Research Supervision
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Career development

Overview and research

There are two aspects to career development: the career development of the supervisor, and the supervisor's role in assisting candidates with the development of their own careers.

Various activities can contribute to one's development as a supervisor and as an academic, for example:

A particular form of supervisory development is related to examining theses of students from other universities. Research suggests that examining theses (Honours, Masters and Doctoral) contributes to one's development as a supervisor. For example, 'I give my students strong advice on how not to 'flip' an examiner from 'reasonable' to 'unreasonable' by having irritating things in the thesis, such as typos and other careless textual mistakes that indicate lack of attention to detail. Once flipped (and I am aware of this happening), I am irritated and I have to work very hard at overcoming this irritation and not letting it influence my view of the thesis, although this is not easy' (Mullins and Kiley, 2000).

Examiners report that they undertake the examination of theses for several reasons, including firstly a sense of duty regarding:

  • Maintaining standards within the discipline
  • Belief that one of the roles of an academic is to examine theses
  • Duty to one's students, or the 'quid pro quo' concept: "It's...a reciprocal obligation from having one's own students examined" and "I have eight students at the moment which means I need 16 examiners soon...so I need to reciprocate" (Mullins and Kiley 2000).

Secondly academics examine because of the excitement and interest involved, particularly where one can read at a level of detail not included in examiners' day-to-day professional reading.

There is a tension regarding examiners, particularly at the doctoral level. An often quoted comment from experienced supervisors and examiners is that they avoid sending theses to inexperienced examiners, as they are perceived to be tougher than their more experienced colleagues. One of the main reasons for this view is that inexperienced examiners have little in the way of other theses by which to benchmark. As one experienced examiner said; "They have a sample size of one, their own" (Kiley & Mullins, 2005). So how does one learn to be an examiner, particularly when it is argued above that examining theses is a very strong and positive form of supervisor development?

The section on Examination has ideas for learning to examine.

The above text was based on the following research:

Kiley, M., & Mullins, G. (2004). Examining the examiners: How inexperienced examiners approach the assessment of research theses. International Journal of Educational Research, 41 (2), 121-135.

Mullins, G., & Kiley, M. (2002). 'It's a PhD, not a Nobel Prize': How experienced examiners assess research theses. Studies in Higher Education, 27 (4), 369-386.

Ideas and tools

An example of reflection on her role as a supervisor comes from Professor Helen O'Neill - Biomedical Sciences

Another example of reflection comes from Professor Barry Hindess - Social Sciences

ANU information

Supervising research students, at the ANU, can be included under the heading 'Teaching' in terms of academic promotion, hence there are a number of issues that need to be taken into account when considering research supervision as an aspect of one's career.

For further advice on professional development visit the CEDAM website, and/or arrange to meet with a CEDAM staff member.

 

For College-specific information contact:

College of Engineering & Computer Science

College of Law

College of Arts and Social Sciences

College of Asia & the Pacific

College of Business & Economics

College of Medicine and Health Sciences

Alternatively, contact the College Associate Dean (HDR) for more general college information.