Postgraduate Supervision - The University of Waikato

Roger Barnard, Department of Applied Linguistics, School of ArtsI have attended most of the supervisors‘ conversations since they startedlast year, and found them very interesting and useful.They were interesting because I met colleagues from across the university –some of whom I know quite well, but many others I had not previouslymet – all of us sharing a common concern with how best we can mentorour research students. I found a wide diversity of beliefs and practicesrelated to supervision. This itself indicates that there can be no single ‗bestpractice‘ of supervision that we should all follow. For example, at one ofthe early meetings, we discussed the issue of ‗conditional‘ enrolment,which normally lasts six months. For the physical scientists, this period istoo long, because their methodology is straightforward and their HREapplications are usually simple, if needed at all. For those working in fieldssuch as education, the period is often too short as multi-methods of datacollection, and the ethical implications, need a great deal of time to detail.Another matter of common interest was how best to cater for the needs ofthe growing enrolment of international students into research degrees; evenwhen they have a firm grasp of their field of study, research methodologyand are linguistically competent, they are nevertheless very oftenunaccustomed to the culture of doctoral research at Waikato. Here, too,there are differences of approach not only across faculties but even withindepartments, as individual supervisors take their own position as to howmuch structure and support their candidates need at various times.The sessions were useful to me because I learned a great deal from mycolleagues to integrate into my own practice. An example of this was thediffering views taken about co-publishing with research students; howmuch credit I should take for ‗riding on the back‘ of my students‘ ownresearch? Another point that I need to think hard about is the negotiation ofrespective roles, responsibilities and relationships among the supervisorypanel. A third is to constantly widen my academic horizons to involvecolleagues across the university in interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinarysupervision. (Now, the distinction between these two, if indeed there is one,could be the topic of a future conversation!)I believe, too, that these conversations have provided insights for thePostgraduate Studies Office. The most recent conversation was around howthe university can best support supervisors and their students, and manyideas were discussed. Among these was the need to reduce the amount ofpaperwork involved in, for example, the progress reports required ofcandidates and supervisors. Since we are working with colleagues acrossthe university and sometimes off-campus (for example, on study leave) andperhaps with students being absent while collecting data, it would behelpful if these reports were able to be circulated electronically.Anyway, TDU are to be congratulated on this most enjoyable and helpfulinitiative, and I look forward to future conversations with pleasureanticipation. (The lunch is good, too!)• 17 • SEPTEMBER 2010 • TDU TALK