Effective supervision practices are essential for fostering productive, supportive, and enriching relationships between graduate supervisors and their students. This page shares approaches that can help supervisors guide their students while also supporting their own well-being while enacting this central pedagogical role.
There is a growing body of knowledge related to graduate supervision, including how supervisors learn best, what students need and want, and how supervisors can stay well through intentional efforts. Learning to supervise graduate students requires intentional efforts grounded in the scholarship of supervisory teaching and learning. Supervisory pedagogy is not innate, nor should its enactment be solely based upon one's own experience of being supervised.
The supervisor’s principal task consists of helping students realize their scholarly potential.
- This can only be accomplished in a relationship that offers insights born of experience, and furnishes the requisite challenges, stimulation, guidance and genuine support.
- The student has a right to expect expertise, accessibility and support from the supervisor.
- The supervisor must offer substantive and procedural assistance with the design, planning and conduct of feasible research projects, introduction to the network of scholars in the area of specialization, and support for the presentation and publication of research results. At the same time, the supervisor must ensure that the scholarly standards of the university and the discipline are met in the student’s work.
Commit to ongoing learning and collaboration: approach supervision as a dynamic, reciprocal process where both supervisor and student learn and grow together.
Share responsibility for academic and professional goals: Work together to set clear goals, provide guidance, and support the student’s success within and beyond graduate school.
Respect, include, and support the whole person: Acknowledge and value the student’s full identity, lived experiences, and well-being throughout their academic journey.
The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies lists the following as Best Practices for Graduate Supervision:
- A supervisor should be identified in a timely fashion
- The supervisory committees should be established early
- Expectations, roles and responsibilities of graduate students and supervisors should be made clear
- Supervisors should be readily accessible to their students, and regular monitoring and feedback should be ensured.
- Student-supervisor relationships should be professional
- Intellectual debate and challenge should be encouraged and supported
- Supervisors should be mentors
- Issues of intellectual property and authorship should be made clear
- Conflicts should be resolved at the lowest level possible
- Continuity is important in graduate supervision
- Alternative supervision should be available
- Students have substantial responsibilities for managing their own graduate education
A Framework for Good Supervisory Practice
Supervision scholar, Stan Taylor's (2019) Framework for Good Supervisory Practice (.pdf) is instructive for York University Graduate Faculty. The following 10 components may be considered a best practice for planning and enacting your important role.
Recruitment and selection
- Consider publicizing your areas of supervisory expertise
- Interview prospective applicants, and invite them to interview you
Supervisory relationships with candidates
- Establish clear expectations from the start, including how these are going to be met
- Be aware of supervisory styles and their impact on students
- Recognize that relationships change over time, as does the nature of the support they require from supervisors
Supervisory relationships with co-supervisors
- Clarify roles with co-supervisors and students at the start
- Clarify expectations associated with the student's work
- Regularly review the co-supervision arrangements
Supporting candidates’ research projects
- Advise on a choice of topic, research proposal and overall plan
- Advise on aspects of research ethics and integrity
- Advise and assist on research skill development
Encouraging candidates to write and giving appropriate feedback
- Encourage students to write from the start of their studies
- Support the development of their academic writing
- Give timely, constructive and actionable feedback
Keeping the research on track and monitoring progress
- Support and motivate students to progress in their studies
- Build in monitoring as part of typical supervisory meetings
- Assist the student to complete on time
Supporting candidates’ personal, professional and career development
- Discuss and role model work-life balance
- Connect students with disciplinary networks and activities
- Support your students, while knowing your boundaries
- Support the development of employment-related skills
Supporting candidates through completion and final examination
- Work with students to finalize their thesis/dissertation/creative work
- Assess and advise on readiness to proceed to defence
- Be knowledgeable of relevant policies, timelines and outcome scenarios and demystify for your student
- Support the student to prepare for defence & afterwards
Supporting candidates to disseminate their research
- Modelling the process of publication/dissemination
- Encourage candidates to publish/disseminate as they go
- Consider co-publishing
Reflecting upon and enhancing practice
Supervision is a pedagogical practice that benefits from both reflection and evaluation. Through intentional efforts, a supervisor can determine their strengths and weaknesses.
- Undertake initial and continuing professional development
- Reflect on your practice. Seek feedback from supervisees
- Consider contributing to the development of other supervisors
Helpful Resources
- Read the YorkU Characteristics of Effective Supervision (.pdf). One way to reflect on your effectiveness as a graduate supervisor is to assess the characteristics and practices associated with effective supervision. This resource can be used as a starting point for you to explore areas to develop along with areas to leverage.
- Read the Co-Supervision Planning Guide (pdf). The guide gives supervisors across all disciplines a shared space to align on roles, responsibilities, and student success. Six sections support the supervision journey, working best when both supervisors complete them together.
- Read A Good Supervisor: Ten Facts of Caring Supervision (.pdf) by Maatta, K. (2015). This article describes the elements of caring supervision in ten facts that illustrate the multidimensional nature of a supervision relationship.
- Read Beginner's Guide to Supervising a PhD Researcher (.pdf) by Guccione, K & Stefanatos, R. (2023). This beginner’s guide to supervision has been created for anyone who supports postgraduate researchers (PGRs) with any aspect of their research or the completion of their degree.
- Read Exploring Best Practices in Supervision (.pdf) by Baily, K., Parrott, K., Long, M., Brannan, E., & Burtch, T. This qualitative study explored the supervision practices of graduate assistant supervisors at two large research institutions.
- Read the Golden Rules for Supervision (pdf). Graduate supervision is a significant responsibility and with these golden rules as your guide, you will be equipped to lead with care, confidence, and a commitment to ethical, effective, and respectful supervisory practice.
- Read Nature's Guide for Mentors (.pdf) by Lee, A. , Dennis, C. & Campbell, P. (2017). Having a good mentor early in your career can mean the difference between success and failure in any field and the authors look at what makes a good mentor.
- Read Spotlight on Best Graduate Supervision Practices (.pdf) from University Affairs by Berrada, M & Halton, D. (2023). The authors reached out to academics who have won a graduate supervision award to learn more about their winning practices.
- Read The Good Supervision Framework (.pdf) by Taylor, S. (2019). The framework acknowledges the demanding set of roles involved in modern research supervision. It is designed to set expectations for all supervisors and to support supervisor development programmes and is informed by academic research into doctoral education and has been validated during a pilot study involving research supervisors across the UK.
In graduate supervision communication, there is the 'what' to discuss, and then 'how' we discuss. For the 'what' of communication, there are several important things to discuss with your graduate student, with some more appropriate at the start of the relationship, and others later in the student's journey. Supervisors are invited to make use of the YorkU Strong Start to Supervision Checklist during meetings with their students, co-selecting sections to discuss. The 'how' of discussion can be related to our style of supervision as well as our general approach to communication. Both of these may or may not be effective with our students, thus necessitating transparent discussions related to communication styles and approaches that work best for both members of the supervisory dyad. Taking into account cultural, generational and other aspects of communication is critical.
- Read Surprisingly Good Talk: Misunderstanding Others Creates a Barrier to Constructive Confrontation (.pdf) by Dungan, L., and Epley, N. (2024). The authors report on a series of experiments indicating that people’s interest in having constructive confrontations is based in part on their expectations of how the people they are confronting will respond.
- Read the Talking Points Tool (.pdf) by Savoy, J., Markey, M., and Grady, H. (2018). The article is a response to communication disconnect and the development of a brief intervention to facilitate conversations.
- View Supervision Styles and Supervisory Management and Changes Over Time (.pdf) This 2-page infographic illustrates four supervision styles based on varying levels of structure and support and although supervisors may prefer one style, it does not preclude movement as needed to other styles.
- Read The Role of Intercultural Competence on Graduate Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship and Well-Being (.pdf) by Amery, E., Koh, K., Diaz-Caceres, Z., and Paris, B. The authors present the current availability of professional learning opportunities to develop intercultural communicative competence and conclude with recommendations.
- Read Using a Multicultural Framework to Assess Supervisees' Perceptions of Culturally Competent Supervision (.pdf) by Ancis, J. & Marshall, D. (2010). Counseling and psychology trainees who indicated a high degree of interest in multicultural issues were interviewed about their supervisory experiences to assess their perceptions of culturally competent supervision.
- Read Gaswéñdah: A framework for graduate supervision with Indigenous graduate students (pdf). This is a graduate supervision framework that centers Indigenous ways of knowing and relational accountability to support Indigenous graduate students’ self-determination, safety, and success.
- Read the YorkU Strong Start to Supervision: An International Graduate Student Guide. It aims to bring awareness to the unique aspects of the International graduate student experience while fostering open dialogue between supervisor and student. The Companion Guide is structured around the phases that International graduate students follow from pre-arrival to pre-graduation in order to provide the supervisor with a complete picture of their experiences.
- Read the Supporting Mature and Part-Time Graduate Students Companion Guide (pdf). The guide aims to help supervisors create flexible, inclusive supervision relationships that honour the lives and strengths of students balancing graduate school with work, caregiving, and community commitments.
- UPDATED! Read the new guide from the GSSHub Neurodiversity-affirming Supervision for Graduate Student Success (pdf). The guide is designed to centre the lived experiences of neurodivergent graduate students while fostering open, respectful, and supportive relationships between supervisors and students.