Supervising Doctoral Candidates

Supervising Doctoral Candidates

Starting as a postdoc, junior group leader or junior professor it is usually expected to supervise doctoral candidates. However, supervision is one of the tasks that is so 'normal' in academia that it is often neglected to be explained and prepared: „Everybody knows what supervision is so we don’t need to talk about it.“ - As a result of this mindset researchers who start supervising quite often feel abandoned. The workshop Supervising Doctoral Candidates addresses different aspects of supervision and provides insights in different aspects and requirements to gain skills (and confidence) to supervise. In previous workshops for postdocs and junior professors, it has proved useful to approach supervision from the perspective of sociological role theory and to identify three main tasks: Lead - Train - Facilitate.

This course is also available online. (15 till 17 April 2024)

Whom does it address?

Young/junior professors and Postdocs supervisiong docotral candidates or involved in supervision.

Overall objectives of the mobility:

• Participants will gain confidence as supervisors especially during their first times supervising doctoral candidates. Thus they will be more efficient as they will have to struggle less with the requirements of their new role.
• One key aspect of the training is to provide deeper insights in communication techniques and techniques to avoid conflicts.
• The participants are enabled to deal with questions concerning the further professional development of doctoral candidates far beyond academic supervision in the narrower sense.

Expected outcome: 

• Participants will profit for their career as they are more skilled in supervising their doctoral candidates.
• The sending institution will profit as participants from the course will act as multipliers in their institutions and share their knowledge.