Taking Control of Your PhD: The Relationship With Your Supervisor

Ania Gruszczynska holds a PhD in Sociology from Aston University and currently works in project management. She knows what it takes to complete a PhD and is actively involved in supporting others to do so. In this series she’ll be explaining how new students can take control of their PhD projects.

If I was to name three issues that are brought up most frequently in my academic coaching, they’d include finding the time and/or motivation to write, career planning and finally the relationship with your supervisor - the focus of today’s post.

The importance of supervisors to students isn’t surprising. For three or more years your supervisor will be a central figure for your research project. They’ll help ensure that you get what you came for and emerge as a competent researcher, having made an original contribution to knowledge.

In many ways, this relationship is unlike any other professional or personal one. At different stages your supervisor will play the role of your mentor, supporter and cheerleader. At other times they’ll be a constructive critic or even a fellow researcher.

My own experience of supervision

I must admit that personally, I didn’t give much thought to the supervisory relationship before I started my PhD. I probably imagined that it would be similar to what I experienced during my Masters, where I would meet to discuss the dissertation project, get some feedback on my writing and guidance on research methods.

This felt very much like a traditional teacher-student relationship. It was fairly short-lived, four or five months, and very instrumental, focused on getting me to produce the Masters thesis in a fairly limited time.

The reality of my PhD supervision turned out to be much more complex.

At the outset it felt much more like a master-apprentice relationship as I was coached on the process of pulling together various elements of the project. As time went on, I was increasingly encouraged to become more independent, becoming one of the few world’s experts on the topic of my thesis. Finally, it was time to start winding the relationship down as I was getting ready to defend the thesis and leave the university.

I had an extremely positive supervision experience and consider myself lucky. But I sometimes hear less positive stories from students I now coach.

The rest of the post combines my personal experiences as well as those of my coachees, giving you five practical tips you can implement to make sure that the relationship with your supervisor works for you.

You may be used to the way your relationships with lecturers worked as an undergraduate. They probably provided a lot of the structure and set the course of your study. But, when it comes to your PhD, you are the one expected to put the structure in place and be responsible for the course of your research project. This can take a while to get used to.

Yes, the role of the supervisor is to provide you with guidance and support so that you can complete your research and write your thesis, but in the end, it is your responsibility. In fact, in a lot of cases, your supervisor may adopt a very hands-off approach, assuming that you are capable to get on with your project and will ask for assistance if needed.

Obviously, this depends on the discipline and the supervisor in question, but even the most supportive supervisors are very busy people. For them, your PhD is part of a wider academic landscape, rather than the all-encompassing project that fills your days and occasionally keeps you awake at night.

So how can you ensure that you do take advantage of your supervisor’s expertise and do get what you came for?

Before you meet your supervisor in person, set some time aside to reflect on what you expect from them.

Now is a good time to think about your learning preferences and things that help you develop. Are you a big picture person? Or maybe someone that prefers to zero in on the detail? In terms of writing, do you find it useful to get feedback on early drafts or do you prefer to get things to a very polished stage and only then feel comfortable to share them with others?

There are no right or wrong answers here. Equally, knowing that you prefer a lot of support and encouragement will not magically produce a supervisor capable of providing it. But at least you’ll know that you may need to find additional support elsewhere and will be able to better manage your expectations of the supervisory relationship.

After all, your supervisor is only human, just like yourself and even if you don’t ‘gel’ on a personal level, you may still have a very successful professional relationship.

This is why it is crucial to set aside some time at the beginning to reflect together on how things are likely to work.

Your university may provide a ready-made template or checklist for this. If not, the questions below may be a good start:

• How often are you going to meet?
• What are the key milestones for your PhD?
• What are your training needs to help you develop as a researcher and develop your career?
• How often should you submit your work to your supervisor?
• What should you focus on in the first couple of months?

Before you start, make sure you know who is on your supervisory team and find out what your university expects in terms of roles and regulations for all parties involved.

Make sure you also read the PhD manual if there is one and that you attend any induction courses that the postgraduate office has organised for new students. It’s understandable if you feel like skipping what feels like university bureaucracy but that initial investment will definitely pay off at a later stage.

As part of your preparation, you may also choose to spend some time familiarising yourself with your supervisor’s academic work. This will give you an idea of the theories and approaches they prefer and help you make sense of their advice.

Another useful source of information about your supervisor are his/her current and past research students. For instance, a quick chat with current research student may reveal that your supervisor likes receiving fairly complete drafts. This doesn’t necessarily mean you should adopt the same behaviours and beliefs, but at least you will be prepared to identify areas where your views differ and you may need to compromise.

The contact you have with your supervisor may depend on your discipline. If you’re in Science or Engineering you might see them every day in the lab or workshop. If you’re in the Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences, you might only meet once a month.

But one thing doesn’t change: your supervisor is a very busy person and their time is precious. And remember, whilst your PhD is probably the key project in your life at the moment, for your supervisor it sits alongside many other teaching, research and admin responsibilities.

So when you turn up for a meeting, don’t expect your supervisor to have all the details in their head the way you do. This is where you will need to do some work to help your supervisor help you and the best way to do that is to prepare and start by reflecting what you want and need to get out of the meeting.

At the start of your PhD, your focus may be on clarifying what work you need to undertake in the first couple of months and agreeing how you will work together. Jot that down and share with your supervisor in advance of the meeting so that they know what to expect. You can rest assured that they will appreciate dealing with a student who shows initiative.

It’s also worth setting an agenda for individual meetings and keeping records. This may seem strange at first, but the notes from supervisory meetings will be invaluable at a later stage to help you reflect on your progress. Your university may already have a pro-forma for this and there may even be a formal expectation to capture action notes.

Taking the time to pull together an agenda will also help you remember to send any pieces of writing to your supervisor in advance of the meeting so that they can devote quality time to giving you feedback.

Hopefully you will be really lucky and your supervisory relationship will run like a clockwork, but, as in any ongoing relationship, there may be bumps along the road.

Your supervisor may suddenly become elusive; you may not be happy with the advice you receive or perhaps you may find yourself really struggling with a piece of work and falling behind. If that’s the case, your first instinct may be to respond by going into hiding but it’s best that you speak up about what isn’t working.

After all, your supervisor is only human and definitely not a mind-reader. And, just as you wouldn’t expect your partner to meet all your needs, you may need to compromise with some aspects of your supervisory relationship.

At some point your supervisor will probably have a different opinion on methodological issues or how you should be managing your career. You should understand their perspective, but remember that you’re becoming an expert in your own right.

Learning to speak up and provide feedback will also be a useful skill in other professional contexts, in academia or elsewhere!

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