Monitor and evaluate their own supervisory practices with a range of self, peer and student monitoring and evaluation techniques
This potentially includes:
and may additionally include:
Supervisors need to undertake critical self-analysis of their supervisory practice to monitor its effectiveness and its compliance with the requirements of the relevant Research Councils. The whole range of the supervisor’s activities should be taken into account, as well as any national developments which may impinge on the supervisory role and practices. There also needs to be evidence of an understanding of the ethical considerations attached to the research topic and to supervisory practice.
Use interpersonal, organisational and coping skills
This potentially includes:
and may additionally include:
The skills which a supervisor may need and the approach they would take in supervision are likely to vary from one situation to another. The evidence provided needs to demonstrate an understanding of communication skills, time and priority management – their own and their students’ and a knowledge of sources of help, both within the supervisor’s own institution and external. There also needs to be evidence that supervisors have given serious consideration to these matters.
Use their specialist knowledge and skills appropriately in the higher education context
This potentially includes:
and may additionally include:
Supervisors will need to show that they access and use a broad knowledge base and its associated research methodologies in the area in which they supervise and that they work with students to develop and update these as appropriate for the individual student’s programme of work. What this involves will vary from one discipline to another, e.g. in the natural sciences, the research problem is frequently defined at the outset of a student’s programme and in the arts and humanities it frequently progresses by exploration and progressive focussing and may be crystallised only at a relatively late stage.
Evidence and commentary should also give consideration to the approaches that the supervisor has used with individual students and may consider how individual students’ projects have been shaped by, for example, availability of resources such as equipment and/or time, viability, the appropriateness of particular methodologies, their approach to planning, and their approach to searching and using literature.
Consideration should be given to referrals to ethics committees, knowledge of regulations, bids for external funding and to feedback from students for supervisors and external examiners.
Plan and implement an appropriate strategy for the supervision process
This potentially includes:
and may additionally include:
This outcome is concerned with the achievement of an appropriate match between supervisor and student(s) and research proposal. This will vary considerably from one discipline to another according to normal practice within the discipline. Evidence should be tailored to the approaches the supervisor has taken and how this fits with institutional and discipline policies and norms.
It is also concerned with the form of arrangements for the interaction between supervisors and students. This will also very from one supervisor-student partnership to another, even in similar disciplines and for programmes at similar levels. It will need negotiation, often ongoing negotiation, for each supervisor-student partnership, even where it is framed by departmental or institutional requirements. The account may consider how the negotiation was investigated, what it was and how it developed in practice, depending on the form of supervision and the needs of any funding body.
Perform effectively their student support and academic administrative tasks
This potentially includes:
and may additionally include:
As part of their role, supervisors should be able to make decisions about how far it is appropriate for them to involve themselves in matters which could be considered only loosely associated with a student’s programme of work, and how and when to locate other professional forms of support and direct students to them. Matters here may be written and without the supervisor’s remit, e.g. problems which students may face with regard to provision of office facilities, access to institutional facilities, financial, emotional or health problems. An understanding of the role of pastoral care and need for boundaries when dealing with such matters should be evidenced.
Use an appropriate range of methods (and skills) to monitor, examine and assess student progress and attainment and give feedback on work
This potentially includes:
and may additionally include:
Supervisors’ experience of monitoring and assessing may involve a range of practices, including giving feedback on students’ oral and/or written work, planning and monitoring students’ progress, discussing seminar and conference papers and presentations, conducting practice oral examinations, acting as an internal assessor for other students and acting as an external examiner.
Supervise production and assessment of the research project (thesis)
This potentially includes:
and may additionally include:
Supervising the production of the thesis involves decisions about the detail in which the student ought to be writing the thesis at each stage of the work, the standards of academic writing about the degree of involvement that the supervisor ought to have. The evidence should consider the various tasks undertaken, such as: the supervisor’s role in the student’s completing the research and writing up the work or producing the final product for assessment, the selection or the suggesting of appropriate examiners, preparing for and conducting a viva and discussion of local and national standards. There should be offered justification for differing approaches with individual students.
Enable the development in their students of key skills for lifelong learning
This potentially includes:
and may additionally include:
Supervisors should find a way of focusing their students, during their normal programmes of work, on the development of the so-called ‘transferable’ or ‘key skills’. These will probably vary from student to student. Thought should be given to the skills which are being developed and how the development was and can be facilitated within the institution; skills such as communication, leadership, problem solving, team skills, research skills and skills associated with scholarship.
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