The ideal research degree supervisor ‘can play any role’: Rethinking institutional orientation and induction for commencing doctoral students

ABSTRACT

Although there has been considerable post hoc research on student views of supervisors, there is little on how candidate expectations are constituted at or close to the point of commencement. This study reads students’ commentary about the ‘ideal supervisor’ at the point of institutional induction to examine commencing candidate expectations, concluding that student discourse reflects historical, guild notions of the supervisor as ‘master’, and institutional messaging about the primary responsibility of the supervisor for positive research degree outcomes. The ‘ideal’ supervisor imagined by commencing candidates possesses highly esteemed character virtues and research mastery such that they can meet all needs and guarantee a successful outcome and a positive candidate experience. The paper concludes that institutional representations of the supervisor role need to change to re-situate supervision within wider networks of engagement and support and this needs to be reflected in the design of institutional orientation.

KEYWORDS:

• PhD experience
• doctoral transition
• doctoral supervision
• ideal supervisor
• research degree orientation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wendy Bastalich

Wendy Bastalich lectures in Research Education. Her research focuses on university-wide doctoral curriculum, supervision, and the impact of institutional and policy atmospheres for doctoral education and social science and humanities disciplines.

Alistair McCulloch

Alistair McCulloch provides development for research degree students and supervisors. Recent publications address the disciplinary status of doctoral education, motivations for commencing a PhD, part-time PhD students, and the PhD and work.