Questions tagged [supervision]
Questions relating to academic supervision, which is broadly defined as the supervisory relationship between advisors and their students.
450
questions
11
votes
3answers
179 views
Where can I find resources on how to be a good supervisor?
I am a relatively new tenured professor. My responsibilities increase gradually, and this year I have started supervising students' thesis: a bachelor thesis and a master thesis. (This is in Europe, ...
1
vote
1answer
70 views
Should I change my dissertation topic? [closed]
I'm a second-year PhD student in Management, and I'm wondering whether I should change my dissertation topic or not.
My topic is an established one, but it started to revive thanks to cutting-edge ...
5
votes
1answer
167 views
How to manage a colleague in your research group taking your idea?
I have been a newly appointed lecturer (18 months). Within my first 6 months I have advertised a PhD subject in order to recruit a good student. The specific project was advertised a year ago. I ...
1
vote
3answers
200 views
Should I leave this PhD and start another one? Would I be in trouble?
I am currently doing a fully funded PhD in a European country. I just finished my first year. The topic is ok but i dont feel very passionate about it. I dont feel i connect with the topic even though ...
0
votes
1answer
151 views
Why would a professor not reply? [duplicate]
A professor has offered me a summer research project at his lab. The last we had talked was on a Zoom call during which I was offered the position. He had then asked me to send my academic records ...
0
votes
0answers
100 views
What can I do if I face conflicts with my supervisor?
I am an international Ph.D. student in Canada. I have many conflicts with my supervisor and I really don't enjoy working under his supervision and I prefer to change my supervisor. However, the ...
2
votes
2answers
140 views
Should I always address both PhD supervisors in emails?
I am starting my PhD and have two equivalent supervisors at different universities in different cities. I am going to city A first and then later to B and so on.
What is the etiquette regarding emails?...
5
votes
1answer
164 views
How to proceed after reject & resubmit
I recently got a reject & resubmit which usually would not bother me too much, however, this case is a bit special:
The specific journal runs a single-blind peer review process. One review was ...
2
votes
1answer
247 views
Should I email a professor during Christmas and New Year Holidays?
I got a project confirmation from a professor 2 days ago. The project would require me to travel abroad during the summer vacation period of May-July 2021. The formalities such as offer letter and ...
17
votes
4answers
599 views
How to deal with unwanted physical contact, presents and attention by a postdoc supervisor?
Posting this to academia stackexchange, but if this may fit better in other place please let me know.
My girlfriend is a new PhD student in a male dominated field, and is supervised by a postdoc in a ...
1
vote
2answers
112 views
Personal chapter comments to supervisor
Is it a good idea to keep my comments in the chapter draft to be sent to my supervisor?
Sometimes when writing, I comment on the text, like personal notes.
I am feeling that it may sound like ...
2
votes
1answer
123 views
How early should I start asking professors for a summer position?
I am a high school student and have several professors at colleges nearby who are conducting research I find very interesting. I am going to ask them to consider letting me work under them during the ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
How should a high-school student approach professors in research institutions about research opportunities?
I am a high schooler who lives in the vicinity of many premier research institutions and am very interested in going into STEM. I know that I will have to ask a lot of professors to let me work under ...
2
votes
2answers
126 views
Involving additional staff members in PhD supervision (beyond co-supervisors)
Is it possible that a staff member (Asst. Prof.) offers their help to a PhD student even they are not their co-supervisor ?
How involved (if solicited) could Lab members (mostly Asst. Prof.) be in the ...
3
votes
2answers
406 views
Is it normal for universities to limit the number of PhD students a professor can supervise?
It came to my attention that one university limits the number of PhD students each professor can supervise simultaneously. The policy makes a vague reference to "legislative and regulatory ...
21
votes
3answers
10k views
Supervising a lazy BSc student
I am a PhD student and I have to supervise two BSc students in conducting their thesis. Unfortunately, I am very (very!) frustrated with one of them.
First of all, this specific student doesn't show ...
20
votes
4answers
7k views
Doing a PhD at a famous football school: how can I ask for time off to attend games?
Consider a famous football school in the U.S., for example Penn State, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Auburn, and Ohio State.
I am doing a PhD in a STEM field at one of these schools, and on 6 or 7 ...
8
votes
5answers
823 views
Pure mathemathics: authors appearing in alphabetic order [duplicate]
So the title of the question is quite broad, I've seen a few of questions in the site regarding this particular topic (quite a few actually, so let me know if this is somehow a duplicate).
My problem ...
2
votes
1answer
132 views
Potential PhD supervisor replied short but expressed interest, what to do next?
I wrote a relatively long email to a potential supervisor and they answered quite short, saying that they are delighted to hear of my interest in the program and they would be happy to work with me. I ...
4
votes
1answer
217 views
Forced out of an abusive advisor relationship, how to find an advisor in another university?
I'm posting for a friend in the interest of anonymity.
For context, they're in the third year of a US mathematics PhD, and are currently without an advisor following the failure of an 18 month ...
2
votes
0answers
155 views
What resources should a PhD student expect their advisor to have?
I am contemplating changing PhD advisors and wanted opinions as to whether I am being too critical and if there is any basis to my concerns.
I am a little over a year into the PhD program and am with ...
26
votes
7answers
6k views
How to prove episodes of academic misconduct?
My former PhD supervisor asked me different times to produce false results, including complete fabrication from scratch of otherwise non-existent results. I always managed to get away from that and I ...
6
votes
2answers
520 views
How to refuse to work with graduate students?
How do you refuse to work with graduate students when they come to you and explain they want to work with you without necessarily being offered a job (e.g. a project that pays).
My advisor was very ...
1
vote
1answer
175 views
Should I leave my area of interest as my supervisor advised? [closed]
I am an undergraduate student, applying for honours next year. I asked my current supervisor if he is willing to supervise me and he said he had to change the current project as I took a lot of time ...
1
vote
0answers
93 views
How to persuade my supervisor to write a recommendation letter for P.h.D in the US?
I am currently a MS student at EE department at my final year pursing my thesis. I could not publish any of my works yet however I am willing to submit one journal paper for publishing at the end of ...
3
votes
1answer
152 views
Choosing a project for a fresh graduate student
I am starting to advise a new graduate student for M.Sc. degree (in theoretical computer science), and I am considering what should be the first problem they should work on.
One option is a small and ...
1
vote
2answers
123 views
Humanities Research with Professors as a High Schooler?
I am a high school student (legally old enough to work) looking for opportunities to work with professors in political theory. The way research is done is quite different from many folks in STEM, so ...
16
votes
3answers
4k views
Should I tell my supervisor that I added his/her name as a reference for my next academic position?
Recently I finished my PhD level and I did an interview with a research group for a postdoc position. After my review, they asked me for some references to contact them.
I choose my supervisor and ...
0
votes
1answer
71 views
How to justify research assistant's role in the grant application
How can we justify the role of Research Assistant in the grant application?
Everyone knows that faculty members are busy with teaching, admin tasks, writing grants etc. so they actually seek PhD and ...
23
votes
7answers
5k views
Is it common/ ethically acceptable for PhD advisors to propose and supervise topics on which they lack basic knowledge?
I've just graduated in STEM in a small but respected university in Europe. I had two supervisors who hold their PhD in my field. The aim of my PhD was to utilize a particular chemical compound in the ...
28
votes
5answers
9k views
My research supervisor left the university and no one told me
I am currently doing my Masters in a program that has both a practicum component and a thesis component. My research supervisor and I had been working over the past few years on a thesis topic. The ...
-1
votes
1answer
93 views
How to ask politely to a potential supervisor? [duplicate]
I have some initial conversations related to the scope of the research area with my potential supervisor. I took a course with him as well. He knows me well too. I asked him to supervise me in my ...
55
votes
9answers
7k views
Telling a former supervisor you don't want to publish
I graduated from my PhD in the middle of last year and have since landed a full time job in industry. Currently I'm pretty ran off my feet with work, but I'm also enjoying having free time at weekends ...
4
votes
1answer
109 views
What to ask a prospective supervisor regarding advertised PhD position?
I have completed my master's degree in aerospace engineering from India, and I am continuously looking for PhD opportunities in Europe in the field of aerospace propulsion.
In this regard, I have come ...
2
votes
2answers
414 views
Graduate level advising - how to put limits to the nature of questions and make students independent?
I just started advising graduate level students, but I am having a lot of problems. I thought I would be a patient, understanding, helpful advisor but really I am being tested.
One of the students ...
2
votes
2answers
159 views
How is auditing a course viewed by professors teaching the course?
I'm a first year math Phd student. I'm undecided between focusing on mathematical computer science (MCS) and pure maths, so I'm taking courses in both. To keep my workload light enough to avoid stress,...
2
votes
1answer
161 views
Can I have two PhD supervisors from two different UK universities?
I have two unconditional offers from two UK universities in law. University A assigned me one supervisor only, but he is the greatest in part of my thesis. University B also assigned me one supervisor,...
3
votes
1answer
169 views
What are the advantages and downsides of a broad PhD thesis? [closed]
A previous version of this question focused too much on my personal situation. The current one aims at being more generic.
The main question boils down to what are the advantages and disadvantages of ...
6
votes
1answer
214 views
Is it normal I haven't met my supervisor yet?
I arrived in Montreal on April 3rd, 2020. It was during the coronavirus pandemic and I spent the first half of the summer taking a course with my Supervisor, I got A+.
In the second half of the summer,...
2
votes
1answer
139 views
Can my old supervisor publish my work without my say so
So I completed my PhD in Jan this year and have graduated. Since then I have left academia/research and ended up in a regular job I love despite it being something that is unrelated to my PhD. My ...
2
votes
0answers
95 views
Should the supervisor work in the laboratory with the student during M.Sc.?
I was just employed in the foreign university as assistant professor. I am going to have one M.Sc. student soon but I am not sure how much independence should he get. At my previous university we ...
15
votes
4answers
6k views
Examiner proof-reading master thesis before submission. Is this allowed?
I know someone who is currently writing their master’s thesis. They will be the single author of the document. Our (German) university requires a statement that says something like: ‘I wrote all of ...
3
votes
1answer
137 views
In law schools do JD professors supervise PhD students?
I know that law schools, unlike most other academic faculties hire a significant portion of their professors without a doctorate (PhD, D.Phil, etc) but just with a JD law degree.
I come from a science ...
1
vote
3answers
236 views
Talking to supervisor about PhD projects
I am an international PhD student, in the last lap of my PhD, and have a little more than a year to defend my thesis. My work is in theory, and our simulations take a lot of computing time. As we are ...
1
vote
0answers
133 views
Should I ask my supervisor before adding a spin to the project I was assigned, or go ahead and try to make it work?
I am a volunteer intern (funds are frozen for uni research assistants due to the pandemic) on a CV/ML project. Awhile back, I was assigned to detect and label moving objects in a video. After doing ...
4
votes
2answers
519 views
Should I email the university admin to explain that one of my references is out of office until Monday?
I emailed my undergrad supervisor back in July asking them to write a reference letter, which they agreed to.
I had an email from the uni I am applying to yesterday stating they were yet to receive ...
0
votes
1answer
150 views
How do you keep up motivation during individual doctoral research projects in the short run
I always have been extremely motivated in my research area and project. My team and I have been writing our current paper over the last 6 months, and since we stumbled upon bugs, the process became ...
2
votes
1answer
286 views
A new PI or the brilliant current PI [closed]
We, STEM students, until we get somewhat a permanent position in our career, we work in different labs, with different PIs and people throughout our student life, starting from bachelor to our post-...
6
votes
1answer
161 views
Can I join two different research labs as a Ph.D. student?
I'm a PhD student and there are two labs that work in very similar fields, but different departments. Both look great, but I'm not sure which will benefit my research more (resources, collaboration, ...
3
votes
1answer
154 views
Asking A Colleague for a Letter of Recommendation
I am working as an Assistant Professor at a university for over 2 years, but I am not happy with my current job and university. I want to apply to a university in another country (from where I've done ...
