Community Acuity (37): Nurturing Excellence through Communication, Participation, and Empathy

This is a guest post by Dr Lesley McLean, Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Edinburgh Napier University. The journey towards gaining a doctoral degree can be laborious, enlightening, frustrating, revelatory, tearful and joyful. It must also be transformative! Not just for the student putting in the hard yards, but also for the supervisors, reviewers and …

The doctoral supervisor as methodological mentor: postgraduate methodological journeys

Dr Timothy Clark (@DrTimothyClark) is a Senior Lecturer, Supervisor and Researcher in Education and Childhood at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). The selection, and coherent application, of methodological approach is often highlighted as one of the most challenging aspects of doctoral study. In my own experience, as an EdD student, the …

Trust grows when supervisors take the lead in online supervision

This is a guest post by Dr Michele Jacobsen, Dr Sharon Friesen, and Dr Sandra Becker, higher education specialists at the University of Calgary. The rapid and widespread pivot to online teaching and supervision in the pandemic has created a pressing need to improve understanding of effective online supervisory relationships. Our case study research with …

Thesis Supervision: the educational value of postdocs in supporting research writing

By Dr Kay Guccione I delivered this presentation at the UCL Institute of Education Event on the 9th June: 'Doctoral education and its purposes: research training for a changing world' It focuses on how doctoral writers are supported to make progress, using outcome data from a thesis mentoring programme to understand the educational value postdocs …

Building mentoring into the culture of researcher development

By Dr Kay Guccione I recently joined Kelly Preece, Researcher Development Manager at Exeter, on her PGR development podcast 'R, D and the In-betweens'. I really enjoyed myself chatting away to her about mentoring programmes for researchers, and the origins of my 'programme level' contribution to this book about mentoring in academic workplaces. My episode …

New book! Coaching and Mentoring for Academic Development

By Dr Kay Guccione My friend, colleague and co-author, Dr Steve Hutchinson and I have a new book just out: Coaching and Mentoring for Academic Development, published by Emerald in their Surviving and Thriving in Academia series. If you order here, from the Emerald bookstore, and use the code 'THRIVING' you'll get 30% off, making …

Developing PhD researchers’ supervisory skills as an antidote to pandemic frustrations

This is a guest post by Dr Abeer Hassan, Reader in Accounting at the University of the West of Scotland. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash In this blog, I explain how in addition to supporting my PhD researchers mentally and emotionally during lockdown, I continued to support them to focus during this difficult time by enhancing their academic …

Creating a sense of belonging

This is a guest post by Dr Jo Collins and Dr Nicole Brown. Jo is a Researcher Developer at the Graduate and Researcher College of the University of Kent (@PGDevAdvisor) and an EMCC accredited coach and member of the Association of Coaching. Nicole is a Lecturer in Education at UCL Institute of Education (@ncjbrown), Director of Social …

Three fundamental elements to PhD supervision: learning from self-determination theory

This is a guest post by Dr Suzanne Janssen, Assistant Professor at the University of Twente. She has studied mentoring practices in several organizational contexts.  The relationship between student and supervisor can make or break a PhD journey. And while many students are having an enjoyable and effective relationship with their supervisor, we all know the …

Community Acuity (28): learning what not to do as a supervisor

‘Community Acuity’ blog posts are from supervisors, to supervisors. They share the thoughts, experiences and reflection of the highs and the challenges of supervising doctoral students. This is an anonymous guest post from a colleague in Canada. Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash A job interview for a Professor position finally came almost exactly one year after I’d graduated. The key question …