Students' Experiences of Undergraduate Dissertation Supervision

Lynne D. Roberts,Kristen Seaman

doi:10.3389/feduc.2018.00109

Abstract

Increasingly, students completing undergraduate dissertations in Australia are expected by their supervisors to produce publishable research. Despite this, limited resources are available for supervisors of undergraduate dissertation students on how best to supervise students towards this aim. Building on our previous research on the perspectives of supervisors and dissertation coordinators of what constitutes good undergraduate dissertation supervision we present here the findings on student perspectives of good supervision. Twenty-five students (seventeen students who were currently completing an undergraduate dissertation and eight who had recently completed an undergraduate dissertation) were interviewed about their experiences in being supervised. A critical incident methodology was used to invite students to reflect on times when supervision had gone well, and times when it had not. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Key themes to emerge were that students viewed ‘good’ supervisors as those that were supportive and empowering, directed learning, and whose style and interests aligned with those of the students. Issues in supervision related to lack of clarity and inconsistencies, perceived power imbalances between students and supervisors, and perceived inequities in the amount of supervision provided across students. Whilst the publication of undergraduate research is a worthy aim, the pressure to publish for some students resulted in feelings of inadequacy and perceptions of supervisors losing interest when findings were not deemed publishable.

Highlights

Undergraduate dissertations are capstone experiences that provide students with an opportunity to answer a research question within a disciplinary framework under supervision (Ashwin et al, 2017)
In the research presented here we further explore students’ perceptions of undergraduate dissertation supervision
At the time of the interview, 17 students were currently completing an undergraduate dissertation and eight had recently completed an undergraduate dissertation and were enrolled in a masters or PhD program. Seventeen students discussed their experiences in undertaking an honors dissertation, while 8 students discussed completing an undergraduate dissertation in the pass stream of a program (7 current and 1 completed)

Summary

Introduction

Undergraduate dissertations are capstone experiences that provide students with an opportunity to answer a research question within a disciplinary framework under supervision (Ashwin et al, 2017). Publication of findings can benefit both student and supervisor in the “publish or perish” culture of neoliberal universities (Besley and Peters, 2009) which function on a market-driven corporate governance model (Enright et al, 2017). This drive to publish potentially positions students as research assistants completing research tasks proscribed by the supervisor to further their own research rather than learners developing independence in designing and conducting research (Kiley et al, 2011).

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