Abstract
Roles of PhD supervisors are diverse, ranging from providing in-depth discipline-specific Public Health knowledge and technical (e.g., methodological) support to the students, encouraging them towards publications or conference presentations, offering pastoral support for student wellbeing, and finally preparing them to defend their thesis by conducting a mock viva. Effective supervision plays a vital role in a PhD journey reflecting on the quality of the PhD work, positive PhD experience, and supervisor-student relationship. While some student-supervisors team may encounter conflicting and challenging relationships, many relationships between PhD supervisor(s) and students progress into mentorship through joint publications and grant applications, career advice, and support establishing wider collaborative networks. Drawing from the wider experiences of the authors, this article highlights the responsibilities, opportunities, and sometimes the challenging nature of being a PhD supervisor. This reflection will inform good practices for PhD supervisors in countries including Nepal, where the numbers of PhD students in the field of Public Health is steadily increasing.
Highlights
Public Health is a truly multi and interdisciplinary [1] subject, which incorporates a wide range of disciplines, namely from Medicine, Statistics, Behavioural Science to Social Sciences and Ethics
The authors of this paper cumulatively have supervised over 60 PhD students at seven different universities in the UK (United Kingdom), where students are either from the UK or from other LMIC (Low- and Middle-Income Countries) studying at UK universities
This article highlights the responsibilities of a Public Health academic as a PhD supervisor to help the students achieve the key requirements, while highlighting the potential challenges and solutions
Summary
Public Health is a truly multi and interdisciplinary [1] subject, which incorporates a wide range of disciplines, namely from Medicine, Statistics, Behavioural Science to Social Sciences and Ethics. This article highlights the responsibilities of a Public Health academic (university faculty) as a PhD supervisor to help the students achieve the key requirements, while highlighting the potential challenges and solutions. The key aim of the supervisors is to guide and motivate the PhD student to become a confident skilled researcher.
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