Challenges (gr 1)
Challenges (gr 1). No special training on PhD supervision skills Lack of standards and benchmarks Insufficient supervision due heavy teaching load borne by supervisors Low incentives to supervisors/department Poor command of English and communication skills among students
Challenges (gr 1)
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Presentation Transcript
Challenges (gr 1) • No special training on PhD supervision skills • Lack of standards and benchmarks • Insufficient supervision due heavy teaching load borne by supervisors • Low incentives to supervisors/department • Poor command of English and communication skills among students • Lack of foundation courses for students • Research methodology, scientific writing etc • Misunderstandings/conflict of interest • Cheating/Plagiarism
Typical Supervision Session (gr 1) • Supervisors having a common understanding before communicating with the PhD candidate
Qn1 (gr 2) • References/literature • Access to good/recent literature materials for student and supervisor • Understanding work done by others and extracting relevant materials • Citing and plagiarism • Research knowledge and writing skills - insufficient • Budget for the research work (most of the times the budget is limited)
Qn 2 (gr 2) • Good proposal writing skills shared between supervisor proved to be beneficial to the student
Challenges when supervising (gr 3) • Some students are unable to formulate a clear research question • Research gap/relevance of the study • Access to and updated literature review • Data analysis & synthesis • It is difficult to actually monitor the candidates field activities. (Data collection/cleaning) • Financial constraints (e.g the biomedical sciences) where tests may not be done locally • Delayed Approval from regulatory bodies (NIMRI/TFDA) • Time to actually supervise* (Multitasking)
Supervision session that was beneficial to the PhD student (gr 3) • Prior planning • Schedule of activities etc • Output/Publications/Skills • Log books*
Three most important challenges I have encountered (gr 4) • TIME • Timely reading of candidate’s work • Too many students to supervise- poor output • Candidate delay in meeting deadlines • SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS • Student doesn’t adequately respond to comments • Struggle to help students to conceptualize the problem • Difficult to understand what the student think or want to do • English language barriers- • Student doesn’t have courage to challenge the supervisor
Example of a supervision session where I find that the supervision was of much benefit to the PhD students (gr 4) • When student present his/her work for the first time in the department and get feedback from staff and peers • When a student comes up with critical questions- which need brainstorming • When a supervisor and student reach consensus certain critical issues • “Ahaa” effects