PhD students/candidates and Supervisors

1. PhD students/candidates and Supervisors Introduction Ton Dietz CERES Cafe Wageningen Febr. 13 2009

2. My own experience • PhD in 1987, supervised by two very different supervisors • I supervised 31 PhD graduates and am cu’rrently involved in ten more • As director of CERES (2002-2007) indirectly related to 250+ PhD projects and 150+ supervisors. Also: role as conflict mediator • SANPAD ‘supervisor’s workshops’

3. Sobering thoughts I: PhD studies face many problems: - a high percentage of non-completion - many take far too long (often more than five and sometimes more than seven years) • for many PhD candidates it is a lonely and stressful episode, often at high personal costs • it is often also stressful and frustrating for supervisors, jeopardizing relationships for a long time • PhD studies often have a low scientific and social impact, and can sometimes be regarded as a very wasteful way of spending research time and money

4. Sobering thoughts II: What goes wrong Reasons for problems with PhD trajectories: - bad research design, no focus, no adequate research question - lack of realistic expectations ('targeting the sky') - inadequate research background; lack of training in methodological and writing skills (inadequate Bachelors and Masters training) - problematic research facilities to do a good PhD: (time, office, computer, assistance, money, flexibility in rules, underfunding essential tasks) - many competing tasks (teaching, consultancies, family life) - bad planning and bad phasing

5. Sobering thoughts III; what goes wrong too? • major problems with writing academic English • negligent or inadequate supervision; often unclear, strained relationship • inadequate networking • not aware of others working in the same field of studies • no contact with peers • parochial local research cultures • breakdown of motivation, psychological stress due to isolation and lack of feeling useful • lack of participation in a vibrant research culture • Being among peers who are also competitors and not always very nice people...

6. Sobering thoughts IV: what if??? • You fall in love with your supervisor (and he or she in you???) • Your supervisor changes position, and is no longer interested in you • Your research is no longer your supervisor’s hobby or interest • Your supervisor has a major dip (ill, mad, worn-out, crazy, overwhelmed by work, personal dramas) MAKE SURE YOU DON’T DEPEND ON JUST ONE PERSON!

7. ‘high didactics’ needed • Supervising PhD studies = supervising maturing professionals, needing leadership + guidance + room for own creativity and independence. • Ideas based on a combination of theories from organisational psychology and tertiary didactics. • Lot of background literature. • Classic: Phillips E. & D.S. Pugh, 1994 (2d edit), How to get a PhD. A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors. Buckingham: Open University Press

8. Also: • Dietz A.J. (Ton), Jonathan D. Jansen, Ahmed A Wadee, 2006, Effective PhD Supervision and Mentorship. A Workbook based on experiences from South Africa and the Netherlands. Pretoria and Amsterdam: Unisa Press and Rozenberg Publishers (133 pp) • Erik Hofstee: Constructing a Good Dissertation, 2006, see www.exactica.co.za

9. Types of PhD ‘students’ I • Formal position: • Employees or bursaries • Regular or ‘sandwich’ • AiO or OiO (NWO) or other • With or without teaching • With or without participation in a research school or graduate school • Full-time or part-time • On schedule or way behind

10. Types of PhD ‘students’ II • Age and gender • ‘Experiences with (academic) culture’: Dutch? UK? American? African? Asian? Latin? • ‘Personality’: degree of independence, 'self-security', expertise, maturity, motivation, commitment, ability to articulate wishes, communication abilities and styles. • Multi-tasking needs and abilities

11. Types of PhD ‘students’ III • Type of research output • Part of a larger programme or ‘single’? • Individually designed dissertation or part of a larger research frame? “scholar or data slave”? • Recruited on a vacancy or on ‘own project idea’? • Book project or PhD product based on ‘articles’? • Publication ambitions: only one book? One, two, five, additional publications? • Single authored or multiple authored?

12. Types of Supervisors

13. Types of Supervisors

14. What type of supervisor would you like to have? Percentage: • Delegator (leave me alone) • Friend (be my buddy) • Quality controller (keep me sharp) • Editor (Help me write) • Expert Guide (tell me what to do) • Coach (steer my ambition; groom me into academics)

15. You and your supervisor(s)

16. Context: Supervisory styles have to do with: • - the personality of the supervisor(s) • - the personality of the PhD student • - 'chemistry' between supervisor(s) and student • - research (and power) culture in the department, and 'past performance' • - phases in the PhD project.

17. Phases in the dissertation project? • 1 initiation: quality controler • 2 research design: expert guide and delegator • 3 research proposal finalisation: editor and quality controler • 4 fieldwork: coach (or delegator) • 5 data analysis: expert guide • 6 write up: editor or coach or delegator • 7 final fieldwork: coach and quality controler • 8 final editing: editor and quality controler • 9 preparation for defence: coach • 10 actual defence: delegator • 11 follow up: expert guide and friend

18. How to deal with confusion? • Strike a balance between different needs and between different phases • See the relationship as a game of negotiations • Be open: talk about expectations • Be flexible • Steer your supervisor(s) and their crowded agendas • Avoid open conflicts • Don’t come too close: friendship is OK, but there is always a hierarchical relationship

19. Make use of the little ‘power’ you have • Make sure you know the rules of the game. In the Netherlands it is ultimately YOU who decides where and with whom you want to graduate! • Be informed about mentorship and complaint regulations: in your department; in the research school. • You can ‘claim’ between 250 and 400 supervision hours, so use those hours! • Your success also is the success of your promotor(s) • Prestige • Joint publications • Joint visibility • The university now earns 90,000 Euro for each PhD graduation

20. And create your own social field • Invest in relationships with your peers • Make use of the opportunities offered by local graduate schools, national research schools, and international domain institutions • Do a bit of teaching (but not too much, and preferably close to your own research) and insist on mentorship (‘learn how to teach’) • Create your own co-readers community and dare to have high aspirations in whom to contact (your heroes) • Use summerschools and conferences to shine

21. But: • Be aware that some phases demand multi-tasking attitudes and other phases monomaniacism • Be clear about that in your contacts with peers, supervisors, and life partners • Find a compromise between productive visibility and destructive visibility

22. Avoid a clash of paradigms with your supervisor(s) In the academic world there are tribes of paradigm-lookalikes, with their approaches of inclusion and exclusion: • Qualitative vs quantitative • Realist vs constructivist • Book vs articles • Academic goals vs societal goals (improve citation index vs improve the world)

23. In case of a real clash of paradigms • Change promotor or institute or discipline • Be prepared for a real and potentially devastating fight, and make sure you are not in a hurry... • Postpone your fights until you are a postdoc

24. PhD is a step in a career Think about your career wishes from the start. IF you want to enter academics in the Netherlands or UK/USA MAKE SURE you already work towards academic visibility If you want to compete for NWO-related funds for postdoc or VENI positions: you need PhD + 5 refereed publications in preferably high-citation journals

25. In that case... • Publish with your supervisor(s) and with your peers • But make sure you are preferably the first author (arrange that in advance!) • Select the ‘best’ journals (and know your journal field) • Make sure that your lists of references reflect the ‘heroes in the field’ (and also those from the Netherlands) • Make sure you have your own personal website, with preferably all your products downloadable as pdf’s • Whenever you have a (joint) publication, send it to >5 of your heroes in the field, and ask them for comments • Invite your heroes to come to conferences, co-organised by you, and turn those into ‘masterclasses’.

26. And follow up! • Your PhD dissertation should not be the final product: follow up with a varied set of follow-up activities • And keep your contacts with your former supervisor(s) and peers.