1. Supervising UG and Taught Masters Projects
Dr. Marita Grimwood SFHEA FSEDA

2. Key learning outcomes To be able to identify and adapt your
supervisory style
To be able to design, critique and/or modify
an effective project brief
To identify and pre-empt issues in managing projects & dissertations

3. Imagine a student of yours has just finished their project.
In trios…
Imagine a student of yours has just finished their project.
How many ways can you think of to evaluate your success as a supervisor?

4. Possible measures of the effectiveness of supervision
Student satisfaction
Student learning
An interesting project
Good project quality to time ratio
Student’s personal development
Publications for you!
Student progresses to higher degree
Main supervisor’s view

5. Approaches to supervision
1. Functional – ‘the issue is one of project management’
2. Enculturation – ‘encouraged to become a member of the disciplinary community’
3. Critical thinking – ‘student is encouraged to question and analyse their work’
4. Emancipation – ‘student is encouraged to question and develop themselves’
5. Developing a quality relationship – ‘student is enthused, inspired and cared for’
Lee (2008) ‘How are doctoral students supervised?’ Studies in Higher Education 33:3, )

6. Factors in determining supervisory style
How you were supervised
The norms of your discipline
Individual factors - personality, background, gender…
Beliefs or philosophy about learning and teaching
What are your strengths as a supervisor? What might be areas to think about?

7. Problems in supervision (Dysthe, Samara and Westhrei, 2007)
Student too dependent on the supervisor, lack of ownership of project
Poor personality match between student and supervisor
Balancing supervisor’s authority and student’s independence.
Problems to do with authority and power
HOW CAN YOUR ROLE BE HELPFUL HERE?

8. Why are PhD students important to taught project supervision?
The time they are able to offer
More approachable than the academic lead of the project
The Undergraduate-Postgraduate-Faculty Triad
cellbioed 1 December 2010: 

9. Giving Feedback Put yourself in the student’s shoes
Start by eliciting from them
Be clear about the positives
Depersonalise the negatives - relate
feedback to standards and objectives
Always consider privacy
Make it timely!

10. Cultural sensitivity Avoid preconceptions – be ready to learn!
Read body language and reactions
Don’t assume a student’s experience is similar to yours…
…or to another student from the ‘same’ culture
Be clear about availability and welcoming questions
See Manathunga (2011) ‘Moments of transculturation and assimilation: post-colonial explorations of supervision and culture’ Innovations in Education and Teaching International

11. Student expectations To be supervised To be given feedback
Supervisor to be available when needed
Supervisor to be friendly and supportive
Supervisor to be knowledgeable
Supervisor to be interested (research and careers)
Adapted from “How to get a PhD” Phillips and Pugh

12. The Perfect Project Brief
List 6 features of a perfect project brief.
You could think about
Ambition vs. time constraints
Support and expertise available
Skills required
Resources

13. Meetings and record keeping
Meetings can be used to feed back, motivate, guide, plan, check work or progress, suggest readings and references, monitor safety, develop skills, assess… … so they need planning and record-keeping! (By whom?)

14. Case study
1. Read the case study and, as a small group, tease out the issues in project supervision raised by it. 2. Using your thoughts, prepare a poster with bullet points showing what students have a right to expect of supervision

15. What will you do differently as a result of this session?
Think of one key point, before sharing with the group.