Joint Supervision and the PhD: safety net or panacea?

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an analysis of the 1996 Harris report of postgraduate education. Arguably the most comprehensive report on postgraduate education in recent years, the Harris report is an important statement concerning present and future funding and organisation of postgraduate education in the UK. This paper focuses on issues of postgraduate supervision raised in the review and links them to some of the findings of a five‐year research programme which has focused on the socialisation and supervision of doctoral students in six disciplines. The paper engages with issues relating to the research environment in which postgraduate study is to be located, codes of practice for postgraduate work and different approaches to supervision. In particular, the paper discusses differences in supervision which occur between the social and natural sciences and considers the role and feasibility of joint supervisory arrangements. The paper has particular salience in the light of the results of the most recent Research Assessment Exercise and the continued growth in postgraduate education throughout the UK.