Mapping the landscape of awards for research supervision: A comparison of Australia and the UK^*

^*An earlier version of this paper was given at the International Conference on Developments in Doctoral Education and Training organised by the UK Council for Graduate Education and held at The Other Place, Stratford upon Avon, UK, 3rd-4th April, 2017.

Abstract

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 rewards and conditions attached to success. Marked differences are found between these features in the two systems, which it is argued stem mainly from the fact that in Australia institution-led awards are the norm, while in the UK student-led awards are predominant. In conclusion, it is suggested that, while institution-led awards seem more likely to be effective in identifying, recognising and rewarding exemplary supervision, students can and should have an important role to play and, hence, that optimally all stakeholders should be involved in the awards process.

Keywords:

• Graduate education
• teaching awards
• rewarding excellence
• research degree supervision
• doctoral education
• reward and recognition

View correction statement:

Corrigendum

Notes

^* An earlier version of this paper was given at the International Conference on Developments in Doctoral Education and Training organised by the UK Council for Graduate Education and held at The Other Place, Stratford upon Avon, UK, 3rd-4th April, 2017.

1. An Australian Honours degree is a research degree offered at undergraduate level and typically taken over a one-year full-time period. It is undertaken either entirely by research or with a minimum of 50% of supervised research following a taught element addressing methodology and subject content. Historically it has been seen as the route into doctoral education and first-class honours or first-class honours-equivalence is a requirement for an Australian government-funded postgraduate research degree scholarship.

2. At the point of writing, the exchange rate was 1 GBP = 1.61AU$.