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Hi all, I honestly think we need to do something! After being under a number of supervisors, I can openly state that having a chat and brew beforehand will not always give a student a real insight into their potential relationship with a supervisor. Relationship problems between supervisors can become a real problem and because there isn't really a solid way of reporting these (unless the university are willing to listen etc.) then supervisors have no real incentives to try to salvage them. I am not sure what should be done though....sorry! The Postgradute Research student questionnaire does ask questions around this issue but it doesn't respond like the NSS by providing average scores per Uni....maybe doing something like this will push Universities to respond in a firmer way to relationship difficulties (plus, it allows some supervisors to remain unnamed and unashamed). Sent from my Windows Phone ________________________________ From: Kate Smith<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Sent: ý29/ý09/ý2013 07:45 To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: PhD Supervisors I think that you should do both, I have had several different post-graduate supervisors (most were brilliant, and involved different kinds of superviison 'style'), but I did have a particular supervisor who was well known and entirely unsuited to my needs as a student (some people thrive on chaos - me not). I would have told any potential students of my expereinces, but no-one askes! Rating supervisors will have two effects, the first to inform ones choice and options, the second to ensure that supervisors are aware that they cannot continue to do their jobs badly (and yes they are employees who are paid to do a job..) Incidentally the students of the supervisor I mentioned above (who was actively counter-productive to my work) all said, 'she's great' while later admitting the problems they had with her. No-one likes to bitch, particularly if the person they are bitching to may have a better relationship with the person you are bitching about in the future....Honesty can feel risky. I am a supervisor myself now, and have learnt a lot from both good and poor superviison, and I would appreciate the feedback from something like 'ratemyprofessor.com<http://ratemyprofessor.com>' Kate On 28 September 2013 22:40, Deborah Rodriguez <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Hi All, I agree with Ellie. Although I think you have a good idea regarding the quality of supervisors and helping students to choose the right one, I don't think that taking a reductionist approach is the way to go forward with this. There may be many reasons as to why a student doesn't complete such as personal circumstances that doesn't reflect the supervisory relationship that may be misconstrued by merely reporting the number of completed students. Also, different students will rate different qualities in a supervisor that some will find helpful to their style and others won't. I like the suggestion of meeting and discussing things with a potential supervisor, and think this would say more to students. But I can completely see your point of finding ways of incentivising and encouraging PhD supervisors to have positive relationships with their students. Thanks, Deborah Sent from my iPhone On 28 Sep 2013, at 10:19 pm, "Eleanor Ratcliffe" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> wrote: Hi Sinéad, I can see the importance of knowing what a supervisor is like before formalising one's relationship with them, but I wonder if chatting with the supervisor him/herself and their past and present students would be more helpful. It seems wrong to me to reduce one's relationship with a supervisor to a score. It makes me think of a product or a customer service experience - and isn't one's relationship with a supervisor more collaborative than that? It would seem to me to be more about finding the right "fit" for the student. I agree that knowing how many students someone has and their completion rate would be very helpful but generally speaking I think one can find these things out by having a coffee with a prospective sup before applying. These are just my thoughts, anyway. Ellie On 28 Sep 2013, at 21:50, "Sheehan, Sinead Renu" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>> wrote: Dear All I was what do people think of the idea of being able to publicly rate PhD supervisors (in general, not just psychology) so that other PhD students can clearly see what kind of reputation they have e.g. how many students currently and past, how many graduated, and some form of anonymous...perhaps score? based on timeliness of feedback, responsiveness and lots of other factors it might take a study to decide on. Perhaps if funding bodies were also aware of PhD students ratings' and took the ratings into account when awarding grants, then it would have an effect on the quality of supervision. I would imagine that a supervisor might care more about getting good ratings from students if it could have a knock on effect on their future chances of securing research funding. Apologies if this is the wrong forum to bring this up Sinéad School of Psychology University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683. -- Kate Smith MA (Cantab), DipPsych, PGDip Counselling School of Psychology and Neuroscience University of St Andrews St Mary's Quad St Andrews, KY16 9JP Tel: +44 (0)1334 461992 School of Social and Health Sciences University of Abertay Dundee Bell Street Dundee DD1 1HG Tel: +44 (0)1382 308759 This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and will accept no liability.