Supervision and Your Responsibilities as a Student - Faculty of Graduate Research

Supervision: Responsibilities of Supervisors and Students

On this page:

Your Supervisory Team

Academic Supervisors

You will normally have two academic supervisors during your studies. Your supervisors will have considerable research experience and knowledge of your discipline. At least one, the primary supervisor, will have experience supervising PhD students to completion.

The Victoria Supervisor

Your primary supervisor will also normally be your 'Victoria supervisor'. The Victoria supervisor has responsibility for overseeing your academic development.

External Supervisors

In some cases, it may be appropriate for you to receive supervision from an external supervisor, someone outside the University.

Administrative Supervisors

You will also have an administrative supervisor, generally your Head of School/Programme. Your administrative supervisor is responsible for the paperwork involved in your candidacy and can be a useful source of advice.

Responsibilities of Academic Supervisors

Overall Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of your supervisors to guide you through the academic and administrative requirements of a PhD. Supervisors will:

meet with you regularly
provide you with academic guidance and scholarly direction
assess your progress and give you written feedback
act as guides to University facilities
help you develop contacts within your discipline
advise you about publishing your work
encourage you to participate in the intellectual life of the University
make sure you comply with the University’s administrative regulations.

You will find more on these responsibilities below.

Academic Guidance

Your supervisors will provide guidance on a range of academic matters. These include:

the standards required for a PhD
planning your research
skills you will need to acquire
research resources
methodology
undertaking a literature review
ethical, legal, professional and safety issues
the criteria you must meet to progress from provisional to full registration
the development and refinement of your research proposal and, later, your thesis (supervisors should advise on matters of style and presentation).

Throughout, your supervisors will bear in mind the expectations of examiners.

Assessing Your Progress

Supervisors will assess your progress and provide you with constructive feedback throughout your PhD. They will need to ensure that you possess the understanding and abilities to:

advance from provisional to full registration
carry out your research
complete your thesis on time.

See the Feedback section below for more

Help Developing Your Career

Supervisors will encourage you to participate in academic life, both within the University and beyond. They should:

help you make contact with other scholars
encourage both attendance and presentation at seminars and conferences
encourage you to publish
provide information where appropriate on scholarships and financial support
provide advice to help you in your career.

Encouraging Publication

Supervisors should discuss with you the possibilities for publication. In most disciplines, you’ll need to publish if you are serious about a career as an academic or researcher.

Publication should be seen as part of PhD study rather than a barrier to timely completion of the thesis.

Important issues supervisors should advise you on include:

the difference between writing a thesis and publishing articles or a book
how any publications might relate to your thesis
managing your time
appropriate journals or other forums in which to publish
the possible exploitation of intellectual property arising from your research
recognition of authorship in cases where you are contemplating joint publication with your supervisor.

Joint Authorship

If you and your supervisor(s) wish to co-publish, you’ll need to agree in writing about issues concerning intellectual property and authorship.

Be aware of the academic conventions and University policies governing joint authorship, and discuss these with your supervisor(s).

Document	File size	File type
Recognition of Authorship Policy	160 KB	PDF

Support

Your supervisors are also there to support you. Talk to your supervisors if you encounter problems of any kind. If they can't help, they will be able to direct you to various student support services.

See our page on support services and research resources

Your Responsibilities as a PhD Student

PhD Guidelines and Regulations

You will need to abide by the regulations governing the PhD and meet all administrative requirements. Familiarise yourself with this website. It covers most of the topics you will need to know about.

Planning and Actively Pursuing Your Research

You have an obligation to devote sufficient time to your research, to complete each phase on time, and to avoid activities that interfere with your satisfactory and timely completion of the degree.

Maximum allowable time before you have to submit your thesis

Ethics

It is expected that you conduct your research in an ethical manner. All forms of academic misconduct will be treated very seriously.

You must:

discuss research ethics with your supervisors
familiarise yourself with the University’s ethical guidelines and obtain approval from the relevant ethics committee for research involving human or animal subjects
ensure that all work you submit is your own and that you acknowledge the ideas and input of others.

Read our guide to research ethics

Participating in Academic Life

You are expected to attend workshops and seminars organised by your school and to present your own work to your peers.

You should also participate, where appropriate, in conferences outside the University and in other activities associated with your chosen field.

Presenting your work at seminars, workshops and conferences will help develop the skills you will need for the oral defence of your thesis.

Take advantage of the many opportunities to present your work. In addition to presenting at school forums, think about entering the PGSA's three minute thesis competition or participating in its interactive workshops.

PGSA homepage

FGR guide to the oral defence

Your Thesis

You are solely responsible for the content, style, presentation, production and binding of your thesis, and for promptly making any required amendments after examination.

Remember that your supervisors are there to guide you, not to write the thesis. That is your job. It is fair to ask your supervisor whether your arguments are appropriate or convincing, but don’t ask your supervisor to provide the arguments. The thesis is yours. You are the one who must come up with the major ideas, plan and undertake the experiments, review the literature, critique earlier work, and write everything up.

Thesis guidelines

Giving Notice of Submission

You must give your Victoria supervisor adequate notice of your intention to submit your thesis in order to allow for the selection of examiners.

Problems

You should take the initiative in approaching your supervisors about any problems you have encountered or difficulties you might be having. You can also raise issues that concern you in six-monthly reports.

If you feel unable to discuss matters with your supervisor, a number of other paths are open to you.

See our guide to resolving problems
Six-monthly reporting

Victoria PhD Scholarships

If you hold a Victoria scholarship, you may have responsibilities as outlined in the scholarship regulations.

Scholarships webpage

Your First Meeting with Your Supervisors

Confirmation of PhD Provisional Registration

You should have been given a Confirmation of PhD Provisional Registration form at enrolment (download it below if you don't have a copy). Discuss the issues raised in the form with your supervisors.

You and your supervisor must complete the relevant sections of the form within one month of your enrolment.

Document	File size	File type
Confirmation of PHD Provisional Registration	150 KB	PDF

Clarifying Expectations

Discuss expectations with your supervisors when you first meet them. When difficulties develop between supervisors and students, it is often because of unclear expectations.

We advise students and supervisors to draw up a written agreement on issues such as:

frequency of meetings
how both student and supervisors will prepare for meetings
the student's submission of written work
feedback from supervisors
joint authorship
how to resolve difficulties that arise within the supervision relationship.

Planning

You and your supervisors will need to agree on dates for the completion of each phase of your research. Draw up a timetable in consultation with your supervisors. This will need to include:

time for meetings, research and the collection of data
dates for the submission of interim reports, the full research proposal, thesis drafts and the final thesis
any plans to write, submit and revise manuscripts for publication.

A Guide to Meetings

Meeting Frequency

How often you meet with your supervisors will vary depending on your discipline and the stage of your research. As a general rule, you should have a meeting at least once a month.

Discuss frequency of meetings and access to your supervisors when you see your supervisors for the first time.

Some things to note

Your supervisors have other students, courses to plan, lectures to write and articles to publish. You will not have unfettered access to your supervisors.
If you have scheduled a meeting, you and your supervisors should turn up on time. If you can't make it, let everyone know in advance.
You will need different amounts of input from your supervisors at different points in your candidature. Sometimes you will not need supervision.

Preparing for Meetings and Getting the Most Out of Them

Your supervisors will expect you to prepare for meetings, and you can expect that they also prepare. Your supervisors should have read and commented on work you have provided for discussion at the meeting.

There are some strategies you can adopt to get the most out of meetings (not all will apply at any given point in your candidature).

Set goals for meetings. What do you want to achieve in this session?
Provide material in writing – well before the meeting – for your supervisors to comment on.
Come to meetings armed with specific questions. Rather than saying ‘I don’t know what to read’, ask ‘Is there a good starting point to get into the literature on this particular topic?’ Rather than saying ‘I’m stuck’, explain the problem that is preventing you from making progress. Rather than asking ‘What should I do?’, ask ‘Which of these options would it make sense to pursue?’
Listen carefully to what your supervisors say.
Argue back when you disagree (though remember that your supervisors have experience of the standards required of a PhD and a broad knowledge of your discipline).
After meetings, email your supervisors a summary of the main discussion points and decisions. This gives supervisors a chance to confirm your understanding of things. It also acts as a memorandum for you.

Keeping Records of Meetings

Supervisors should keep a record of meetings and make note of any significant advice or discussions.

The following template may help you keep track of decisions made.

Document	File size	File type
Thesis Progress Meeting (from http://ithinkwell.com.au)	26 KB	.doc

Feedback from Supervisors

It is the role of supervisors to evaluate your progress and to provide you with adequate and timely feedback throughout your candidature.

Discussing Progress

Supervisors should discuss your progress with you in meetings. They should:

make you aware of inadequate progress or poor work
suggest ways of addressing any problems and of how you might go about developing your knowledge and skills.

During your provisional registration, supervisors may suggest that you undertake some coursework if they think you might benefit.

Six-monthly Reports

Six-monthly reports provide another way for supervisors to comment on your progress and to identify any problems you may be having.

Read about six-monthly reporting

Written Feedback on Reports and Thesis Drafts

Supervisors will provide written feedback on your work. Note that supervisors will not always be able to return work to you immediately (especially if you have written a lot). As a guide, you should get feedback within:

two weeks for relatively short pieces of work
a maximum of four weeks for substantial thesis drafts.

Make sure your supervisors know when you are likely to provide them with work to read.

Problems with Supervisors

Sometimes problems may develop between you and one of your supervisors.

See our guide to resolving problems

Providing Feedback on the Supervision of Your Research

When you submit your thesis for examination, you will be given the opportunity to complete an Exit Questionnaire about the quality of the supervision you received.

Document	File size	File type
Exit Questionnaire	112 KB	.doc

Downloadable Guides on the Responsibilities of Students and Supervisors

Document	File size	File type
Responsibilities of PhD Candidates	142 KB	PDF
Responsibilities of PhD Supervisors	144 KB	PDF

Faculty of Graduate Research

Supervision