The pedagogy of ‘good’ PhD supervision: a national cross-disciplinary investigation of PhD supervision

Research that specifically investigates PhD completions, times to submission and the influences that give rise to them is limited. The research underpinning this report was therefore designed to add some empirical evidence to the national higher education knowledge base.  The research focuses on both individual and institutional influences on PhD completions derived from two sets of data: a two-phase national survey of 5,450 and 1,032 supervisors who supervised PhD candidates over the period 1990-97 in 26 State and private universities across all Australian states and territories; and in-depth face-to-face interviews with 83 PhD supervisors and 26 present or former PhD candidates across 17 universities. 

Findings indicate that both university type and research discipline influence the timely completion of PhD candidatures, but that research discipline has more influence than university type. 64% of PhD candidates supervised over the 1990-97 period were awarded their doctorate, but comparatively more candidates in the natural sciences (75%) received the award than in the social sciences (52%), the humanities and arts (54%) and other disciplines (61%).  40% of the candidates submitted in four years or less, 57% in five years or less.

In terms of  PhD supervision, the following observations are made: Successful supervision involves assisting commencing candidates to demystify and structure their candidature.  It requires frequent, timely and collaborative intervention by the supervisor and others in the first year of candidature. The supervisor should develop a trusting relationship with the candidate designed to boost confidence, sort out confusion, and monitor and celebrate the progress of the candidate through their research process. While interventions decrease in frequency and depth as the candidate becomes more self-reliant, there should be a greater emphasis on text generation by the candidate and rapid turnaround of text by the supervisor. This project was funded under the DEST Research Evaluations Programme.

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