It’s May and you are doing your exams, looking forward to the final one next. You plan to take a short break to rest and recharge afterwards, before you ‘really get going’ with your thesis. But come 1st June when you arrive at your supervisor’s office you find a note is pinned to the door: Away for the public holiday weekend, back next Tuesday. You return the following week to find another note: Out Marking Exam Papers – Back next Monday. You return another week later to find: At Exam Board – Back tomorrow. On your fourth attempt, you find a note: On holidays – Back in September. Aghhhhhhh!
While that might sound like an exaggeration, Thesis Upgrade’s research shows that contact with their supervisor is one of the biggest problems students experience while doing their research.
That issue often begins at the research proposal stage: “In my college supervisors were not appointed until after the research proposal was submitted”, said Peter, who is studying for a BA in Social Sciences. “That meant that there was nobody to talk to, when considering your research area, or deciding on your topic”.
Mark Campbell, Director of Thesis Upgrade, advises: “If your supervisor is not known to you at the research proposal stage you should reach out to potential supervisors – talk to lecturers, tutors and subject matter experts who are familiar with the research area, topic and process”.
Equally, during the first month of your research you may find that your supervisor is unavailable: “During the first month of my research my dissertation supervisor was rarely available” said Sabina, an MBA student. “She was always ‘marking exam papers, attending exam boards, away at a conference, on holidays’ … it made no difference whether I tried to contact her in person at her office, or on the phone or by Microsoft Teams”. It is important to recognise that supervisors also have busy lives and that you may be one of many students trying to contact them, particularly at this time of year. “As a supervisor, I always suggest students send me an email and suggest a time when we can meet, or ask when I am available first, so they won’t waste their time chasing me around the college. As I work off-campus during the summer months, it is often easier to communicate virtually, for example, by Zoom, than to meet in person. Provided we have agreed a time and date to have the meeting!”
“You can feel very alone when your supervisor is on holidays”, said one of our survey respondents, Samantha, who graduated last year with a Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering. “At various stages I found it useful to talk to others who could help, for example the library staff during the literature search and review stage. It was also useful to become friendly with other research students who were working the lab at the college. Even if I didn’t know them, I might offer to buy doctoral student a coffee in exchange for some advice”. “Librarians are another great person to get in contact with, particularly during the early stages of your research such as your literature review”, said Mark Campbell. “They can help you with literature, and usually can show you examples of completed thesis and dissertations. They are also familiar with structure, layout, style and so on”. Most college libraries have a database or catalogue of past theses.
“It’s important to recognise that your supervisor is not the only expert you can turn to” said Brian, a Computer Science graduate: “My research involved a rarely used statistical analysis technique and my supervisor was unfamiliar with it. She suggested that I speak with one of the Research Methods lecturers at the college, which I found very useful. I also got in contact, via an online forum, with another researcher in Canada who was using the same technique, so we were able to compare notes”.
“The best way to deal with the absence of a supervisor is to ask: who else has this problem, or who else can help me with this problem?” says Mark Campbell of Thesis Upgrade. “The answer might include people from your support network, such as family, friends, fellow students, work colleagues, lecturers, tutors, librarians, school administrators, laboratory workers, people in the field … the list is endless. Or it may include resources from supportive sources, such as Thesis Upgrade’s practical research guidance.”