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Graduate research can be a seriously exciting opportunity. Through a Masters by research or PhD, researchers can apply knowledge in the real world, innovate, explore and contribute meaningfully to their academic field. It’s the chance to not just learn, but to actively engage with your chosen field.
If you’re thinking about following your academic passion into graduate research (and you meet the entry requirements), you’ll quickly learn that it’s not just a solo pursuit – you’re going to need someone else in your corner, too. Often, you’ll need two.
This is where research supervisors come in. As Deakin University’s Associate Professor Dr Chris Hughes explains, supervisors play a vital role in a graduate researcher’s journey. Here’s how to find a research supervisor that meets your needs and understands your aspirations.
Whether you’re pursuing a PhD or a Masters by research, research supervisors are here to help – and you’ll be seeing a lot of them. For graduate research students, a research supervisor will be involved at just about every stage of project design and research to writing and final thesis submission, offering a blend of mentorship, critical feedback and experienced insight.
Most of all, the role of a research supervisor is to help you grow academically – so, ideally, you’ll want to know how to find a research supervisor that makes you better in your chosen field.
‘A research supervisor has several roles, all of which serve the purpose of helping bring about in researchers the development of higher-level skills and abilities,’ Hughes says.
As in life, there are many types of research supervisors. One thing all research supervisors have in common, though, is that they’ve done it all before. They have the experience to understand the work, skills and time required to be successful in graduate research.
While research supervisors have plenty of responsibilities, Hughes says the most important are guiding and coaching research students to:
It’s also worth remembering that the relationship goes both ways. Just as graduate researchers want to find research supervisors with certain qualities, a research supervisor will want to see particular qualities in researchers. This might include being independent, producing substantial work and demonstrating a willingness to follow advice.
For some fields (such as at Deakin University, within the Faculty of Business and Law), you might be assigned a research supervisor. Generally, though, research supervisors need to be sought out – and that means approaching one yourself.
Databases like Deakin’s Find An Expert are good places to start when exploring how to find a research supervisor, but there are a few things to consider before actually approaching a potential supervisor, according to Hughes.
‘My advice is to appraise the particular field and curate, as best as possible, research questions and an emerging research design such that potential supervisors become clear to you,’ says Hughes.
Once you know how to find research supervisors and have identified a few potential candidates, the next step is to reach out – most likely via email. Approaching a potential research supervisor is a big step, so it’s important to make sure your email conveys the right information about you.
‘Think carefully about the specific research which you want to pursue and be able to show that you are passionate but, crucially, capable of pursuing it,’ says Hughes. ‘If I was to receive an enquiry from someone who was deeply passionate but couldn’t articulate a scholarly justification for the research then I would be disappointed.’
You’ll also want to make sure your email demonstrates that your capabilities align with the experience and field of your potential supervisor, according to Hughes.
‘You obviously need to ascertain the extent to which they are eligible to supervise, and the areas that they are actively working on,’ he says. ‘Being able to make those connections and show how and why your proposed research aligns with their work is of utmost importance.’
Once you make contact, it’s time to consider the questions you might want to ask a potential research supervisor to gauge compatibility. Here are a few to get you started:
A PhD supervisor is simply a research supervisor who works with doctoral candidates. While this advice is about how to find PhD research supervisors in particular, it’s definitely relevant to academic supervisors in general.
So, how do you approach a PhD supervisor? If you’ve followed the advice so far, you’ll know where to look (starting with Find An Expert), what makes a suitable supervisor (including their responsibilities), and how to reach out with an email. But how do you know the signs of a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ PhD supervisor?
It might sound dramatic, but knowing what to avoid is just as important as knowing what to seek, and there are certainly both good qualities and bad qualities to look for when finding PhD research supervisors. According to Hughes, their level of engagement will be telling.
‘I’d be inclined to say that a ‘bad’ supervisor would be someone who didn’t challenge your thinking, or someone who didn’t stimulate your thinking,’ he says. ‘Listening can often be harder than speaking and a good supervisor should be a great listener, and then perspicuous with their guidance, suggestions and feedback.’
Knowing how to find a good PhD or research supervisor starts with making sure they have the relevant expertise. But that’s not all – they also need to know how to share that expertise and help others grow.
‘A good research supervisor would need to understand their field and core ideas and debates contained therein,’ says Hughes. ‘They need to know how to design and conduct quality research in that field and be able to help people develop the skills and abilities in order to contribute to that field.’
And while friendliness is a plus, what makes a good PhD supervisor isn’t always what makes a good friend. In the rigorous world of academia, Hughes says that a good supervisor isn’t there to be your pal.
‘The criteria for a PhD is such that it demands certain things of the relationship such that friendliness at the expense of usefulness would not be considered in any way good.’
Ultimately, it’s important to find a supervisor who understands you, understands what makes good research and knows how to support you.
You now know how to find a research supervisor and why choosing the right one matters.
If you’re thinking about taking those next steps and applying for a research degree, Hughes has some final words of advice: be sure that you really do want to pursue research with a supervisor.
‘Supervisors can see through the passion and they know that passion alone is not enough,’ he says. ‘Being able to show how and why the proposed research has a life course and that you are someone capable of giving it life is imperative.’
Associate Professor,
Supervisor Development,
Researcher Development Academy,
Deakin University
