Postgraduate Students and Their Supervisors' Perception on Effective Supervisor: A Case Study at One Public University in Malaysia

Abstract

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) is one of the Research Universities (RU) in Malaysia. In gaining RU status, a university must meet the criteria of a Research University. One of the criteria is that, RU must have quantity and quality of researcher including postgraduate students. Thus, the research done by postgraduate students could be used to enhance the quality of research through developing the knowledge in the field of study. In doing a research, one student has to work with someone called supervisor. Good relationship between students and their supervisor could make their study smoothly. What are the things that they need and what they have actually received from their supervisor? Specifically, this research aims to identify the type and level of support given to postgraduate students by their supervisors. This research was done on the basis of qualitative approach which 6 postgraduate research students and 6 supervisors have been in-depth interviewed. The data have been analysed manually and there were five themes derived from the interviews which could answered the research questions. The results have been successfully explored the experiences and respondents' perception towards effective supervisor.