Purpose: This study aims to reflect on "good practices" in doctoral research supervision and transfer the author's experience to other academics. The author explains the sources of his approach to doctoral research supervision drawing on traditional practice in adult learning and some reference to phenomenology as a "meeting of…

This interview-based study with thirty doctoral supervisors in the UK focused on the diverse goals and intentions behind their supervisory activities, from which we derived a six-dimensional model of concepts of supervision. We explored how strongly each of these concepts featured in supervisors' intentions and whether this varied by discipline.…

Over recent years, psychology has become increasingly concerned with reproducibility and replicability of research findings (Munafò et al., 2017). One method of ensuring that research is hypothesis driven, as opposed to data driven, is the process of publicly pre-registering a study's hypotheses, data analysis plan, and procedure prior to data…

The Teaching Qualitative Psychology Group (TQP) is a group of experienced academics supporting the sharing of best practice in the teaching and supervision of qualitative research methods in psychology. In this paper the group share their knowledge and practice suggestions with a specific focus on supporting academics who do not come from a…

Much current debate about undergraduate student research involves a focus on 'students as partners' and co-constructors of knowledge (Healey, Flint & Harrington 2014, 2016). This debate reveals interesting tensions between student freedom and the role of structuring frameworks. Undergraduate lecturers and research supervisors might feel we are…

The aim of this paper is to map the pattern of awards for research degree supervision in institutions in Australia and the United Kingdom. In particular, it explores the scope of such awards, their objectives, the criteria for nomination, the evidence required to be submitted, the composition of award panels, the criteria for award, and the…

This book focuses on integrity throughout the PhD journey and beyond, and is organised around two main themes: (1) integrity in relation to the capabilities developed by doctoral candidates for professional practice; and (2) integrity and coherence at the PhD system level. The working methods of key participants such as PhD candidates,…

International policy changes that have prioritised increasing growth in the numbers of doctoral students have led to wide-ranging debate about the changing purpose of the doctorate. However, there has been little research aimed at investigating doctoral supervisors' views of the purpose of the doctorate, despite the significant role supervisors…

This essay offers some reflections for the theory and practice of research supervision drawn from the field of employment relations. It argues that rethinking supervision in terms of the employment relationship can advance dialogue and debate about supervision. This is twofold. (1) Reframing supervision in terms of the employment relationship can…

Recent research on doctoral education in the U.K. has revealed the increasing number and diversity of academic relationships that shape the lives of research students, and students' own role in activating, mobilising and maintaining these relationships. Higher education policy reforms promoting doctoral "skills training",…

Research and enquiry skills are increasingly required of students at all levels of the higher education curriculum, and this requires a sophisticated pedagogical response. The question is: how can we integrate current knowledge about academic writing with current knowledge about supervision? This article integrates different approaches to writing…

This document outlines the results of the "2013 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey" ("PRES"), where 48,401 replies were received from 122 participating institutions. Redeveloped for 2013, our biennial survey is the only national survey to gather insight from postgraduate research students about their learning and…

The neoliberalization of universities is creating an increasingly instrumental, market-focused approach to higher education. This paper focuses on Masters dissertation supervision in the UK, which to date has been understudied and which recent changes to higher education have left in a precarious position. It presents a collaborative reflection on…

Most research into research supervision practice focuses on functional, collegial or problematic power-related experiences. Work developing the supervisory role concentrates on new supervisors, and on taught development and support programmes. Most literature on academics' professional learning concentrates on learning to be a university teacher…

This paper presents a novel collaborative tool--AWESOME Dissertation Environment (ADE)--which facilitates student learning through semantic social scaffolding: a new approach to dissertation writing challenges. These challenges revolve around three issues: timing of support; collective intelligence, and sense making strategies in tension with the…