HOW TO SUPERVISE PHD STUDENTS

A supervisor is an intellectual who devotes his/her life in the most advanced teaching paradigm (supervision) in our educational system. Supervisor is a carefully articulated professional whose job is to pilot a PhD student in order to produce adequate and quality research so that he can validate the award of a doctorate degree. A supervisor is so much important that he either makes or breaks a PhD student. As thus he/she must be exceptionally qualified teacher before even thinking of becoming a supervisor. Thesis writing requires many phases such as discussing a suitable title, abstract, introduction, problem statement, research questions, literature review, methodology, results and finally conclusion, discussions and scholarly documented references at the end.

A smart supervisor works with his students on all of the above phases one by one believing that his students have little intellectual knowledge about the research. As such a professional relationship between supervisor and PhD students are vital in timely finishing of the research proposal and finally the thesis, hopefully. Sometimes supervisors are very busy and have no time for the students. It is vital to note that a good supervisor allocates some of his precious time to educate the students and makes sure that meetings happen in regular bases. An excellent supervisor takes notes of every meeting so that he keeps records of what is discussed. A diligent supervisor also predicts the problems and willingly resolves it amicably. An assiduous supervisor keeps a special file for each of his students so that records of attendance are kept accordingly. A smart supervisor keeps a graph of his students’ progress so that he can easily monitor and evaluate progress. In this way a supervisor can see where he and his students are heading.

The prime duty of a smart supervisor is to explain to his students what research is all about. He must explain to his students that the research must be new and must have significant implication to the existing body of knowledge. A smart supervisor keeps track of his students’ intellectual capacity so that he can advice him/her. A smart supervisor must be involved in the proposal writing process and must guide the students by providing him/her a road map of the proposal so that the students can follow. 

The supervisor also should provide the correct format of the proposal that is approved by the university. So a smart supervisor is always a head of time. A smart supervisor informs the co-supervisor about the current development so that the co- supervisor is aware of the development. A vigorous supervisor makes sure that his student’s proposal is ready before allowing him/her to attend proposal defense. A vigorous supervisor always keeps a fruitful relationship with his students. Further, a smart supervisor always gives fine words of encouragement to his students thus making him/her motivated.

USIM Terus Maju

© Dr. Faryadi (FST)