students in Southern countries like Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This article reports on doctoral writing and student and supervisor perspectives on English…

International knowledge markets rely heavily on a ready supply of highly mobile doctoral students, many of whom are from the global South, to bring in revenue. The supervision of these PhD students, however, can reproduce neo-colonial knowledge relations, often in subtle ways. In settler nations, international PhD students may find that they are…

The focus of this article is on the written feedback that supervisors say they often give their second language (L2) doctoral students. Little is known about the focus of this feedback and about what supervisors consider as priorities in the early draft writing of dissertation chapters. Given the potentially different priorities and foci of…

Supervising masters and doctoral dissertations is a key function of teaching in higher education and giving written feedback on draft sections is an essential component of this function. However, the specific types of response that supervisors give to their dissertation students' written work have received limited research interest to date. The…

Changes in the funding and delivery of research programmes at the university level have, in recent years, resulted in significant changes to research supervision. This paper critically reviews key influences effecting postgraduate supervision. Analysis draws on literature spanning 2000-2010 to determine the appropriateness of traditional models of…

When exploring the supervision of indigenous doctoral students, a focus on teaching and learning hides as much as it reveals. Explicit descriptions from students of helpful teaching and learning practices mostly highlight everyday Western academic culture in action and do not illuminate the ways in which indigenous identities impact on, or are…

This paper draws on 38 student interviews carried out in the course of the team research project "Teaching and Learning in the Supervision of Maori Doctoral Students". Maori doctoral thesis work takes place in the intersections between the Maori (tribal) world of identifications and obligations, the organisational and epistemological…