Abstract
The quality of postgraduate education largely depends on effective supervision of postgraduate students. Nowadays, the supervisory role has become more challenging due to different ethnic, cultural, political, economic, linguistic, and educational backgrounds of postgraduate students where their attraction and retention are paramount for educational institutions. Students’ satisfaction balancing studies and other interest is also important during their postgraduate learning experience and supervision is challenged to assist towards this direction as well. Literature about postgraduate supervision has focused on describing the ever-lengthening lists of functions that must be carried out. The present study, through a critical literature review methodology and reflection upon personal practice, explores how postgraduate supervisors can support & engage students with their studies balancing other demands and interests, what are the challenges supervising international students, and how, the supervisory team can manage internal conflicts, function better and more efficiently. The key conclusions show that facilitating development of skills important for students’ ’studies and lives, bridging studies and other demands /interests together, rewarding students’ success, responding to cultural and educational differences & personal interests, and finding ways all members of the supervisory team to work more effectively can lead to more efficient and effective postgraduate supervision.
Highlights
IntroductionA question that very often is raised regarding postgraduate supervision is ‘How’ students can be supported in engaging with their studies and balancing other demands/interests? We should keep in mind that the role of Higher Education, regardless the radical changes, still remains to prepare students for the real world and for the labour market
The quality of postgraduate education largely depends on effective supervision of postgraduate students
A question that very often is raised regarding postgraduate supervision is ‘How’ students can be supported in engaging with their studies and balancing other demands/interests? We should keep in mind that the role of Higher Education, regardless the radical changes, still remains to prepare students for the real world and for the labour market
Summary
A question that very often is raised regarding postgraduate supervision is ‘How’ students can be supported in engaging with their studies and balancing other demands/interests? We should keep in mind that the role of Higher Education, regardless the radical changes, still remains to prepare students for the real world and for the labour market. Different expectations International students, due to their educational training, national cultural influence or/and even perhaps their working experience back home (especially for PhD students), in relation to their lack of knowledge of the new educational system they enter in, often they build different expectations from those other (e.g local British students have compared to Chinese) This is challenging for supervising a student with such profile because conflicts may be arranged if these expectations are acknowledged and managed early. A challenge for us is to be creative and find ways to help students understand the importance of their scholar work which has to contribute to literature and have international value and implications instead of being country-specific only; to help them understand the importance of having a global research mindset, to think globally so to be prepared to become global citizens regardless the case study they prefer to choose for data collection Another issue regards the approach towards the research overall. The more international students arrive the more the need and challenge knowledge exchange activities to be organized
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