20515 Guide for supervisors

Before committing to supervise, you must ponder whether you have enough time to allocate on supervising, and whether you have adequate expertise. If you decide to commit, allocate enough time on it in your workplan. The amount depends on the needs of the supervisee, and the number and role of other supervisors. Needs also change along the progress of the doctoral research.

• Preparation of work plans at the University of Eastern Finland (in Heimo)
• Work plans task description of teachers and researchers (in Heimo)

When you’ll agree to supervise, you’ll commit

• To agree on the supervisory practices with your supervisee and to adhere to those.
• To ensure that your supervisee has/receives adequate scientific background in his/her field of research at the very beginning of the research project.
• To provide guidance and help with personal study plan, research topic, research plan, research permits, and research work in general.
• To help in securing funding.
• To ensure that the research plan is feasible, good scientific practice is followed, and research meets the requirements of doctoral dissertation
• To monitor the progress regularly, provide feedback, address any problems, and encourage the supervisee.

You may expect your supervisee

• To commit to the mutually agreed supervisory practices.
• To get to know the main theories and methods of his/her research field and to follow the literature.
• To conduct independent research according to the research plan, to follow good scientific practice and to ensure that research permits have been obtained.
• To follow the personal study plan.
• To apply actively for research funding.
• To report on the progress of the research project on a regular basis, to provide feedback to you and be honest about any problems related to the doctoral research.

More information: Faculties' instructions on research supervision.

Read also: Shared rules vitally important in the doctoral researcher-supervisor relationship by Tieteentekijät

Recruiting doctoral researchers

Before you agree to supervise, make sure that the applicant

• is eligible for doctoral studies (see below)
• has capabilities to pursue for doctoral degree
• understands how the process of doctoral studies is in practice
• has another supervisor(s)
• understands that obtaining a study right does not (necessarily) guarantee funding, and that part-time jobs in Finland are not easy to get.

Also, look for about potential funding sources (see Funding options of doctoral studies).

Study right for doctoral studies

Questions related to applying

• Eligibility for studies leading to a professional postgraduate degree is defined in Universities Act (558/2009 § 37). The applicant must have completed a relevant Master’s degree awarded by a university or by a university of applied sciences; or a relevant applicable study programme abroad which in the awarding country gives eligibility for the corresponding level of higher education.
• Each doctoral programme has its own selection criteria and instructions for applying.
• Applying takes place in Studyinfo.fi portal.

International applicants

• Doctoral researchers arriving from outside of Schengen area must apply for a researcher's residence permit. For this they need a hosting agreement signed by the university. The officers of the faculty will take care of this procedure.
• Instructions you can deliver to your new international supervisees:
  • Quick guide for international doctoral researchers
  • Guide for international staff (if the doctoral researcher has an employment contract)

HR-issues

• Doctoral researchers who have received a funded position (please, note that grant-based researchers who have secured funding for 12 months are entitled to a 10 % employment relationship) will enter into an employment contract.
• Grant-based researchers will conclude a grant research agreement.
• The person responsible for HR on the department will take care of the paperwork

Discuss the mutual expectations with your supervisee and her/his other supervisors, e.g.

• Why your supervisee wants to pursue for the doctoral degree, what kind of goals s/he has related to it (schedule, quality), and how much time s/he can allocate to the doctoral research.
• What kind of working methods your supervisee possesses (e.g. self-leadership skills).
• What the supervisee expects of you (e.g. frequency and contents of supervision). You can utilize a RPRS tool for this.
• What will the division of responsibilities between you and
  the other supervisor(s) be

See also Toolkit for supervisors > Checklist for beginnings (in Moodle, requires UEF-login).

Supervision agreement

It is recommendable to compile a written supervision agreement, in which you can utilize the Recommendations about supervision of doctoral dissertations and their review process by the Finnish Advisory Board on Research Integrity and Universities Finland UNIFI (page 9 onwards).

Induction

Induction materials

You can utilise an induction checklist to ensure which practicalities you should cover in your induction with a new supervisee.

If the research includes laboratory work, then issues related to laboratory safety must be covered in the induction.

HR processes

• If your supervisee has receive a salaried position, s/he can familiarise her/himself with new employee quick start guide or participate in new staff orientation, where HR aspects will be covered.
• If your supervisee is a grant-based researcher, s/he can familiarise her/himself with information for grant-funded researchers and Grant information for researchers- guidance.

Digital environments and skills

If your supervisee is new to UEF and/or lack necessary digital skills

• Digistartti offers an introduction to the digital study environments used at the UEF
• IT-services provide short-term trainings e.g. software usage skills.

Induction to doctoral studies

Personal study plan

As a (main) supervisor, you should help your supervisee with creating the personal study plan.

• Personal study plan must be created within three months after receiving the right to study.
• Requirements of the doctoral programme must be followed when creating the personal study plan.
• It is advisable to discuss and take into account the supervisee's career goals in creating the personal study plan.
  • Doctoral School offers studies in transferable skills, e.g. in researchers skills, communication skills, and general work-life skills.
  • In addition, it is possible to include (within the frames of doctoral programme) other studies e.g. statistics, university pedagogy, or entrepreneurship.
• Help with issues related to personal study plan can be obtained from the coordinators and officers of the faculties.

Information channels

Information on issues related to starting doctoral studies can be found in Handbook of Doctoral Education.

If your supervisee has not been studying at the UEF before, the other information channels and systems used at the may also be unfamiliar to him/her.

• It is recommendable to join Doctoral School Yammer group
• Most of the doctoral programmes have their own yammer groups, which the supervisee should join in order to stay updated on the topical issues.

Your duty as a supervisor is to help the doctoral researcher in securing funding. Doctoral studies can be funded for example by a scholarship or by working as a researcher in a research project. More information about those as well as funds granted by the Faculties for starting or finishing a dissertation, traveling and printing the dissertation may be found on the page funding options of doctoral studies.

HR-information:

• Grants and 10% contract of employment
• Information for new staff (on salaried positions)

Training on applying research funding

All faculties organise courses for doctoral researchers on applying research funding. Learn more on the topic on the page Other courses and training.

UEF offers a lot of training, courses and guidance to support doctoral researchers in their work (e.g. information retrieval, data protection and management, statistics, writing, publishing).

Make sure that

• your supervisee knows
  • what good scientific practice and its violations mean in practice
  • what are her/his GDPR compliant responsibilities related to processing of personal data (if applicable)
  • what research permits s/he needs to perform the research (if applicable)
• you have agreed on
  • the authorship of the scientific articles to be included in the dissertation (if applicable)
  • usage rights of the co-produced data (see Agreements between researchers by Finnish Social Science Data Archive)
  • storing, archiving, further use, and ownership of the research data

Your supervisee will receive guidance on research ethics in Kamu and on the course Research ethics.

Doctoral researchers are more than twice likely to develop a common psychiatric disorder compared to other comparison groups in higher education (Levecque et al. 2017). The major stress factors are uncertainty of career prospects as well as difficulty to maintain a work–life balance (Nature, 2019). Overly stressed doctoral researcher is a risk: indisposition leads to procrastination, and later on to burn out or drop out.

Therefore:

• Inquire after your supervisee regularly (also in informal setting e.g. coffee breaks)
• Be interested, listen, encourage, inspire. Do not press.
• Encourage in maintaining balance between work and leisure. A well-being doctoral researcher is an efficient doctoral researcher. Learn more about university sport services.
• Discuss your supervisee’s career prospects. If necessary, guide to the career courses provided by the Doctoral School.
• Enhance networking with other doctoral researchers (e.g. UEF Doctoral Student Association) or finding other social networks.

See also:

• Successful supervision
• Wellbeing of doctoral researchers

A satisfied doctoral researcher is engaged and efficient. A risk of burn-out and drop-out increases when well-being at work decreases.

Factors increasing satisfaction of doctoral researchers

• Mutual understanding on the supervisor's duties, and the contents and frequency of supervision (Pyhältö et al. 2015)
• Support from the supervisor and research community (Peltonen et al. 2017) and having multiple supervisors (Cornér ym. 2017)
• Sense of belonging, competence, and contribution (Virtanen & Pyhältö, 2012, Veikkaila et al. 2013 and Vekkaila et al. 2014).
• Feeling of competence as a writer (Lonka et al. 2014)
• Autonomy of research work (Virtanen & Pyhältö, 2012, Veikkaila et al. 2013, Vekkaila et al. 2014)
• Perceived active relational agency in the research community (Pyhältö & Keskinen, 2012)
• Received respectful, fair, and equal treatment, and prioritization of supervision activities (Löfström & Pyhältö, 2020)
• Awareness of the meaningfulness of the doctoral studies to the career prospects (Sakurai ym. 2017)

Risk of drop-out and burn-out are, on the other hand, increased by

• Struggles and conflicts within the scholarly community (over problems in the research itself; Vekkaila et al. 2013).
• Writer blocks, perfectionism and procastination (Lonka et al. 2014)
• Feeling of loneliness and isolation as well as inadequate supervision and feeling of inequality (Cornér et al. 2017).
• Experienced infidelity, injustice, and maleficence, e.g. abandonment, exploitation, infringement on autonomy (Löfström & Pyhältö, 2020);

Source: Sanna Vehviläinen, Ohjaustyön opas and Toolkit for supervisors.

Supervision is the expert influence offered by a senior, guidance of learning and provision of help and support. It is a collaborative activity, that promotes changes in learning, work, and life planning processes that are meaningful for the supervisee, so that his/her agency is strengthened.

Strengthened agency can been seen as increasing ability, knowledge, competence, and skills, active ownership and responsibility, capability, self-confidence, autonomy, self-regulation, ownership of one’s competence, inclusion, critical influence of environment and relying on others, and ability to collaborate; giving and receiving support.

Skilled supervision

Skilled supervision

• is not only based on research excellence - the ability to evaluate concrete products (e.g. manuscripts) is not dependent on this
• is not a matter of “chemistry” or a mystery
• does not depend on a personality or temperament
• is based on interaction (see below)
• may involve problems but interaction is “repairable”
• is built and maintained through repeated encounters, being thus “rehearsable”
• consist of normal, friendly, work-oriented activities = good enough supervision

Orientations of supervision interaction

Good interaction is a key to successful supervision. Within the academic supervision, three orientations of supervision interaction have been identified. All of them are essential. The supervisor can select which orientation is suitable and preferable in each situation (and identify to which orientation the supervisee is inviting him/her).

As a rule of thumb, offer first supporting orientation, then inquiring orientation, and as a last step problem-solving orientation.

Supporting orientation

Supporting orientation is about focusing on the situation, being present, observing, listening actively, being open, and empathetic. The situation at hand is experienced and accepted as it is. This usually happens "silently", without words, using body language.

Supporting orientation is needed at the beginning and end of encounters or in confusing situations (e.g. after receiving rejection from a journal). This orientation helps the supervisee to endure what has to be endured, and prevents from acting hastily, reactively or defensively.

Inquiring orientation

Inquiring orientation is about stopping to investigate the experience, situation, problem or challenge before solving it. The aim is to get a more comprehensive, analytical and wider understanding on the situation and circumstances around it. Inquiring orientation prevents from getting stuck in and wasting time on irrelevant problems. Questions are the main tool in this orientation: the supervisees are invited to describe their thinking and meanings.

Inquiring orientation increases understanding both “inwards” and “outwards”. The supervisees learn to understand their own internal working process, learns from their mistakes and successes, and also understand more deeply the external criteria (e.g. why the text is (not) working). As a consequence, their skills of critical reflective thinking and meta-learning, which are indispensable for expert work and problem-solving, are developed.

Problem-solving orientation

The most commonly used orientation in which the aim is to identify the problems and solve them quickly with an advice given by the supervisor.

This orientation is efficient but limited, if the identified problem is not the actual problem. In that case, the advice fixes the problem in the product but not in the working process, where the problem originates. Also, when the supervisor identifies the problem and offers a solution, the supervisee's capability of solve problems is not developed. Neither, it will not be known if and how the supervisee understood the solution.

Skillful use of advice the supervisee is first heard in order to make sure that the identified problem is the real problem. The supervisor must take time before giving the advice in order to it to be thoughtful. It is also good to include the supervisee in problem-solving. Problem-solving orientation is not appropriate in all situations.

Using the orientations

Please, note that in total, using these orientations does not require extra time nor extra resources. After you have become aware of the orientations and taken the time for them, they bring focus and structure to even brief encounters and help to focus on the essential.

More information about the orientations and concrete tips e.g. about giving feedback: Toolkit for supervisors (in Moodle, requires UEF-login).

Below you can find a list of tips for supervisors created in a supervising workshop (led by Sanna Vehviläinen) of Seminar for PhD students and their supervisors in 2018 (see Sway-presentation on How to improve PhD supervision).

• Reserve time for establishing a mutual understanding on goals and means to reach them. Make sure that you are aiming at the same goals.
• Let your supervisee to tell about his/her own views, experiences and motivation.
• Help the supervisee to set realistic and concrete goals.
• Don't assume, ask! Establish a mutual understanding (e.g. on what happens next).
• Find time for interaction, have discussions. Both of you will benefit from that.
• Let your supervisee know that you are willing to help.
• Stimulate supervisee’s thinking by giving honest, realistic, concrete, positive and encouraging feedback. Be gentle and discreet. Criticism can be hard or even breaking, even if it was aimed to be constructive.
• Support, inspire and encourage. Motivate again and again (and push a little if needed).
• Let the student process and understand.
• Evaluate the process (e.g. actions taken) together.
• Get to know the problem to get it solved. The problem might be something else than it seems at first glance (see inquiring orientation in the section Successful supervision).
• Reserve time for informal moments together (coffee breaks or organized events).
• Get to know your supervisees and their working styles.
• Pay attention to your own communication style (see orientations in the section Successful supervision).
• Have common rules for communication.
• Allow feelings to be expressed.
• Give enough freedom and space, but make sure to interact regularly! Be active.
• Take the cultural background(s) into account: doctoral researchers from high power distance may need more concrete advice and guidance (see Hofstede's dimenstions).
• Keep an eye on the workload: reasonable working hours and enough free time will promote, not delay the progress.

Tools listed below can be found in Toolkit for supervisors in Moodle (requires UEF-login):

• Checklist for beginnings for supervisory encounters and specifically for starting the supervising process.
• Picturing the process helps to see the big picture (of the process of doctoral education). Useful exercise to be completed in co-operation with the supervisee.
• Your personal highlights helps you to contemplate successful supervising through your own experiences.
• The guiding values helps to clarify your own values as a supervisor.