Postgraduate Supervision - The University of Waikato

• All universities provided an orientation for novice postgraduatesupervisors. Topics included: codes of practice, information aboutdealing with problems, ethics, managing candidature, working withinternational students and orientation for experienced supervisors newto the institution.• The same material was covered for supervisors of Masters levelresearch, however, the response count was the same or lower for eachsubject.• Several universities and polytechnics provided professionaldevelopment for postgraduate research supervisors at an institutionallevel and devolved support for supervisors at other levels was facultiesor schools (this resulted in some organisations having little centralisedknowledge about the overall provision of professional development).• Several polytechnics and PTEs did not regard themselves as providingany professional development for supervisors of student research.• Of those organisations providing professional development forsupervisors, all provided printed materials (most frequently a Handbookfor both students and supervisors), 90% made use of training sessionsand a mentoring programme, 40% operated a peer buddying scheme orpeer support group, and half provided web-based resources.The case studies highlighted the diverse institutional policies and practicesin relation to supervisors‘ professional development. Only the universityhad a formalised training programme for supervisors. Other institutionsrelied on wider, system-based, initiatives that focussed on staff researchand/or teaching capabilities. Few supervisors had undertaken formalsupervisor training, however, they had access to a range of skills,experiences, resources and non-supervisory formal professionaldevelopment opportunities. An inductive analysis of the interview dataidentified five main themes in supervisors‘ narratives: memories ofsupervision, supervision as teaching, transferring skills, personal attributesand learning from colleagues.Implications for supervisor professional developmentThe results highlight the range of institutional approaches to supervisorprofessional development and the major themes of the complex narrativesthat supervisors employ to make sense of their experience. One outcomehas been to raise awareness of supervisor professional development acrossa range of tertiary organisations. It is hoped that this will enhance futurenetworking between staff developers who prepare staff to supervise studentresearch at a variety of qualification levels. Based on the areas highlightedas important within the report, there are several implications for thedevelopment of practice:SEPTEMBER 2010 • TDU TALK• 8 •