A pan-University initiative designed to enhance the quality of graduate supervision is underway at York.
The Graduate Supervision Support Hub (GSSHub), funded by a three-year Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) grant, is designed to foster strong supervisory relationships that benefit both students and faculty.
The GSSHub is driven by the Principles for Graduate Supervision at Ontario Universities and will create a supportive infrastructure that promotes student success. Cheryl van Daalen Smith, associate dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, says it provides an opportunity to value and nurture supervisory relationships that are mutually enriching, and to foster support through collegial means.
It will offer a resource-rich toolkit to provide dedicated, solution-focused supports for supervisors to enhance the pedagogical skills associated with assisting graduate student research, scholarship and professional development. It will also provide graduate students with the skills associated with being in a supervisory relationship.
“We want to meet graduate supervisors and students where they are, consider the gaps and build capacity from a place of encouragement and learning,” says Tracy Bhoola, program manager of the GSSHub. “We want the hub to be collaborative, to amplify effective practices and to co-create a climate of supervisory excellence that is enjoyable and valued.”
In 2023, the GSSHub was little more than a twinkle in the eyes of van Daalen Smith. Realizing the relationship between graduate students and their supervisors could be strengthened with training and support, she applied for a three-year AIF grant. Her proposal included hiring someone with the appropriate background, which turned out to be Bhoola. “Her vision and wide-angle lens has been a real game changer,” van Daalen Smith says.
Since then, the GSSHub has been shaped through extensive consultations and surveys. Actively collaborating to discuss and advance topics related to graduate supervision and pedagogy across Canada is vital, Bhoola notes. This collaborative effort was exemplified by the GSSHub’s initiative to host its first national conference, titled "Collaborative, Constructive, Considerate: Fostering Dialogue on Best Practices in Graduate Supervision Canada." The next conference will be hosted by Memorial University of Newfoundland in May 2025.
In June 2025, the GSSHub will launch a toolkit for graduate supervision, supporting both supervisors and students, says Bhoola. It will include resources for the supervision journey, wellness and professional development. Key features include the Strong Start to Supervision Checklist, its International Student Companion Guide and the Supporting Students in Distress: A Response Guide for Graduate Supervisors. It will feature best-practice videos and 30-minute recorded sessions that Bhoola has created, called Supervision Sparkshops.
“Effective supervision is key to supervisor and student well-being and success,” Bhoola says. “Good supervision is not innate. This relationship will thrive on dignity, collaboration and respect if it has the support it needs. The GSSHub will work to provide events, resources, tools and effective practices needed so supervisors and students can thrive as they move along the graduate supervision journey.”
Among those involved with the initiative is Jennifer Hodder, a nurse educator at Memorial University of Newfoundland who graduated from the Centre for Nursing Studies, part of Memorial, in 2004. She began graduate studies in nursing at York’s master’s nursing program in 2019, after working at St. Michael’s Hospital in trauma and the neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit for 20 years. Hodder developed a thesis on the effect of gun violence on nurses who care for gunshot victims.
Her involvement in assisting the GSSHub’s professional development of supervisors was to supply a grad student perspective on the need for a supportive, human-centered approach to supervision.
“As I'm learning, being a new member of the academic world can be a bit of a lonely journey, whether you're a student or a faculty member, because it’s very easy to end up working in a silo,” Hodder says. “I think in many ways the hub is meant to build a community of practice so you're not alone, so you have people you know you can come to who are trusted – knowledgeable individuals about supervision.”
Hodder’s own students have told her they appreciate her kindness and the safe space she creates for learning. She credits her graduate supervisor for encouraging a collaborative and human-centered approach, something Hodder believes will be reinforced and encouraged through the work of the GSSHub.
Bhoola expects the same. “It was important for us to root the work of the GSSHub in the principles we wanted, namely dignity, mutuality and respect. If we start from a place of kindness, then everything we want to create comes from or builds on those values.”
With files from Julie Carl