good phd advisor

Community Blog

Keep up-to-date on postgraduate related issues with our quick reads written by students, postdocs, professors and industry leaders.

What Makes A Good PhD Supervisor?

By Dr Harry Hothi
August 12, 2020

A good PhD supervisor has a track record of supervising PhD students through to completion, has a strong publication record, is active in their research field, has sufficient time to provide adequate supervision, is genuinely interested in your project, can provide mentorship and has a supportive personality.

Introduction

The indicators that you’ll have the best chance of succeeding in your PhD project are multi-factorial. You’ll need to secure funding, find a research project that you’re interested in and is within your academic area of expertise, maybe even write your own research proposal, and find a good supervisor that will help guide you through PhD life.

As you research more into life as a doctoral student, you’ll appreciate that choosing a good supervisor is one of the most important factors that can influence the success of your project, and even If you complete your PhD at all. You need to find a good supervisory relationship with someone who has a genuine research interest in your project.

This page outlines the top qualities to look for as indicators of an ideal PhD supervisor. But before we get to that, we should be clear on precisely what the supervisor is there to do, and what they are not.

The Role of a PhD Supervisor

A PhD supervisor is there to guide you as you work through PhD life and help you make informed decisions about how you shape your PhD project. The key elements of their supervisory role include:

To help ensure that you stay on schedule and maintain constant progress of your research so that you ultimately finish your PhD within your intended time frame, typically three to four years.
To advise and guide you based on their knowledge and expertise in your subject area.
To help you in the decision-making process as you design, prepare and execute your study design.
To work with you as you analyse your raw data and begin to draw conclusions about key findings that are coming out of your research.
To provide feedback and edits where necessary on your manuscripts and elements of your thesis writing.
To encourage and motivate you and provide ongoing support as a mentor.
To provide support at a human level, beyond just the academic challenges.

It’s important that you know from the outset what a supervisor isn’t there to do, so that your expectations of the PhDstudent-supervisor relationship are correct. A supervisor cannot and should not create your study design or tell you how you should run your experiments or help you write your thesis. Broadly speaking, you as a PhD student will create, develop and refine content for your thesis, and your supervisor will help you improve this content by providing you with continuous constructive feedback.

There’s a balance to be found here in what makes a good PhD supervisor, ranging from one extreme of providing very little support during a research project, to becoming too involved in the running of the project to the extent that it takes away from it being an independent body of work by the graduate student themselves. Ultimately, what makes a good supervisor is someone you can build a rapport with, who helps bring out the best in you to produce a well written, significant body of research that contributes novel findings to your subject area.

Read on to learn the key qualities you should consider when looking for a good PhD supervisor.

Qualities to Look For in A Good PhD Supervisor

1. a track record of successful phd student supervision.

Good PhD Supervisor taking students to Completion

A quick first check to gauge how good a prospective supervisor is is to find out how many students they’ve successfully supervised in the past; i.e. how many students have earned their PhD under their supervision. Ideally, you’d want to go one step further and find out:

How many students they’ve supervised in total previously and of those, what percentage have gone onto gain their PhDs; however, this level of detail may not always be easy to find online. Most often though, a conversation with a potential supervisor and even their current or previous students should help you get an idea of this.
What were the project titles and specifically the areas of research that they supervised on? Are these similar to your intended project or are they significantly different from the type of work performed in the academic’s lab in the past? Of the current students in the lab, are there any projects that could complement yours
Did any of the previous PhD students publish the work of their doctoral research in peer-reviewed journals and present at conferences? It’s a great sign if they have, and in particular, if they’re named first authors in some or all of these publications.

This isn’t to say that a potential supervisor without a track record of PhD supervision is necessarily a bad fit, especially if the supervisor is relatively new to the position and is still establishing their research group. It is, however, reassuring if you know they have supervision experience in supporting students to successful PhD completion.

2. Is an Expert in their Field of Research

As a PhD candidate, you will want your supervisor to have a high level of research expertise within the field that your own research topic sits in. This expertise will be essential if they are to help guide you through your research and keep you on track to what is most novel and impactful to your research area.

Your supervisor doesn’t necessarily need to have all the answers to questions that arise in your specific PhD project, but should know enough to be able to have useful conversations about your research. It will be your responsibility to discover the answers to problems as they arise, and you should even expect to complete your PhD with a higher level of expertise about your project than your supervisor.

The best way to determine if your supervisor has the expertise to supervise you properly is to look at their publication track record. The things you need to look for are:

How often do they publish papers in peer-reviewed journals, and are they still actively involved in new papers coming out in the research field?
What type of journals have they published in? For example, are most papers in comparatively low impact factor journals, or do they have at least some in the ‘big’ journals within your field?
How many citations do they have from their research? This can be a good indicator of the value that other researchgroups place on these publications; having 50 papers published that have been cited only 10 times may (but not always) suggest that this research is not directly relevant to the subject area or focus from other groups.
How many co-authors has your potential supervisor published with? Many authors from different institutions is a good indicator of a vast collaborative professional network that could be useful to you.

There’re no hard metrics here as to how many papers or citations an individual needs to be considered an expert, and these numbers can vary considerably between different disciplines. Instead, it’s better to get a sense of where your potential supervisor’s track record sits in comparison to other researchers in the same field; remember that it would be unfair to directly compare the output of a new university lecturer with a well-established professor who has naturally led more research projects.

Equally, this exercise is a good way for you to better understand how interested your supervisor will be in your research; if you find that much of their research output is directly related to your PhD study, then it’s logical that your supervisor has a real interest here. While the opposite is not necessarily true, it’s understandable from a human perspective that a supervisor may be less interested in a project that doesn’t help to further their own research work, especially if they’re already very busy.

Two excellent resources to look up publications are Google Scholar and ResearchGate .

3. Has Enough Time to Provide Good PhD Supervision

PhD Supervisor should have enought time to see you

This seems like an obvious point, but it’s worth emphasising: how smoothly your PhD goes and ultimately how successful it is, will largely be influenced by how much time your research supervisor has to provide guidance, constructive academic advice and mentorship. The fact that your supervisor is the world’s leading expert in your field becomes a moot point if they don’t have time to meet you.

A good PhD supervisor will take the time to meet with you regularly in person (ideally) or remotely and be reachable and responsive to questions as and when they arise (e.g. through email or video calling). As a student, you want to have a research environment where you know you can drop by your supervisors’ office for a quick chat, or that you’ll see them around the university regularly; chance encounters and corridor discussions are sometimes the most impactful when working through problems.

Unsurprisingly, however, most academics who are well-known experts in their field are also usually some of the busiest too. It’s common for established academic supervisors to have several commitments competing for their time. These can include teaching and supervising undergraduate students, masters students and post-docs, travelling to collaborator meetings or invited talks, managing the growth of their academic department or graduate school, sitting on advisory boards and writing grants for funding applications. Beware of the other obligations they may have and how this could impact your work relationship.

You’ll need to find a balance here to find a PhD supervisor who has the academic knowledge to support you, but also the time to do so; talking to their current and past students will help you get a sense of this. It’s also reassuring to know that your supervisor has a permanent position within your university and has no plans for a sabbatical during your time as a PhD researcher.

4. Is a Good Mentor with a Supportive Personality

A PhD project is an exercise in independently producing a substantial body of research work; the primary role of your supervisor should be to provide mentoring to help you achieve this. You want to have a supervisor with the necessary academic knowledge, but it is just as important to have a supportive supervisor who is actively willing and able to provide you constructive criticism on your work in a consistent manner. You’ll likely get a sense of their personality during your first few meetings with them when discussing your research proposal; if you feel there’s a disconnect between you as a PhD student and your potential supervisor at this stage, it’s better to decide on other options with different supervisors.

A good supervisor will help direct you towards the best outcomes in your PhD research when you reach crossroads. They will work with you to develop a structure for your thesis and encourage you to set deadlines to work to and push you to achieve these. A good mentor should be able to recognise when you need more support in a specific area, be it a technical academic hurdle or simply some guidance in developing efficient work patterns and routines, and have the communication skills to help you recognise and overcome them.

A good supervisor should share the same mindset as you about finishing your PhD within a reasonable time frame; in the UK this would be within three to four years as a full-time university student. Their encouragement should reflect this and (gently) push you to set and reach mini-milestones throughout your project to ensure you stay on track with progress. This is a great example of when a supportive personality and positive attitude is essential for you both to maintain a good professional relationship throughout a PhD. The ideal supervisor will bring out the best in you without becoming prescriptive in their guidance, allowing you the freedom to develop your own working style.

Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest.

To sum up, the qualities you should look for in a good PhD supervisor are that they have a strong understanding of your research field, demonstrated by regular and impactful publications, have a proven track record of PhD supervision, have the time to support you, and will do so by providing mentorship rather than being a ‘boss’.

As a final point, if you’re considering a research career after you finish your PhD journey, get a sense of if there may any research opportunities to continue as a postdoc with the supervisor if you so wanted.

Tips for working from home as an Academic

Learn about defining your workspace, having a list of daily tasks and using technology to stay connected, all whilst working from home as a research student.

The unit of analysis refers to the main parameter that you’re investigating in your research project or study.

This post explains where and how to write the list of figures in your thesis or dissertation.

Join thousands of other students and stay up to date with the latest PhD programmes, funding opportunities and advice.

Browse PhDs Now

Reference management software solutions offer a powerful way for you to track and manage your academic references. Read our blog post to learn more about what they are and how to use them.

Find out the different dissertation and thesis binding options, which is best, advantages and disadvantages, typical costs, popular services and more.

Dr Jadavji completed her PhD in Medical Genetics & Neuroscience from McGill University, Montreal, Canada in 2012. She is now an assistant professor involved in a mix of research, teaching and service projects.

Guy is in the 3rd and final year of his PhD in Immunology and Microbiology at The University of Newcastle, Australia. His research primarily focuses on investigating roles of our immune system outside of the typical pathogen surveillance.

Join Thousands of Students

Loading metrics

Open Access

Ten simple rules for choosing a PhD supervisor

Contributed equally to this work with: Loay Jabre, Catherine Bannon, J. Scott P. McCain, Yana Eglit

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Loay Jabre,
Catherine Bannon,
J. Scott P. McCain,

Published: September 30, 2021

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009330
Reader Comments

Citation: Jabre L, Bannon C, McCain JSP, Eglit Y (2021) Ten simple rules for choosing a PhD supervisor. PLoS Comput Biol 17(9): e1009330. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009330

Editor: Scott Markel, Dassault Systemes BIOVIA, UNITED STATES

Copyright: © 2021 Jabre et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The PhD beckons. You thought long and hard about why you want to do it, you understand the sacrifices and commitments it entails, and you have decided that it is the right thing for you. Congratulations! Undertaking a doctoral degree can be an extremely rewarding experience, greatly enhancing your personal, intellectual, and professional development. If you are still on the fence about whether or not you want to pursue a PhD, see [ 1 , 2 ] and others to help you decide.

As a PhD student in the making, you will have many important decisions to consider. Several of them will depend on your chosen discipline and research topic, the institution you want to attend, and even the country where you will undertake your degree. However, one of the earliest and most critical decisions you will need to make transcends most other decisions: choosing your PhD thesis supervisor. Your PhD supervisor will strongly influence the success and quality of your degree as well as your general well-being throughout the program. It is therefore vital to choose the right supervisor for you. A wrong choice or poor fit can be disastrous on both a personal and professional levels—something you obviously want to avoid. Unfortunately, however, most PhD students go through the process of choosing a supervisor only once and thus do not get the opportunity to learn from previous experiences. Additionally, many prospective PhD students do not have access to resources and proper guidance to rely on when making important academic decisions such as those involved in choosing a PhD supervisor.

In this short guide, we—a group of PhD students with varied backgrounds, research disciplines, and academic journeys—share our collective experiences with choosing our own PhD supervisors. We provide tips and advice to help prospective students in various disciplines, including computational biology, in their quest to find a suitable PhD supervisor. Despite procedural differences across countries, institutions, and programs, the following rules and discussions should remain helpful for guiding one’s approach to selecting their future PhD supervisor. These guidelines mostly address how to evaluate a potential PhD supervisor and do not include details on how you might find a supervisor. In brief, you can find a supervisor anywhere: seminars, a class you were taught, internet search of interesting research topics, departmental pages, etc. After reading about a group’s research and convincing yourself it seems interesting, get in touch! Make sure to craft an e-mail carefully, demonstrating you have thought about their research and what you might do in their group. After finding one or several supervisors of interest, we hope that the rules bellow will help you choose the right supervisor for you.

Rule 1: Align research interests

You need to make sure that a prospective supervisor studies, or at the very least, has an interest in what you want to study. A good starting point would be to browse their personal and research group websites (though those are often outdated), their publication profile, and their students’ theses, if possible. Keep in mind that the publication process can be slow, so recent publications may not necessarily reflect current research in that group. Pay special attention to publications where the supervisor is senior author—in life sciences, their name would typically be last. This would help you construct a mental map of where the group interests are going, in addition to where they have been.

Be proactive about pursuing your research interests, but also flexible: Your dream research topic might not currently be conducted in a particular group, but perhaps the supervisor is open to exploring new ideas and research avenues with you. Check that the group or institution of interest has the facilities and resources appropriate for your research, and/or be prepared to establish collaborations to access those resources elsewhere. Make sure you like not only the research topic, but also the “grunt work” it requires, as a topic you find interesting may not be suitable for you in terms of day-to-day work. You can look at the “Methods” sections of published papers to get a sense for what this is like—for example, if you do not like resolving cryptic error messages, programming is probably not for you, and you might want to consider a wet lab–based project. Lastly, any research can be made interesting, and interests change. Perhaps your favorite topic today is difficult to work with now, and you might cut your teeth on a different project.

Rule 2: Seek trusted sources

Discussing your plans with experienced and trustworthy people is a great way to learn more about the reputation of potential supervisors, their research group dynamics, and exciting projects in your field of interest. Your current supervisor, if you have one, could be aware of position openings that are compatible with your interests and time frame and is likely to know talented supervisors with good reputations in their fields. Professors you admire, reliable student advisors, and colleagues might also know your prospective supervisor on various professional or personal levels and could have additional insight about working with them. Listen carefully to what these trusted sources have to say, as they can provide a wealth of insider information (e.g., personality, reputation, interpersonal relationships, and supervisory styles) that might not be readily accessible to you.

Rule 3: Expectations, expectations, expectations

A considerable portion of PhD students feel that their program does not meet original expectations [ 3 ]. To avoid being part of this group, we stress the importance of aligning your expectations with the supervisor’s expectations before joining a research group or PhD program. Also, remember that one person’s dream supervisor can be another’s worst nightmare and vice versa—it is about a good fit for you. Identifying what a “good fit” looks like requires a serious self-appraisal of your goals (see Rule 1 ), working style (see Rule 5 ), and what you expect in a mentor (see Rule 4 ). One way to conduct this self-appraisal is to work in a research lab to get experiences similar to a PhD student (if this is possible).

Money!—Many people have been conditioned to avoid the subject of finances at all costs, but setting financial expectations early is crucial for maintaining your well-being inside and outside the lab. Inside the lab, funding will provide chemicals and equipment required for you to do cool research. It is also important to know if there will be sufficient funding for your potential projects to be completed. Outside the lab, you deserve to get paid a reasonable, livable stipend. What is the minimum required take-home stipend, or does that even exist at the institution you are interested in? Are there hard cutoffs for funding once your time runs out, or does the institution have support for students who take longer than anticipated? If the supervisor supplies the funding, do they end up cutting off students when funds run low, or do they have contingency plans? ( Fig 1 ).

PPT PowerPoint slide
PNG larger image
TIFF original image

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009330.g001

Professional development opportunities—A key aspect of graduate school training is professional development. In some research groups, it is normal for PhD students to mentor undergraduate students or take a semester to work in industry to get more diverse experiences. Other research groups have clear links with government entities, which is helpful for going into policy or government-based research. These opportunities (and others) are critical for your career and next steps. What are the career development opportunities and expectations of a potential supervisor? Is a potential supervisor happy to send students to workshops to learn new skills? Are they supportive of public outreach activities? If you are looking at joining a newer group, these sorts of questions will have to be part of the larger set of conversations about expectations. Ask: “What sort of professional development opportunities are there at the institution?”

Publications—Some PhD programs have minimum requirements for finishing a thesis (i.e., you must publish a certain number of papers prior to defending), while other programs leave it up to the student and supervisor to decide on this. A simple and important topic to discuss is: How many publications are expected from your PhD and when will you publish them? If you are keen to publish in high-impact journals, does your prospective supervisor share that aim? (Although question why you are so keen to do so, see the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment ( www.sfdora.org ) to learn about the pitfalls of journal impact factor.)

Rule 4: It takes two to tango

Sooner or later, you will get to meet and interview with a prospective PhD supervisor. This should go both ways: Interview them just as much as they are interviewing you. Prepare questions and pay close attention to how they respond. For example, ask them about their “lab culture,” research interests (especially for the future/long term), and what they are looking for in a graduate student. Do you feel like you need to “put on an act” to go along with the supervisor (beyond just the standard interview mode)? Represent yourself, and not the person you think they are looking for. All of us will have some interviews go badly. Remember that discovering a poor fit during the interview has way fewer consequences than the incompatibility that could arise once you have committed to a position.

To come up with good questions for the prospective supervisor, first ask yourself questions. What are you looking for in a mentor? People differ in their optimal levels of supervision, and there is nothing wrong with wanting more or less than your peers. How much career guidance do you expect and does the potential supervisor respect your interests, particularly if your long-term goals do not include academia? What kind of student might not thrive in this research group?

Treat the PhD position like a partnership: What do you seek to get out of it? Keep in mind that a large portion of research is conducted by PhD students [ 4 ], so you are also an asset. Your supervisor will provide guidance, but the PhD is your work. Make sure you and your mentor are on the same page before committing to what is fundamentally a professional contract akin to an apprenticeship (see “ Rule 3 ”).

Rule 5: Workstyle compatibility

Sharing interests with a supervisor does not necessarily guarantee you would work well together, and just because you enjoyed a course by a certain professor does not mean they are the right PhD supervisor for you. Make sure your expectations for work and work–life approaches are compatible. Do you thrive on structure, or do you need freedom to proceed at your own pace? Do they expect you to be in the lab from 6:00 AM to midnight on a regular basis (red flag!)? Are they comfortable with you working from home when you can? Are they around the lab enough for it to work for you? Are they supportive of alternative work hours if you have other obligations (e.g., childcare, other employment, extracurriculars)? How is the group itself organized? Is there a lab manager or are the logistics shared (fairly?) between the group members? Discuss this before you commit!

Two key attributes of a research group are the supervisor’s career stage and number of people in the group. A supervisor in a later career stage may have more established research connections and protocols. An earlier career stage supervisor comes with more opportunities to shape the research direction of the lab, but less access to academic political power and less certainty in what their supervision style will be (even to themselves). Joining new research groups provides a great opportunity to learn how to build a lab if you are considering that career path but may take away time and energy from your thesis project. Similarly, be aware of pros and cons of different lab sizes. While big labs provide more opportunity for collaborations and learning from fellow lab members, their supervisors generally have less time available for each trainee. Smaller labs tend to have better access to the supervisor but may be more isolating [ 5 , 6 ]. Also note that large research groups tend to be better for developing extant research topics further, while small groups can conduct more disruptive research [ 7 ].

Rule 6: Be sure to meet current students

Meeting with current students is one of the most important steps prior to joining a lab. Current students will give you the most direct and complete sense of what working with a certain supervisor is actually like. They can also give you a valuable sense of departmental culture and nonacademic life. You could also ask to meet with other students in the department to get a broader sense of the latter. However, if current students are not happy with their current supervisor, they are unlikely to tell you directly. Try to ask specific questions: “How often do you meet with your supervisor?”, “What are the typical turnaround times for a paper draft?”, “How would you describe the lab culture?”, “How does your supervisor react to mistakes or unexpected results?”, “How does your supervisor react to interruptions to research from, e.g., personal life?”, and yes, even “What would you say is the biggest weakness of your supervisor?”

Rule 7: But also try to meet past students

While not always possible, meeting with past students can be very informative. Past students give you information on career outcomes (i.e., what are they doing now?) and can provide insight into what the lab was like when they were in it. Previous students will provide a unique perspective because they have gone through the entire process, from start to finish—and, in some cases, no longer feel obligated to speak well of their now former supervisor. It can also be helpful to look at previous students’ experiences by reading the acknowledgement section in their theses.

Rule 8: Consider the entire experience

Your PhD supervisor is only one—albeit large—piece of your PhD puzzle. It is therefore essential to consider your PhD experience as whole when deciding on a supervisor. One important aspect to contemplate is your mental health. Graduate students have disproportionately higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to the general population [ 8 ], so your mental health will be tested greatly throughout your PhD experience. We suggest taking the time to reflect on what factors would enable you to do your best work while maintaining a healthy work–life balance. Does your happiness depend on surfing regularly? Check out coastal areas. Do you despise being cold? Consider being closer to the equator. Do you have a deep-rooted phobia of koalas? Maybe avoid Australia. Consider these potentially even more important questions like: Do you want to be close to your friends and family? Will there be adequate childcare support? Are you comfortable with studying abroad? How does the potential university treat international or underrepresented students? When thinking about your next steps, keep in mind that although obtaining your PhD will come with many challenges, you will be at your most productive when you are well rested, financially stable, nourished, and enjoying your experience.

Rule 9: Trust your gut

You have made it to our most “hand-wavy” rule! As academics, we understand the desire for quantifiable data and some sort of statistic to make logical decisions. If this is more your style, consider every interaction with a prospective supervisor, from the first e-mail onwards, as a piece of data.

However, there is considerable value in trusting gut instincts. One way to trust your gut is to listen to your internal dialogue while making your decision on a PhD supervisor. For example, if your internal dialogue includes such phrases as “it will be different for me,” “I’ll just put my head down and work hard,” or “maybe their students were exaggerating,” you might want to proceed with caution. If you are saying “Wow! How are they so kind and intelligent?” or “I cannot wait to start!”, then you might have found a winner ( Fig 2 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009330.g002

Rule 10: Wash, rinse, repeat

The last piece of advice we give you is to do this lengthy process all over again. Comparing your options is a key step during the search for a PhD supervisor. By screening multiple different groups, you ultimately learn more about what red flags to look for, compatible work styles, your personal expectations, and group atmospheres. Repeat this entire process with another supervisor, another university, or even another country. We suggest you reject the notion that you would be “wasting someone’s time.” You deserve to take your time and inform yourself to choose a PhD supervisor wisely. The time and energy invested in a “failed” supervisor search would still be far less than what is consumed by a bad PhD experience ( Fig 3 ).

The more supervisors your interview and the more advice you get from peers, the more apparent these red flags will become.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009330.g003

Conclusions

Pursuing a PhD can be an extremely rewarding endeavor and a time of immense personal growth. The relationship you have with your PhD supervisor can make or break an entire experience, so make this choice carefully. Above, we have outlined some key points to think about while making this decision. Clarifying your own expectations is a particularly important step, as conflicts can arise when there are expectation mismatches. In outlining these topics, we hope to share pieces of advice that sometimes require “insider” knowledge and experience.

After thoroughly evaluating your options, go ahead and tackle the PhD! In our own experiences, carefully choosing a supervisor has led to relationships that morph from mentor to mentee into a collaborative partnership where we can pose new questions and construct novel approaches to answer them. Science is hard enough by itself. If you choose your supervisor well and end up developing a positive relationship with them and their group, you will be better suited for sound and enjoyable science.

View Article
Google Scholar
PubMed/NCBI
5. Smith D. The big benefits of working in a small lab. University Affairs. 2013. Available from: https://www.universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/the-big-benefits-of-working-in-a-small-lab/

Choosing a PhD Supervisor

Written by Ben Taylor

Your PhD supervisor will play a vital part in your PhD, providing you with the mentorship, feedback and support you need to succeed. That’s why it’s so important to spend time finding a supervisor for your PhD who will be a great fit for you and your project.

The role of a PhD supervisor is to use their own experience and expertise to support you throughout your project. A good supervisor will show interest in your project and provide regular feedback on your work.

Each person’s supervision experience depends on their university, department and personal preferences. While it’s expected you’ll meet with your supervisor regularly, this might mean weekly for some, and monthly for others. It’s important to make sure both you and your supervisor’s expectations match so that you can receive the best possible support.

This page covers how to find and choose a PhD supervisor. We’ve also explained the qualities of a good PhD supervisor.

How to find a PhD supervisor

How you'll find your PhD supervisor depends on whether you’re applying for an advertised project or putting forward your own research proposal .

If you’re applying for an advertised project , the process of finding a supervisor is simple. Usually they’ll be the academic who has devised the project in question, and the person you’ll be making your application to.

It’s still important to do your homework. Make sure you’re clued up on their research and able to ask sensible, specific questions about the project in your initial contact . Advertised projects – often with funding already attached – are much more common in STEM subjects , although you may still come across them in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences too.

If you’re proposing your own PhD project , you’ll need to do some investigation to find an academic whose research interests align with your own. The rest of this section will give you several pointers how you can do this.

Finding an expert in your field

First of all, you’ll want to have at least a rough idea of what you want your PhD topic to be. This is so that you can begin to narrow down prospective supervisors by research interests and focus on those that have expertise in your area.

This doesn’t necessarily have to mean finishing the final draft of your research proposal (that comes a little later), but you’ll need to have a decent plan of what you want to achieve with your PhD research so that you know you’re getting in touch with the right people (and not wasting your time – or theirs!).

There are several ways to do this:

Browsing the academic staff section of a university department website – This is where lecturers and professors will list their research interests, publications and the areas in which they’re keen to supervise PhD students. Some websites allow you to filter and search by interest. In other cases you’ll need to check these profiles individually – time-consuming but worth it.
Speaking to the academics at your current (or previous) university – These people will likely know exactly who the experts in your field are. They’ll probably even be experts themselves! If you already have a friendly relationship with a personal tutor or Masters dissertation supervisor, it’ll be good to have an informal chat about who they think could be a good fit for your work.
Checking who has been prolific in your research area – There are probably a few names that have come up repeatedly in your previous work at postgraduate level. It’s worth scouring bibliographies and chapters to learn more about the academics behind them. Read up on their current work and find out whether they’re accepting supervisees.
Scientific databases – If you’re a STEM student, scientific databases will give you lots of data with which to refine your search. This allows you to look for the most cited articles and thus find out who the leading researchers are.

Once you’ve done your research and have a good idea of the academic landscape around your proposed PhD topic, you should make a shortlist of around three potential supervisors to contact. Now is the time to make sure you’re really clued up on their academic background and current projects, so that you can make an excellent first impression when you get in touch with them.

Who can supervise a PhD student?

An academic doesn’t necessarily need to hold a senior role in order to supervise a PhD student. Junior research fellows and assistant professors often act as supervisors when their work is particularly relevant, as well as more senior professors and lecturers.

However, universities will have different policies on who exactly can supervise (and in what circumstances). It’s best to do your research if you think you’ve found the perfect supervisor candidate but they aren’t a lecturer.

Contacting a PhD supervisor

Our guide to contacting a PhD supervisor has everything you need to know about first contact, with tips on preparation, email etiquette, making a good impression and questions to ask.

How to choose a PhD supervisor

If you’re in a lucky enough position that you have two or more prospective supervisors that are happy to oversee your PhD project, there are several factors that you might consider when making your final decision:

What career stage your potential supervisor is at – An academic at the beginning of their career might have fewer professional commitments and therefore more time to supervise you. A senior lecturer or professor, meanwhile, may have an extremely busy professional life – but this could be counterbalanced by their expertise and experience.
Other supervisees – Find out what kind of work the supervisor has previously been (or is currently) involved in. You can normally see a list of current research students on a department website, for example. Are they engaged in similar work to you? See if you can find out what path previous supervisees took after finishing their PhD. Maybe stayed in the department or took up postdoc positions.
University facilities – If your choices of supervisor are at different universities, weigh up the benefits that might come with the specialist facilities and resources available at each institution.
University department – Depending on your preferences, you may want to work within a small, specialised department or a larger team that allows more scope for cross-disciplinary collaboration.

If you’re able to meet your potential supervisor – either in-person or via video call – that can also be a great way of gauging their personality and your chemistry. You’re going to be working with them for a minimum of three years, so you want to make sure you’re going to get on with them!

What are the qualities of a good PhD supervisor?

Now that you know how to find a supervisor for your project, you might be wondering about how to choose a good PhD supervisor. You’ll be spending a lot of time with them during your PhD, so it pays to understand what to look out for in terms of personality traits, expertise and experience.

#1 Substantial research expertise

The ideal PhD supervisor will be an expert in their academic field, with a wealth of publications, articles, chapters and books. They’ll also have a background in organising and presenting at conference events.

It’s also important that their expertise is up-to-date. You should look for evidence that they’re currently active in your research area, with recent publications and conference attendance. The quality of these publications is also important – prominent, peer-reviewed journals are ideal. If your prospective supervisor has lots of citations, that’s also a great sign.

#2 Clear about their career plans

After you’ve made initial contact with a supervisor, it’s good to get an idea of where they see their own future. If they’re planning to retire, go on sabbatical or change institution, that could cause problems for your PhD later down the line. It goes without saying that you want a supervisor who is going to stick around for the duration of your PhD.

#3 Previous experience as a PhD supervisor

Ideally, a supervisor should have a long track record of supervising PhD candidates, with plenty of experience helping them through the ups and downs that come with research. It’s well worth investigating how previous supervisees have done under the tutelage of your prospective supervisor – university websites, ResearchGate and LinkedIn are the best places to do this.

If you’re able to visit the department in person, speak to current PhD students to get an idea of how they’re getting on.

#4 Personality

It can be difficult to judge someone’s personality on the basis of emails, a video call or a chat over coffee, but try to decide if your potential supervisor is a good match for you on a personal level.

Do they seem enthusiastic about your work and inspiring about their own interests? Will they make a good mentor when it comes down to the hard work of completing your PhD? Are they more of a hands-on or hands-off supervisor?

#5 Organisational skills

Excellent organisational skills – both on your part and your supervisor’s part – are key to succeeding at a PhD. You’ll want a supervisor that is clear with their expectations, giving you deadlines where necessary but also having some flexibility that takes your personal situation into account.

You also want a supervisor who is easy to get hold of for feedback and advice, with regular office hours. Many academics are extremely busy, but you should expect your supervisor to find time for you where necessary.

Can I change my PhD supervisor?

There are a variety of reasons why someone may want or need to change their PhD supervisor. Issues with the working relationship or other circumstances could make a supervisor unable to provide proper support . Unfortunately these things happen, but universities are well equipped to help PhD students in these instances.

Usually PhD students wishing to change supervisors should contact their departmental head of postgraduate study to discuss the situation. They will then advise on the best course of action to take. If there is an available academic in the department with the right expertise for your project, then they will be assigned as your new supervisor. Otherwise, you may have to consider transferring to another university.

PhD supervisor guide

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work with a PhD supervisor, we've written a guide on what to expect from your PhD supervisor . Then, head over to our course listings where you can find information on interesting courses and their academic supervisors.

Our postgrad newsletter shares courses, funding news, stories and advice

Select your nearest city

You haven’t completed your profile yet. To get the most out of FindAPhD, finish your profile and receive these benefits:

Monthly chance to win one of ten £10 Amazon vouchers ; winners will be notified every month.*
The latest PhD projects delivered straight to your inbox
Access to our £6,000 scholarship competition
Weekly newsletter with funding opportunities, research proposal tips and much more
Early access to our physical and virtual postgraduate study fairs

Or begin browsing FindAPhD.com

or begin browsing FindAPhD.com

*Offer only available for the duration of your active subscription, and subject to change. You MUST claim your prize within 72 hours, if not we will redraw.

Do you want hassle-free information and advice?

Create your FindAPhD account and sign up to our newsletter:

Find out about funding opportunities and application tips
Receive weekly advice, student stories and the latest PhD news
Hear about our upcoming study fairs
Save your favourite projects, track enquiries and get personalised subject updates

Create your account

Looking to list your PhD opportunities? Log in here .

Career Advice

COVID-19 Is Making Us Rethink Everything

By Raechele L. Pope

You have / 5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in.

Istockphoto.com/sorbetto

With apologies to Stanley Kubrick, I initially wanted to title these thoughts Dr. Pandemic or: How I Learned to Start Worrying and Effectively Advise My Ph.D. Students . For those unfamiliar with the reference, in 1964, Kubrick directed and produced a gallows-humor comedy, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb , that satirized the Cold War fears and possibilities of nuclear conflict between the then Soviet Union and the United States. Many people consider the film to be one of the greatest comedies ever written, and it is one of the highest-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes.

To be clear, I don’t think anything about this pandemic is funny. Nor am I attempting to make connections between nuclear annihilation and the entire globe dealing with COVID-19. Instead, on a much more basic level, I am struck by how simply viewing Dr. Strangelove in 1964 and decades later influenced audience perceptions of the rationality and viability of war. It made people rethink what they thought they knew about conflict, conflict escalation and nuclear anxiety. I can’t help but find parallels in how COVID-19 is making me rethink everything I thought I knew about our work environment, processes, tasks and responsibilities.

Although the scope and depth with which COVID-19 has affected us and the work we do is still unfolding, I do know right now that it is making me deeply rethink everything, including our roles and responsibilities as faculty members. That even includes some tasks or responsibilities that don’t require a new skill set -- like teaching online did for some of us. Advising Ph.D. students during COVID-19 is one of those areas that we need to rethink.

Doctoral advisement -- specifically the working relationship between doctoral adviser and student -- is one of the key conditions for optimal doctoral degree completion. In fact, according to both doctoral students and their advisers , this relationship is of the utmost importance for student success. The relationship is obviously anchored in doctoral education, which is unlike any other academic experience students have had before and requires significant intellectual rigor, psychological flexibility, well-developed writing ability and independent research competence. This is true in even the best of times, but what we are all experiencing during this pandemic is magnifying this reality tenfold.

Within this important relationship, most doctoral students work independently because their advisers view them as high achieving, skilled and high functioning. Many advisers take a hands-off approach and rarely get involved in how students work, manage their time, or integrate their work and personal lives. Yet research has found that a vast majority of doctoral students have had significant difficulty with time management and balancing family life and other obligations and could use more guidance, direction and support.

Again, these are not typical times, and during this pandemic, doctoral students are also facing many of the same challenges that faculty members are struggling with, such as Zoom overload, childcare and homeschooling responsibilities, isolation, anxiety, health fears, difficulty maintaining a schedule, and low research productivity. They are also confronting their own distinct challenges, including funding insecurities, job prospect anxieties and evaluation fears (including how their ability to cope in these times will be judged).

As advisers, the best way we can provide support for our doctoral students and ensure their success, particularly now, is to reimagine and rethink our roles and responsibilities. Prior assumptions and expectations, held by many advisers, that all doctoral students should be able to self-motivate and self-regulate will not give students the essential tools they need to succeed. Some people would suggest, and research supports them, that these assumptions were never true. In fact, a positive doctoral student-faculty relationship, based on support, active engagement and guidance, and effective communication are the necessary foundation for doctoral student success.

Below are eight key recommendations for creating and maintaining affirming and student-centered advising in uncertain times.

Increase contact. Now more than ever, doctoral students need regular check-ins. Those check-ins need not be long, but they should be consistent and, in these times, initiated by the adviser. Doctoral students are often in a double bind -- they feel pressure to always be positive and competent and not show vulnerabilities regardless of how they actually feel. Just letting them know that they matter can make all the difference. It’s OK not to have a long agenda when you touch base with them. Just touch base. Isolation will lead to self-doubt about their progress and ability to finish, which is why checking in is so important.
Ask questions. Gather information about the lives of your students. Ask about their well-being and that of their family. Find out what they are doing for self-care. Let them know you are invested in them as a person. If you ask how they are doing, 90 percent of the time they will say “fine,” even if they are not. Assume they will not automatically tell you if they are struggling, and ask more than once. It might build trust if you are willing to share your own challenges as a scholar during these unprecedented times. In addition, broaden the range of questions you typically ask. Find out more about the effectiveness of their workspace, their schedule and how they are managing their online learning, their research and, most important, their lives.
Listen. Listen. Listen. When you ask questions, listen deeply for what they are not saying and how they may be engaged in performative sharing -- expressing what they think you want to hear. Follow up with additional questions. Show deep empathy, which means to acknowledge the feelings and experiences below the surface, those that are left unsaid. For example, if a student mentions that their living space is more crowded and hectic than usual, you might want to ask what personal and academic difficulties that overcrowding brings. Self-disclosing your own challenges is one way to increase their comfort in sharing their own.
Provide structure and accountability. Providing appropriate structure and accountability can be a positive strategy for those students who have been unable to provide it for themselves. Ilda Jimenez y West and other scholars found that 60 percent of doctoral students were struggling with time management and finding balance. And that was in the best of times, so we can assume that is probably worse now. Work with your students to create structure and accountability measures. Having a direct and honest conversation with each doctoral advisee will ensure that both of you have an accurate understanding of reasonable expectations. For some students, your role may be to pump the brakes and help them set more realistic goals. For others, you may need to provide structure and guidance to help them meet the most basic expectations. For their growth and engagement to occur, it is essential to find a proper balance of challenge and support.
Be flexible, understanding and humane. During these times, we have to understand that our students are balancing a lot. Help them set realistic goals and expectations. Be flexible when they are unable to meet those goals, and discuss with them how to remove obstacles. Chances are, they are already beating themselves up -- which is why we have to be the understanding and humane ones, giving them permission to engage in self-compassion. We are all experiencing grief and loss during this pandemic in ways that are not being recognized, understood and accepted.
Expect and accept the ups and downs. I think we can all agree that productivity is fleeting. All of us have good times and bad times, productive days and lost days. That is our new reality, and the sooner we accept the ups and downs, the easier it will be to help our students deal with them. Managing expectations is key.
Embrace the uncertain yet plan for the future. Our role as advisers is to continually acknowledge the unknown while also planning ahead. They are not mutually exclusive. To move forward, we plan and then replan as many times as necessary when our first plan does not work. Helping students accept that reality is a good place to start.
Provide culturally competent advising. One size does not fit all. Unless we listen and truly understand the lived experiences of our students, we will not be able to grasp their specific contextual and cultural realities. While we are currently having a shared experience as a country, it is not impacting us in uniform ways. Disparities that were always there have now suddenly become more visible.

We cannot assume. Instead we need to learn which of our students may be facing structural and systemic challenges that are not always apparent. For example, while as faculty members our lives have been disrupted, our socioeconomic status offers us some protection. For many of our students and their families, their lives have been devastated, economically and/or personally. Now is the time for us as advisers to look beyond our own experiences and privileges and learn about the challenges and inequities many of our students confront.

A shiny silver human-like robot stands pointing at a green chalkboard, where "A.I." is written in white chalk.

Memo to Faculty: AI Is Not Your Friend

The time to resist is now, Scott Latham writes.

Share This Article

Bad-Faith Counteroffers

Black and other minoritized faculty don’t receive equitable ones if they receive them at all, which harms both them a

Three white steps going up toward the right on a dark wall with bright yellow checkmarks atop each.

A 3-Step Process for Gaining a Tenure-Track Job

Susanna Semerdzhyan, a first-generation college graduate, shares strategies that helped her overcome the obstacles.

Word “accepted” with asterisk written in white letters on a black background

Let’s Finally Tackle the Problem of Pay Inequity

Higher ed must go beyond buzz words and stop hiding behind performative equity, which does not create change, w

Become a Member
Sign up for Newsletters
Learning & Assessment
Diversity & Equity
Career Development
Labor & Unionization
Shared Governance
Academic Freedom
Books & Publishing
Financial Aid
Residential Life
Free Speech
Physical & Mental Health
Race & Ethnicity
Sex & Gender
Socioeconomics
Traditional-Age
Adult & Post-Traditional
Teaching & Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Digital Publishing
Data Analytics
Administrative Tech
Alternative Credentials
Financial Health
Cost-Cutting
Revenue Strategies
Academic Programs
Physical Campuses
Mergers & Collaboration
Fundraising
Research Universities
Regional Public Universities
Community Colleges
Private Nonprofit Colleges
Minority-Serving Institutions
Religious Colleges
Women's Colleges
Specialized Colleges
For-Profit Colleges
Executive Leadership
Trustees & Regents
State Oversight
Accreditation
Politics & Elections
Supreme Court
Student Aid Policy
Science & Research Policy
State Policy
Colleges & Localities
Employee Satisfaction
Remote & Flexible Work
Staff Issues
Study Abroad
International Students in U.S.
U.S. Colleges in the World
Intellectual Affairs
Seeking a Faculty Job
Advancing in the Faculty
Seeking an Administrative Job
Advancing as an Administrator
Beyond Transfer
Call to Action
Confessions of a Community College Dean
Higher Ed Gamma
Higher Ed Policy
Just Explain It to Me!
Just Visiting
Law, Policy—and IT?
Leadership & StratEDgy
Leadership in Higher Education
Learning Innovation
Online: Trending Now
Resident Scholar
University of Venus
Student Voice
Academic Life
Health & Wellness
The College Experience
Life After College
Academic Minute
Weekly Wisdom
Reports & Data
Quick Takes
Advertising & Marketing
Consulting Services
Data & Insights
Hiring & Jobs
Event Partnerships

4 /5 Articles remaining this month.

Sign up for a free account or log in.

Create Free Account

View the latest institution tables

View the latest country/territory tables

How to choose the right PhD supervisor

4 red flags to be wary of in the search for a good match.

Gemma Conroy

Credit: Thomas Barwick/Getty

23 June 2020

Thomas Barwick/Getty

A PhD supervisor can make or break a candidate’s progress. It’s estimated that roughly half of all PhD candidates in North America do not complete their doctoral studies due to a lack of support from their supervisor.

“It’s a decision that should be taken very seriously,” says Anna Sverdlik, an educational psychologist at the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada.

“This is the person you could be working with for several years and it can shape who you are as an academic.”

Below are four tips that can help PhD candidates choose a suitable supervisor , and the red flags to watch out for:

1. Interview the supervisor

While most candidates focus on trying to impress a prospective supervisor, Emma Beckett took the opposite approach when she was choosing between institutions for her PhD.

“I approached each meeting as if I were interviewing the supervisor, and not the other way around,” says Beckett, a molecular nutrition scientist at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia.

“Forget the power dynamic and remember it’s about what’s best for your development.”

Asking the right questions can give students a better sense of whether a supervisor is the best match for them, says Sverdlik, who studies motivation and wellbeing in doctoral students.

“Talk to them and see what kind of person they are,” she says. “Students are often too grateful when someone shows an interest, and this puts them at a disadvantage.”

Red flag: If a potential supervisor is difficult to pin down for a meeting, they are unlikely to treat their students as a priority down the line, says Beckett.

2. Get an outside perspective

Reaching out to former students, collaborators, and lab members can be a good way of forming an accurate view of a supervisor’s reputation, says Gerard Dericks from Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom, who studies PhD student satisfaction.

“You want to do a mini background check, as it’s difficult to tell how honest a researcher is during an interview.”

Speaking with former co-authors can also give candidates a better idea of how collaborative a supervisor is and how well their skills and research interests match, says Dericks.

Paying attention to how colleagues interact with the supervisor can also prevent candidates from entering a toxic situation.

Beckett says she experienced this first-hand at a lab meet-and-greet session when she was searching for a postdoc position. “Multiple students came knocking on the principal investigator’s door in tears,” she recalls. “That’s definitely a bad sign.”

Red flag: If a supervisor seems to prefer working alone or doesn’t include students as co-authors on their papers, it’s unlikely that they will help the candidate build their resumes, says Sverdlik.

3. Look beyond the PhD

Candidates should look for a supervisor who can help them develop the skills they need to progress in their career after completing their PhD, says Beckett.

“Too many students get caught up in the PhD topic or project, but it’s about building skills that can help you pivot into what you want to do next,” she says. “The outcome of a PhD is not about output, but who you are as a scientist.”

Sverdlik says that candidates should discuss professional development opportunities with potential supervisors, such as writing workshops , training in advanced statistics, and research integrity seminars.

Red flag: Too much emphasis on publishing papers can be a sign that the potential supervisor lacks integrity and isn’t focussed on helping their students’ skill development, says Beckett.

4. Consider the supervisor’s working style

Rather than choosing a supervisor for their prestige and research interests, Beckett says candidates should pay attention to the workplace culture and how things run day-to-day.

This can mean discussing expectations before committing to a potential supervisor, such as working hours, meeting frequency, and how the supervisor tracks their candidates’ progress, she says.

“Some students like to be micromanaged, while others prefer to do things in their own time,” says Beckett. “Finding out whether your day-to-day controls and procedures are compatible is a way of understanding their ‘big picture’ ethos without actually asking.”

Red flag: Prospective supervisors who expect candidates to work on weekends or be on-call outside of working hours are likely to be more interested in a student’s productivity than their growth and development, says Beckett.

Top tips for choosing a PhD Supervisor

Özge Özden lays out the pros and cons you need to consider when choosing a supervisor, as well as five key qualities to look out for

More on this topic

Created in partnership with

.css-1txxx8u{overflow:hidden;max-height:81px;text-indent:0px;} The secrets to success as a provost

Using non verbal cues to build rapport with students, emotionally challenging research and researcher well-being, augmenting the doctoral thesis in preparation for a viva, how hard can it be testing ai detection tools.

Selecting a PhD supervisor is one of the most crucial – and difficult – decisions a young researcher will have to make. And while there is no failsafe method of choosing one, your decision will undoubtedly be influenced by the subject in which you intend to work, the sort of research you wish to do and your checklist of goals for your PhD.

It is unwise to dismiss the importance of any personality traits that you think may make a relationship with a supervisor difficult. Remember that, when doing research, there will be extreme highs and extreme lows throughout the duration of your PhD studies, so you should try to choose a supervisor with whom you can collaborate effectively during challenging circumstances. There are many supervisors out there, and it is almost always feasible to find someone with whom you can work well and produce a good research project.

Ten platinum rules for PhD supervisors
Tips for new PhD supervisors: how to hold effective meetings
Bullying by supervisors is alive and well – now is the time to tackle it

A good PhD supervisor has experience overseeing PhD students through to completion, has a strong publication record, is active in their research field, has enough time to provide adequate supervision, is genuinely interested in your project, can provide mentorship and has a supportive personality.

Numerous PhD students criticise their adviser/s and, due to unstable supervisor-student interactions, end up dropping out. Ineffective and uncooperative supervisors may cause a lot of research students to feel quite uncomfortable. This is doubly important given that 32 per cent of PhD candidates are at risk of developing or already suffer from depression.

The ideas and opinions of your adviser are very important when you choose your doctoral research topic. If a doctoral student works on a subject that always arouses their curiosity and excites them then their discoveries will also often be interesting and they will be more likely to succeed. Of course, if the doctoral supervisor is interested in the subject chosen by their student, then that supervisor will be able to guide their student better.

In my opinion, the key difficulty with completing a PhD is not so much found academically, rather the process is incredibly difficult psychologically and emotionally. And there is added emotional weight if you are pursuing a PhD in a foreign nation far from your home, family and friends. As a result, selecting a good, friendly PhD supervisor is critical for engendering a healthy, long-term educational programme in which you are supported psychologically and emotionally.

What are the qualities of a good supervisor?

1. Effective communicator

Let’s assume you have a supervisor, but it’s still early days and you still have time to leave his or her domain. If you don’t receive a response to your emails from them within a fair amount of time, you need to discuss this. Always talk first, but if it continues you might seriously think about switching supervisors, because if you end up with one who ignores your emails and/or social media communications, such inactivity will always end up causing you issues, either directly or indirectly. An ideal supervisor should reply to your emails and messages promptly, even those sent via WhatsApp or other messaging apps, and offer helpful criticism.

2. Passionate

An excellent supervisor is passionate about the work of their pupils. They should be someone who is inspiring and uplifting, who helps their students reach new heights. Someone is not a good supervisor if they lack enthusiasm and interest in their role as your mentor and do not offer verbal encouragement.

3. Knowledgeable

Your supervisor ought to be informed and skilled in your area of study and have top-notch study methods and data analysis skills. If they do not, there is a higher probability you will experience difficulties with your academic studies.

4. Supportive of your career

You should try to choose a supervisor who has a demonstrable history of assisting students in launching their careers. Typically, a good supervisor would introduce pupils to his or her co-workers and let PhD students know about any seminars or conferences that are pertinent to their field of study and future plans. Additionally, a competent supervisor should encourage future partnerships once their student’s PhD studies are finished and make the publishing of their research products easier.

In order to support their academic careers, some faculty members who are not actively engaged in research take on PhD or masters students. How can you determine if they are active or not is the question. For a start, try looking up the potential supervisor’s research articles on Google Scholar, ResearchGate or other academic websites.

One of the most important aspects to consider when it comes to supervisors is their previous track record. Feel free to enquire how many research fellows or PhD students they have previously educated and what those fellows went on to achieve. How many went on to become successful academics? Finally, remember that it is usually helpful to spend some time working with your potential supervisor voluntarily before making your final decision.

Above all, remember that this is a significant choice; you should not make it without careful consideration.

Özge Özden is the dean of the faculty of a griculture at Near East University, North Cyprus, where she has been working since 2012.

If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the THE Campus newsletter .

The secrets to success as a provost

Emotions and learning: what role do emotions play in how and why students learn, the podcast: bringing an outsider’s eye to primary sources, a diy guide to starting your own journal, formative, summative or diagnostic assessment a guide, harnessing the power of data to drive student success.

and unlock a host of features on the THE site

Your browser is unsupported

We recommend using the latest version of IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Graduate College

Top tips for choosing a phd supervisor.

Özge Özden lays out the pros and cons you need to consider when choosing a supervisor, as well as five key qualities to look out for

Ten platinum rules for PhD supervisors
Tips for new PhD supervisors: how to hold effective meetings
Bullying by supervisors is alive and well – now is the time to tackle it

What are the qualities of a good supervisor?

1. Effective communicator

2. Passionate

3. Knowledgeable

4. Supportive of your career

Above all, remember that this is a significant choice; you should not make it without careful consideration.

Özge Özden is the dean of the faculty of agriculture at Near East University, North Cyprus, where she has been working since 2012.

Original post: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/top-tips-choosing-phd-supervisor

The PhD journey: how to choose a good supervisor

By Matthew Killeya

20 February 2008

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Shared interests are the building blocks of your relationship

“Choosing a supervisor is tricky because you don’t know much about them until you start working with them,” says Lewis Wolpert, professor of biology at University College London. “Instead, start by choosing a problem that interests you – it’s easier to do and just as important.”

“It might sound obvious,” says Jim Hough, director of the Institute for Gravitational Research at the University of Glasgow, “but it’s amazing how many students don’t do that.”

John Cowpe, a second-year PhD student from the University of Salford, agrees. “To get the most from your supervisor, you have to be interested in what they do. My supervisor will leap at any chance to discuss – often at great length – a topic he’s passionate about. You learn just as much from anecdotal chatting as you do from your own research.”

A good supervisor says all the right things

Your supervisor will be a mentor, friend, confidante, adviser and also a voice of reason, so make sure it’s a voice you’ll want to hear. “Over the course of three years, it’s crucial to have someone who can encourage you when your experiments fall flat, challenge you when you become cocky and help steer you towards successfully submitting your thesis,” says broadcaster and writer Simon Singh, who did a PhD in particle physics at the University of Cambridge.

“It’s crucial to have someone who can challenge you when you become cocky”

Choose a supervisor who excites you

It is essential to find a supervisor you believe in and whose work you find exciting, says Susan Greenfield, professor of physiology at the University of Oxford. “Scientists are made up of all types of people – thinkers, dreamers, practical workers – all of whom are important, but you need to find someone who thinks in the same way that you do.”

You’ll see many of your peers going to the City and into industry, earning much higher salaries than you, and who also seem to have more time off, says Greenfield, “so it’s vital that you have a real passion and belief in your work”.

Supervisors can be stereotyped – pick your favourite

So says David Hand, professor of mathematics at Imperial College London. “At one extreme, there are the most eminent senior academics with considerable experience. Their reputation and influence can rub off and they can introduce you to other big names, but they may not be able to give you as much of their time as is desirable.”

At the other extreme is the junior academic, says Hand. While they have less experience, they have more time to spend on your project. This is an important factor to consider, says Vivienne Raper, a recent PhD graduate from the University of Bristol. “If you’re not at your most motivated, an absent or distant PhD supervisor can be a recipe for months of procrastination.”

Another option is to choose a supervisor close to retirement, suggests second-year PhD student Stefan Rohrmoser from the University of Southampton. “They are more likely to have a relaxed attitude, as they’ve seen it all before. Their students won’t be running blindfolded into an overly ambitious project. They will be given interesting work which their supervisor knows is going to provide enough results to comfortably finish a PhD.”

Personal chemistry is important

Once you’ve found a supervisor you’d like to work with, go and meet them, says Greenfield. “The real issue is to see whether the chemistry is right,” she says. “Think about whether your prospective supervisor seems like the sort of person who will be there when you need them.”

While you’re visiting potential supervisors, try to meet some of their current students as well as other colleagues in their group. “I always tell PhD candidates to talk to my students,” says Carolyn Stephens, senior lecturer in international environmental health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “They know things about me that I don’t know myself.”

You can get a real feel for the mood of a department by chatting to current PhD students, agrees Singh. “Buy them a coffee and a doughnut, and ask them if they enjoy being part of the research group.”

See a variety of people

If you have the opportunity to sample different supervisors at the beginning of your PhD, definitely take it, says Gerd Gigerenzer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. “That gives you more time to work out who you would work best with.”

Research councils are also starting to move towards multidisciplinary projects, which means you might get to work with more than one team, says Stephens. “There’s a lot of encouragement to cross boundaries between disciplines. If this is the case, make sure your supervisor is willing to put you in touch with scientists from other subjects.”

You will also find help from those closer to home. “Remember that on a day-to-day basis you will spend more time working with students and postdocs than your supervisor,” says Hough. “So it’s important that there’s a good social environment. Usually that means a reasonable-sized group.” This was important for Singh: “Being surrounded by postdocs, lecturers and other postgraduates willing to advise and guide me was invaluable.”

Keep channels of communication free from static

If you feel like your supervisor is talking in a foreign language, don’t panic. “Often in one-to-one meetings, you will understand what your supervisor says at a basic level, but will only have a good grasp of the implications and ramifications towards the end of your PhD,” says Hand. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you don’t understand,” agrees Gigerenzer. “Openness is key.”

Prepare to take the reins

“A PhD is part apprenticeship and part equal partner. Ideally, the balance between these two modes shifts to the latter as time goes on,” says John Krebs, professor of zoology at the University of Oxford. “It’s a bit like learning to ride a bike,” says Greenfield. “You start off on the back of your mother’s bike. Then you get your own tricycle, then a two-wheeled bike with stabilisers. Finally your stabilisers are removed.”

Science shouldn’t be too safe; you shouldn’t be too protected, she says. “Being trained to cope with failure is one of the most important parts of your PhD. If you don’t know failure, then you’re not being stretched enough.” That said, you will reach the point where you know more than your supervisor about a specific aspects of your research. “This should certainly be your goal,” says Gigerenzer.

It is vital that you don’t compare yourself with other PhD students, says Jim Al-Khalili, professor of physics at the University of Surrey. “Students can get frustrated if they feel they are not making progress at the same rate as others, but your progress depends on so many factors. Some students publish many papers, others only a few. Some will quickly churn out results while many don’t feel ready to carry out original research.” This should not concern you, says Al-Khalili. “There is no standard formula for how research should be done.”

Carlos Alegria can appreciate this fact better than most, having completed not one but two PhDs, first in physics and then in finance. “Each was unique and you have to accept that there isn’t one single rule that everybody can follow,” he says. Stephens agrees: “A PhD is an incredibly personal journey. Be prepared for it to raise all sorts of personal issues about whether you’re up to it.”

Give as much as you take

The later stages of a PhD are when students contribute the most to their field of research, but you should try to make yourself indispensable as early as possible in the process, says Gigerenzer. You will acquire specific skills very quickly. These can prove useful if you find yourself able to help out when your supervisor is under pressure, he says. “It’s like children who find they can do something better than their parents – wonderful.”

You also have a unique perspective as a fresh face, says Gigerenzer. “A newcomer has a better chance of seeing holes in an idea than those who have been immersed in a project for a long time. Any discipline can be improved, and an outsider’s perspective can help.”

It’s a love-hate thing

“People often end up hating their supervisor at some point,” says Stephens. “I usually expect my students to hate me somewhere in the middle of their PhD.”

“I usually expect my students to hate me somewhere near the middle of their PhD”

“At the beginning of your relationship you don’t know each other well, so things are usually cordial,” he explains. “Then you move towards respecting your supervisor, then to not respecting them at all. Finally you break away and begin critiquing your supervisor and their work.”

A fluid relationship means that if you don’t click with each other from the start, it’s not a disaster. But if your relationship really isn’t working, universities usually have ways to rearrange supervisors, says Stephens. “Quite often it’s a mutual decision – the student’s research interest might change. It’s not looked upon as a bad thing.”

Get more out of your relationship than a good degree

“Immediately after my first PhD, I thought the most important thing I took from my supervisor was technical knowledge,” says Alegria. “Now it is clear to me that I learned much more. Even rejected papers, negative feedback and personal problems can all add up to an invaluable lesson in life.”

“My graduate adviser became a close friend immediately and we’ve stayed close for 30 years now,” says Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard University. “Several of my former students also remain close friends. Two of them were the official witnesses at my wedding.”

Careers – Find out how to make the most of your career in our comprehensive special report .

Storm warning

In 2006, Juma Almaskari completed a PhD in atmospheric numerical modelling at the University of Leeds. Just a few months later, Almaskari used the techniques he had developed as part of a team which successfully predicted the landfall of Gonu, a tropical cyclone that was heading over Muscat, the capital of Oman. His calculations prompted the Omani government to take immediate action, potentially saving thousands of lives.

Why did you choose to do a PhD?

I was working for the Omani Meteorological Department when the implementation of a numerical weather forecasting model prompted the need for some local knowledge in numerical weather predictions. This was when I was nominated for my PhD.

What were the best bits?

The overall feeling of achievement and also the experience you get by meeting so many scientists in your field.

And the worst bits?

Getting some odd results from your models which you can’t explain. This isn’t unusual when doing a PhD, but the hold-up can make you panic, especially towards the end.

Any tips for those thinking about doing a PhD?

As someone who came from overseas, I didn’t get to meet with my supervisor before starting my PhD, but if you have the chance, make sure you do. I would also advise students to continually discuss their work with other people in their field – not just their supervisor.

Words of wisdom

“…Check how big your supervisor is in their field. A supervisor who is respected and has lots of connections will potentially be able to draw in help from elsewhere if it’s needed.”

Russell McLaughlin, first-year PhD student at Trinity College, Dublin

“…Make sure that what your supervisor expects from you suits your own work ethic.”

Emily Burden, second-year PhD student at the University of Birmingham

“…Schedule one-to-one meetings at least once a month, even if you see your supervisor every day. It’s all too easy to feel like you’re keeping up to date when in fact you’re on a different page altogether.”

Carolynn Dude, final-year PhD student at the University of Cambridge

Jungle fever

Elizabeth Pimley completed her PhD in the depths of the Cameroon rainforest, studying the behaviour and ecology of bushbabies and pottos. Communicating with her supervisor by letter and the occasional fax, Pimley struggled with cultural differences, loneliness and even witchcraft, just to follow her love of research.

I thought it sounded like a great project. I had wanted the chance to carry out my own research on these secretive animals in a fascinating and novel country.

Living and working in a beautiful rainforest, surrounded by such intriguing primates, and carrying out my own research. It was also amazing to live with people who still practised witchcraft.

I found that working in a small, remote village with people of a different culture to me could be quite lonely at times. And although Cameroon was a beautiful country, it was plagued by corruption. You often came across road blocks managed by the police, who would find ways to extract money from passing motorists.

If you have a burning desire to do your own research and don’t mind spending a few more years earning a fairly small salary, don’t let a fear of the unknown stop you.

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox! We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

More from New Scientist

Explore the latest news, articles and features

Pluto and the largest moon of Neptune might be siblings

Subscriber-only

Driverless cars are mostly safer than humans – but worse at turns

The truth about social media and screen time's impact on young people

Chemists invoke bizarre Maxwell's demon on the largest scale yet

You're viewing this site as a domestic an international student

You're a domestic student if you are:

a citizen of Australia or New Zealand,
an Australian permanent resident, or
a holder of an Australian permanent humanitarian visa.

You're an international student if you are:

intending to study on a student visa,
not a citizen of Australia or New Zealand,
not an Australian permanent resident, or
a temporary resident (visa status) of Australia.

Dr Loic Yengo stands leaning against UQ's sandstone buildings in the Great Court

What makes a good PhD supervisor?

UQ people Published 5 Jan, 2023 · 9-minute read

Your PhD advisor will play a key role in ensuring your Doctor of Philosophy is a rewarding and enjoyable experience.

Choosing a PhD supervisor can therefore be a daunting prospect. But we’ve enlisted the help of 2 UQ PhD advisors and researchers, Dr Loic Yengo and Professor Marina Reeves, to pinpoint exactly what you should be looking for. Better yet, they share their tips for maintaining a positive and fruitful working relationship with your PhD advisor throughout the typical 3-4 years of your candidature.

In this article, they'll cover:

the role of a PhD supervisor
how to choose a PhD supervisor
the qualities of a good PhD supervisor
tips for the first meeting with a PhD supervisor
how to maintain a positive relationship with a PhD supervisor
how to give and receive PhD supervisor feedback
advice for ensuring a mutually beneficial relationship between candidate and advisor.

While the traditional and widely used term is ‘PhD supervisor’, here at UQ, we like to say ‘PhD advisor’ to emphasise the purpose of the role, which is to advise rather than manage. However, we use both titles interchangeably throughout this article.

Meet Professor Reeves: UQ PhD advisor and Deputy Associate Dean Research (Researcher Development), Faculty of Medicine

Professor Marina Reeves sits smiling with green plants int he background

Professor Reeves’ research is focused on the role of diet, physical activity, and weight/body composition in improving outcomes and quality of life for women diagnosed with breast cancer. She is currently an advisor to 2 PhD candidates whose research concentrates on breast cancer survivorship.

“One of my candidate’s research is focused on understanding more about behaviours that disrupt circadian rhythm (our body clock), like when we sleep and eat, and the role these behaviours may play in improving the health and wellbeing of women after a breast cancer diagnosis,” says Professor Reeves.

"The other is focused on the subgroup of women with triple negative breast cancer, the most aggressive breast cancer subtype.”

This PhD project uses specific data to understand more about the incidence and survival of the different breast cancer subtypes.

“Her research is also exploring whether modifiable risk factors like body weight are associated with prognosis in women with triple negative breast cancer.”

Meet Dr Yengo: UQ PhD advisor and Group Leader of the Statistical Genomics Laboratory , Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB)

Dr Loic Yengo sits at a table smiling with green plants in the background

Doctor Yengo’s research involves matching genetic differences with particular character traits to help predict how societies will evolve. He is currently an advisor to 3 PhD candidates whose research topics are in a similar vein.

“PhD candidates in my lab work on a wide range of projects connected to the analysis of large-scale datasets containing DNA sequences of millions of individuals from across the world,” says Dr Yengo.

“One project is about using DNA patterns to understand how people choose their spouses; another one is about discovering genetic variations that cause disease in specific populations.”

The findings could help policymakers and health professionals better prepare for – and therefore reduce the burden of – genetic disorders and diseases. But how do Dr Yengo and his team draw meaning from such vast quantities of data?

“For each project, we often develop novel statistical techniques to analyse these large volumes of data to answer the fundamental questions that we are interested in,” he says.

“By ‘developing' novel statistical techniques, I mean deriving the maths underlying the algorithms, and also programming these algorithms into new software tools.”

“Our research is intrinsically multi-disciplinary but we do love maths and stats in the Lab!”

The role of a PhD supervisor

When it comes down to it, what exactly is the role of a PhD supervisor? And how will a good PhD advisor guide you with your research?

For Dr Yengo, it’s about achieving a balance between teaching practical skills and providing inspiration and support for the PhD candidate to pursue their passion.

“I believe that the role of a PhD supervisor is to help the candidate develop their own program of research, eventually,” he says.

“That includes teaching key skills such as reading a lot, asking the relevant questions, managing time and energy (this is a hard one) and not being afraid to dream big!”

Professor Reeves singles out 3 key roles:

advising and guiding on the research process and research topic
being an advocate for your PhD candidate – providing encouragement and opportunities, and helping them to open doors by introducing them to your networks
being a role model – modelling integrity and championing others’ success.

Choosing a PhD supervisor

Choosing a PhD supervisor can be a tricky business. Undertaking your Doctor of Philosophy is a lengthy process , so you’re going to be in a professional relationship with your supervisor for a pretty long time. The pressure is on to find ‘the one’. But how do you know they’re going to be the right fit? Dr Yengo and Professor Reeves have a few tips to help you reach a conclusion.

The first step? Ironically, it’s doing your research on the researcher.

“I would suggest researching what the supervisor works on and what they have published before,” says Dr Yengo.

Professor Reeves acknowledges the importance of this step too.

“There needs to be a good alignment between their area of expertise and the PhD project so they can guide you appropriately.”

Step 2 is, according to both advisors, to not be afraid to shop around.

“Engage in informal chats with potential supervisors early in the process, especially when you are undecided,” says Dr Yengo.

“These discussions can help you form your own research questions and define a suitable direction for your research.”

Professor Reeves also encourages potential PhD candidates to seize opportunities to work with prospective advisors before locking them in.

“Whether that’s as an honours or other research coursework supervisor, summer research project, or research assistant work – it will allow you to see if their supervisory style and research is a good fit for you,” she says.

Read more tips on how to approach and choose a PhD supervisor , straight from UQ PhD candidates.

A clear discussion on expectations upfront is crucial - expectations around the working relationship and the project itself.

Qualities of a good PhD supervisor

A good PhD advisor requires a careful balance of traits and skills. You want them to provide guidance without being overbearing, and to offer advice while letting you figure things out yourself too. There's a lot to consider when choosing a PhD supervisor, so Dr Yengo and Professor Reeves have pinpointed a few of the most important qualities to look out for.

The first and arguably most critical is more of a requirement than a quality, and it’s that your potential PhD advisor is simply available . They need to have the time and energy to commit to you and your PhD.

A few other essential qualities of a good PhD supervisor are:

clear communicator
caring and approachable
a leader in their field of research
open to learning from others.

“By generous, I mean someone who is willing to share their wisdom and time to dedicate to your growth and development as a researcher,” says Professor Reeves.

She also advocates for finding an advisor who promotes a healthy work/life balance .

Dr Yengo explains that it’s important for a PhD advisor to be both a coach and a mentor , where as a coach they will help you find your own solution, and as a mentor they would share their experience and lead by example.

Tips for the first meeting with a PhD supervisor

Professor Reeves advises on using the first meeting with a PhD supervisor to outline expectations of both the advisor and candidate.

“A clear discussion on expectations up front is crucial – expectations around the working relationship and the project itself.”

“Find out how often they would meet with you, what resources and support would be available for you, what their research vision is or what they believe the impact of the PhD project will be.”

When Dr Yengo approaches the first meeting with his PhD candidates, he likes to find out:

What is motivating the student to start a PhD?
What are their technical skills and why are they interested in the topic?
What are their career aspirations after completing their PhD? (Note that this can change in the process of doing a PhD.)

Heading into your first meeting prepared to outline your expectations and listen to theirs, and answer these questions, is a good way to create a solid foundation for the relationship between you and your PhD advisor.

Supervisors should create a culture that welcomes questions and mistakes, because that’s what it takes to learn.

The PhD supervisor relationship: keeping it positive

When it comes to maintaining a positive working relationship between PhD advisor and candidate, Dr Yengo and Professor Reeves both agree that the focus should be on the process, rather than the outcome.

“It’s important that the advisor takes an active interest in the candidate’s development as a researcher,” says Professor Reeves.

“A PhD is a research training process, so the focus shouldn’t just be on the outcome of the research project, but equally on the development of the candidate as a researcher.”

Dr Yengo says regular meetings are important for this reason. It encourages candidates to ask questions and share updates on their work.

“Candidates don’t have to wait until (they think) they have solved all the problems before discussing with their supervisor. This is often very counterproductive,” he says.

“Supervisors should create a culture that welcomes questions and mistakes, because that’s what it takes to learn.”

When considering the desired professional outcomes of a PhD, Professor Reeves encourages continued discussions around the candidate’s career plans, to ensure the research experience is always contributing to career goals.

“Regular conversations around the candidates’ career plans and development are important for maintaining a positive working relationship but also a successful outcome for the candidate post-PhD.”

Giving and receiving PhD supervisor feedback

A huge part of the PhD advisor and candidate relationship is giving and receiving feedback. And doing this effectively.

“The most important thing is to understand that feedback is part of the learning cycle,” says Dr Yengo.

“Feedback is never a definitive assessment or an exam; therefore, it should emphasise what can be improved in any given situation and towards a well-specified objective (e.g. a paper or a specific analysis).”

According to Professor Reeves, feedback should be:

critically thought-out
constructive, with clear guidance on what is needed to improve and what the next steps are
positive – it should go beyond pinpointing constructive changes, to also identify what has been done well and what has improved from previous versions
consistent – not changing from week to week

“If you aren’t getting this with your feedback, don’t be afraid to ask for more detail or guidance,” says Professor Reeves.

She also outlines the importance of acknowledging the receipt of feedback and voicing when you respectfully disagree with it.

“There will come a point in your candidature where you will be more of an expert on a topic than your advisor,” she says.

“So, if you disagree with feedback, instead of just disregarding it, explain why you disagree. That’s also helpful for your development in terms of being able to justify and defend your thesis.”

When it comes down to it, feedback isn’t only for the advisor to give.

“Both candidate and supervisor should be patient and willing to learn from each other,” says Dr Yengo.

Professor Marina Reeves stands smiling and leaning against a white pillar with green plants in the background

Making it mutually beneficial

Like all relationships, the one between a PhD advisor and candidate is a two-way street. Both must be invested in the working relationship for it to flourish. While the purpose of the process may be for the candidate to receive guidance and advice, you can also have a lot to offer your future advisor too.

“Interacting with PhD candidates can be extremely exciting as they often get a fresh perspective on problems,” says Dr Yengo.

“The professional relationship flourishes when we equally want to know the answer to the question. This can lead to fast and productive cycles of discussions, which often generate the most creative ideas.”

Professor Reeves believes mutual respect is key to a successful advisor/candidate relationship, as well as a shared vision.

Both advisors acknowledge the challenges of achieving a positive work/life balance while completing a PhD, and Professor Reeves points out how personal and professional respect can come into play here.

“I think it helps when they can see that you, as the advisor, care about the work and research, but also care about them as a person."

So, what makes a good PhD supervisor? Balance. Balance between professional and personal approaches to work and life, constructive and positive feedback, coaching and mentoring, leading and learning. Search for an advisor who can demonstrate balance in these areas, and you’re sure to have an enriching PhD experience.

Ready to pursue your passion for research with a Doctor of Philosophy?

Learn more about studying a PhD at UQ

Share this Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email

How to get a PhD

4-minute read

What makes a good PhD student?

3-minute read

Why do a PhD at UQ?

7-minute read

What's it like to do a PhD at UQ?

8-minute read

Ten types of PhD supervisor relationships – which is yours?

Lecturer, Griffith University

Disclosure statement

Susanna Chamberlain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Griffith University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

It’s no secret that getting a PhD is a stressful process .

One of the factors that can help or hinder this period of study is the relationship between supervisor and student. Research shows that effective supervision can significantly influence the quality of the PhD and its success or failure.

PhD supervisors tend to fulfil several functions: the teacher; the mentor who can support and facilitate the emotional processes; and the patron who manages the springboard from which the student can leap into a career.

There are many styles of supervision that are adopted – and these can vary depending on the type of research being conducted and subject area.

Although research suggests that providing extra mentoring support and striking the right balance between affiliation and control can help improve PhD success and supervisor relationships, there is little research on the types of PhD-supervisor relationships that occur.

From decades of experience of conducting and observing PhD supervision, I’ve noticed ten types of common supervisor relationships that occur. These include:

The candidate is expected to replicate the field, approach and worldview of the supervisor, producing a sliver of research that supports the supervisor’s repute and prestige. Often this is accompanied by strictures about not attempting to be too “creative”.

Cheap labour

The student becomes research assistant to the supervisor’s projects and becomes caught forever in that power imbalance. The patron-client roles often continue long after graduation, with the student forever cast in the secondary role. Their own work is often disregarded as being unimportant.

The “ghost supervisor”

The supervisor is seen rarely, responds to emails only occasionally and has rarely any understanding of either the needs of the student or of their project. For determined students, who will work autonomously, the ghost supervisor is often acceptable until the crunch comes - usually towards the end of the writing process. For those who need some support and engagement, this is a nightmare.

The relationship is overly familiar, with the assurance that we are all good friends, and the student is drawn into family and friendship networks. Situations occur where the PhD students are engaged as babysitters or in other domestic roles (usually unpaid because they don’t want to upset the supervisor by asking for money). The chum, however, often does not support the student in professional networks.

Collateral damage

When the supervisor is a high-powered researcher, the relationship can be based on minimal contact, because of frequent significant appearances around the world. The student may find themselves taking on teaching, marking and administrative functions for the supervisor at the cost of their own learning and research.

The practice of supervision becomes a method of intellectual torment, denigrating everything presented by the student. Each piece of research is interrogated rigorously, every meeting is an inquisition and every piece of writing is edited into oblivion. The student is given to believe that they are worthless and stupid.

Creepy crawlers

Some supervisors prefer to stalk their students, sometimes students stalk their supervisors, each with an unhealthy and unrequited sexual obsession with the other. Most Australian universities have moved actively to address this relationship, making it less common than in previous decades.

Captivate and con

Occasionally, supervisor and student enter into a sexual relationship. This can be for a number of reasons, ranging from a desire to please to a need for power over youth. These affairs can sometimes lead to permanent relationships. However, what remains from the supervisor-student relationship is the asymmetric set of power balances.

Almost all supervision relationships contain some aspect of the counsellor or mentor, but there is often little training or desire to develop the role and it is often dismissed as pastoral care. Although the life experiences of students become obvious, few supervisors are skilled in dealing with the emotional or affective issues.

Colleague in training

When a PhD candidate is treated as a colleague in training, the relationship is always on a professional basis, where the individual and their work is held in respect. The supervisor recognises that their role is to guide through the morass of regulation and requirements, offer suggestions and do some teaching around issues such as methodology, research practice and process, and be sensitive to the life-cycle of the PhD process. The experience for both the supervisor and student should be one of acknowledgement of each other, recognising the power differential but emphasising the support at this time. This is the best of supervision.

There are many university policies that move to address a lot of the issues in supervisor relationships , such as supervisor panels, and dedicated training in supervising and mentoring practices. However, these policies need to be accommodated into already overloaded workloads and should include regular review of supervisors.

professional mentoring
PhD supervisors

Social Media Producer

Student & Academic Services Officer

Dean (Head of School), Indigenous Knowledges

Senior Research Fellow - Curtin Institute for Energy Transition (CIET)

Laboratory Head - RNA Biology

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

What is exactly the role of a phd advisor?

I'm a westerner doing my PhD in an Asian country. While writing this I've just finished my first year, but I'm getting so fed up with my academical environment that I decided to move my PhD.

One of the reasons why I went to Asia is that I'm in a technological field. Now a days with all these Asian countries up-and-coming, developing innovative products, it felt like a good moment to ride along on their train.

In the last year I'm experiencing major difficulties with my advisor and I'm not sure whether it's because of cultural differences or just me. Let me highlight some of the major issues:

When I did my masters, my advisors were actually people who gave me advice. My current professor is somebody who gives orders instead of advice. The big problem with that is that there's usually no room for persuading him with counter arguments. As stubborn as I'm, it usually ends up in me ignoring what he says.
There seems to be a big difference in how I approach weekly meetings. I make a selection of what I investigated during the week and decide myself which direction I go into and thus what I eventually present to him. It seems that he wants every direction thoroughly investigated and presented to him so that he can make a decision about the direction eventually.

These and other reasons, I don't think it makes people better. It won't let people think for themselves when they are just following. I got the comment last week that he thinks that my output is too low, but in fact I'm making the most progress, I'm just not presenting as much as everybody else because I make my own decisions upfront. I noticed that I intentionally not share everything with him anymore, because he always manage to turn everything upside down in one hour per week and ends with "just do it." Like he always creates the strangest and most complicated experimental designs (e.g., 3x3x3) with factors that I don't think are related. I just want to perform a simple 2x2 design and deepening it more and more based on the results. It just feels very odd that somebody who only gets involved into a project an hour per week gives orders about the direction.

Well the thing is that I seems to be the only one who thinks this is not normal. Since I always hear those stories that doing a PhD is always tough and sometimes makes you hate your advisor, I'd like to know where the problem is. I don't mind toughness, but it needs to serve a goal. Before I'm accepted to a different PhD in another country, I'd like to know if I'm getting in the same situation. If so, I don't think a PhD is the right thing for me then.

1 Have you ever tried to talk to your advisor about the kind of advising you are looking for? Advising styles differ a lot from person to person - it seems your advisor prefers to micro-manage, which is not what you're comfortable with. Maybe a honest, non-accusatory chat may help? – TCSGrad Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 3:20
Yes I've tried, but he just says this is just the way it goes. I think even though with this micro-manage strategy there still should be room for negotiation and not just expecting to blindly follow because he has authority. I'm just afraid that I'll find the same thing somewhere else. For me advisor means as the word implies; giving advice. – user1747079 Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 3:27
6 Asia is huge, but if this is China, cultural differences might contribute. I've read that Chinese academia is actually suffering from a culture where speaking against someone ranked higher / someone older is frowned upon. This may be related to what you're experiencing. – gerrit Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 19:02
3 In some cultures more than others, gender can complicate things even more; one scientist I knew felt that when she was working in Japan as a young woman, when she would say something senior men didn't pay much attention, but when a male scientist would say the same thing, they did. This in addition to age can make a difficult relationship in some cultural settings. Now I don't know if you're male or female, but if you're female, it could be relevant in this case. – gerrit Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 19:12
1 I wrote this post two years ago, didn't expect it to be active still. I moved in the meanwhile and started my PhD all over again, but it's worth it. My advisor at the moment is the opposite of what I experience back then. This one cares too little, but fortunately I have good people around me to learn from. Whereas in the other environment the professor was the only person. So, I can relate and agree with aparente001: you don't necessarily need to learn from your direct advisor. – user1747079 Commented May 8, 2015 at 9:22

5 Answers 5

The quality of your relationship with your PhD adviser is one of the biggest factors in determining your quality of life during grad school. I strongly encourage anyone in your position to consider switching advisers (which it sounds like you're doing). I don't know what field you're in, so I can't authoritatively speak to "the way it goes" in that field. However, speaking as a mathematician, there are a wide range of management styles. Often, even the same PhD adviser will manage different students differently, depending on their abilities and desires.

Some schedule a weekly hour meeting without fail; others say "come see me when you have something". Some coauthor most of their students' papers, some rarely do. Some students, like you, feel micro-managed. Others wish their adviser gave them more attention and cared more about their research. My adviser essentially let me pick all of my own research problems, which was what I wanted. It took me longer to start publishing than some other students, but I also felt well-prepared for life on my own after grad school.

So in short, stubborn micro-management is not "just the way it goes"; rather it's just the way it goes when you're working for a power hungry egomaniac. Run, don't walk, to find another adviser!

Thanks for your answer and advice. I guess we've the same opinion in what is best for us; making own decisions and faults makes you better prepared for later. I think a healthy discussion and persuasion is key to make a project better. Listening to each other and accept different opinions. Finding a new place is just not so easy. Let's hope a new opportunity will reveal to me soon :-) – user1747079 Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 5:18

Since you are a westerner in Asia, I'll add my thoughts.

There are all types of advisers in Asia but there are a greater percentage who expect you to shut up and do as you are told, and just say 'yes Teacher' and get the job done as instructed. In the west, this is not as common. This issue is part of the Asian culture. Of course, you can find exceptions everywhere and if you dig, I suspect you will be able to find an adviser in Asia whose style matches yours.

My advice would be to be careful before choosing an adviser and try to find someone who you can 'sync' with well. As Dan C said, that relationship is a very important one for you. If you cannot find an adviser with a suitable style in Asia, then you should consider returning to the west where you will not have the underlying cultural conflict.

1 Thanks for your advice. I think the safest option would be to go back to Europe. This year ended like a little waste of my time, but maybe I should take it as an once in a lifetime experience. Anyhow, let's hope for some positive submission responses – user1747079 Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 13:54
5 Asia stretches from the Bosporus to Japan and from Russia to Sri Lanka and Singapore. In my experience, your description fits for e.g. China, but I'm not so sure if it fits India, Turkey, or Russia. Do you really mean all of Asia, or a specific area? – gerrit Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 19:05
1 I'm in the north east Asia part and for that I can say that this may be very applicable for this part of Asia – user1747079 Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 21:43

In addition to other good points made, and seconding the idea that one's relationship with one's advisor is very important, and agreeing that one must learn to think independently ... :

It is also important to have an advisor in whom one has confidence, and who is not merely a sounding-board or yes-man for your own ideas. Of course, some people are jerks, but hopefully when a senior person disagrees with a beginner, the beginner can see good reason to take this as profoundly good advice in itself.

That is, for example, good advice from a more experienced person can help a beginner avoid pitfalls, avoid re-inventing the wheel, ... even better, avoid well-known failures-to-invent-the-wheel. Good advice can save a lot of time and energy.

True, in some regards it's best to experience various failures, to relive them, first-hand, as a process to better understand what does succeed. But there is a cost, which can be high, including professional embarrassment. Ideally, a good advisor helps avoid this.

In my own direct experience, I have had a few PhD students who were convinced (or hoped?) that I was seeing or making things more complicated than necessary in their projects, ignored my cautionary advice, and publicly-professionally embarrassed themselves considerably. I would say this was unfortunate and completely un-necessary, and certainly represents a big waste of time and opportunity. (To have the opportunity to give a presentation and inadvertently use it to embarrass oneself is a sad irony.)

So, ideally, one's advisor is not merely "older", but also "wiser" about not only specific technical details, but perhaps methodology, and about folklore, especially dangers and traps.

Also, sometimes, if one fails to convince someone else, one should consider the possibility that one's argument is in fact unpersuasive, rather than that the audience is stupid. :)

No, I don't think "obedience" or "compliance" are high virtues, and I do not recommend obedience for its own sake. Rather, a subtler relationship with "advisor", that may superficially resemble "obedience", but in reality is more reason-based, is seeing/believing that the advisor's experience gives them wisdom which will help you . If you can't see that in an advisor, then they won't be able to help you, either in "objective reality", or else in your perception, and it hardly matters which.

3 Yes I totally agree with you. I think you can distinguish foolish stubbornness and reasoned stubbornness. Eventually foolish stubbornness makes you learn too, but as you said you may need to undergo unnecessary embarrassment. The thing with my current adviser is that I have good reasons to go into a certain direction (e.g., I did a preliminary study), but still he argues otherwise without any foundation. E.g. because he experienced a situation differently privately (implying that everybody is the same as him) or just because he said so. These kind of situations make me loose confidence in him – user1747079 Commented Jul 21, 2013 at 23:52
4 "Just because he said so" is not a good reason. A person who has good reasons should be able to give them, otherwise why be believed? Some older people do behave childishly. – paul garrett Commented Jul 22, 2013 at 1:57
Because these kind of situations happen a lot, I am having difficulties in drawing the line between: something to preventing me from the kind of embarrassment you talked about, or because he is just talking rubbish. It just results in that I'm ignoring him completely. Most of the times I do want to have advice and directions, but I'm just not sharing anymore because he just turns everything upside down instead of given insightful feedback. That's not even the worse part, the thing is that he doesn't let go when I'm not doing what he wants. I need hear it for months why I didn't do what he said – user1747079 Commented Jul 22, 2013 at 3:57
what you said is all true but can you put in the context of OP? His advisor obviously had micromanagement style which only caused anger to himself and everyone else. – user10694 Commented Jan 25, 2014 at 2:20
1 @user10694, it is not clear at all to me that, perhaps from an abrasive personal style, the advisor was being unreasonable, given the disparity of roles, in the sense of "wanting to make the final decisions". Conceivably there is a cultural issue as well, but my own preferred style would be to explain my reasons, at length, as advisor. I do suspect that occasionally my students think that I should have been persuaded by their arguments, away from "my opinion", and they may be annoyed that I'm not... and would say they think I have insufficient reasons. But... – paul garrett Commented Jan 25, 2014 at 15:42

After finishing my PhD and getting a tenure track job, in my opinion, the following are necessary criteria for selecting an advisor as you transition from your masters into your research phase:

They are invested in your success and "care" about you. This is numero uno.

They have time and are willing to spend it with you and to do some of the real work. It is your job to do most of the real work.

They are generally available for you to "pop in" to their office to resolve a small or large roadblock.

They are still publishing papers in / close to the field you are doing your thesis / 3-papers in.

If you care about getting an academic job, they have placements under their belt and know some people in the community who are hiring new assistant professors. Placements demonstrate they understand the game. Knowing people means the hiring committees will listen to your advisor's letters and phone calls.

It is better if an advisor can give you useful advice and guide you towards both interesting and promising research topics. Ideally, your advisor would understand how to make you release all your work potential, but you cannot expect that from him/her. There are a lot of different situations, nonetheless there are a few universals that do not vary a lot:

First, you can be sure that your advisor will be somewhere between 'simply not there' and overactive. There are students who cope well with an advisor who is completely absent, because it gives them absolute freedom. They are probably a minority. Indeed, others feel good when their advisor greets them each morning with a few kind words. In order to find a good match, you need to determine how much time you want your advisor to spend on your case. So you need to find out how busy he/she actually is.
Then, one can generally expect from an advisor to be firm and polite at the same time . You might change your mind about your work, about your discipline, and even about him/her, so that steadiness is required as he/she is your reference point. For that reason, you may (temporarily) hate your advisor and/or overreact to comments and criticism made to your thesis.
I would say that another factor is about your feelings and your instinct, as your advisor will more or less be your mental punching bag because the major part of what you think about the work you do together and will/should be left unsaid. Most students forget that their advisor is just a person who is exterior to nearly everything they do, because one cannot generally help building an interior (mental) representation of this person as time goes by. So you have to ask yourself if you can imagine live with this person in your head during 3+ years.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged phd advisor ..

Featured on Meta
Upcoming sign-up experiments related to tags

Hot Network Questions

Does the recommendation to use password managers also apply to corporate environments?
How to handle arguments in an efficient and flexible way?
Are many figures in a paper considered bad practice?
How do you handle plain sight while sneaking?
Why is my bike clunky, and what is this loose string?
Is the complement of this context-free language also context-free?
How can I change the size of \vert accordingly like \left and \right command
RMS of sine wave curve defined between two points
Lufthansa bus no-show
Best practices for relicensing what was once a derivative work
Can I be denied to board a cruise at a US port if I have a misdemeanor?
Checking if a certain fragment is located earlier in the document
Why does Ethiopian Airlines have flights between Tokyo and Seoul?
Need to extend B2 visa status but dad is in a coma
Reviewers do not live up to own quality standards
Current rating of 2.5" SATA HDD
Is there any reason to keep old checks?
Raydium error: Transaction instruction index 0 has undefined program id
3 doors guarded by 1 knight and 2 knaves
Why can real number operations be applied to complex numbers?
Is there any way to play Runescape singleplayer?
Short story crashing landing on a planet and taking shelter in a building that had automated defenses
How to draw a number of circles inscribed in a square so that the sum of the radii of the circle is greatest?
Why is Laarmans so specific about the address of his representative in Bruges?

Machine Learning Blog | ML@CMU | Carnegie Mellon University

Statistics:.

[ Submissions ]
Submissions

5 Tips for Becoming a Great Ph.D. Advisor

There are several factors that can make a Ph.D. advisor more effective. Of course, thorough knowledge of the subject is a must, along with sufficient time and willingness to help a student. However, this is just scratching the surface of what makes such a role truly constructive. Let's drill down into the specific qualities of a Ph.D. advisor and find out what should be the ultimate goals of such an endeavor.

1. Set clear expectations

Expectations for graduate students vary widely. Different departments, professors, universities, and fields of study have vastly different expectations of their students. While some requirements may be codified by the department (e.g. each Ph.D. student must serve as a teaching assistant for a total two semesters), the reality may be quite different (e.g. most Ph.D. students teach nearly every semester because it is their primary means of financial support). Other expectations are not formally codified, but essentially non-negotiable (e.g. Ph.D. students will engage in research activities through the majority of the summer break).

To prevent misunderstandings and to set each graduate student on the road to success, clearly tell your students what you expect of them. Explain your longer-term goals for them: e.g. they should develop a reliable system to measure XYZ by the end of year 2, present new results at conferences every year, and be done with the majority of their data collection and analysis by the end of year 4 or 5. Also clarify your more mundane expectations: e.g. graduate students are expected to work a minimum of 40 hours per week, come in on nights and weekends as necessary, and take 3-4 weeks off for vacations and holidays per year. To keep students on track in the short term, tell them what you expect by your next meeting: e.g. find and read papers on topic C, do a test run for experiment B, and analyze your results from experiment A.

Obviously, these goals will need to be adjusted as circumstances change. For example, if experiment B doesn't produce interesting results, focus on experiment C. Furthermore, as graduate students mature and develop a better understanding of where they and their work are headed, they will increasingly be the ones to set expectations for their work. You will still serve as their advisor, but become more of a colleague.

2. Foster a collaborative work environment

One of the major benefits of working in an academic setting is being surrounded by a community of scholars. While you are your graduate students' official advisor, you should neither want nor need to be their only source of scholarly guidance and discussion. One of the best things you can do for yourself and your students is to foster a collaborative work environment, where everyone can talk about their research with multiple people. This takes pressure off of you, so that projects can move forward when you aren't available to help. It also helps your students become more independent, as they learn to use many sources of information and think critically about many topics. Finally, it leads to better ideas, since multiple perspectives help identify problems and possible solutions.

Regular group meetings are an obvious way to foster a collaborative work environment, where everyone regularly talks about their progress and their problems, and seeks feedback from other group members. If your research group is small, have occasional joint meetings with another group studying related topics. As graduate students mature, put them in charge of training less experienced students. Post-docs should be even better prepared to supervise students.

While graduate students have an intuitive admiration for faculty and post-docs, you should emphasize the importance of treating all members of the department with respect. For example, experienced lab technicians are often more knowledgeable, more skilled, and more efficient in their work than most graduate students. Furthermore, support staff like administrative assistants, technical support, and cleaning staff allow a research program to run smoothly. However, some graduate students feel entitled to disrespect these people. You set the tone for your research group, and should immediately stop such toxic behavior.

Finally, graduate students should understand that they share many resources with other members of their research group, and the larger community. Each graduate student must contribute to ensuring that these resources are ready for the next person. This includes cleaning up after themselves, ensuring that supplies are replaced when they run low, and properly caring for equipment. It may make sense to assign specific tasks (e.g. ordering supplies for X, periodically cleaning out Y) or to have a rotating schedule, but make sure that everybody contributes their fair share.

3. Treat each student as an individual

What works for one student may not work for another. At the beginning of your working relationship with a graduate student—the first year or so—you should constantly assess whether your current method of working together is producing good results. Is the student developing a deeper understanding of the subject matter and acquiring necessary skills at a reasonable pace? Is the student engaged in the project and increasingly taking control of their work? Different people are motivated in different ways, and finding what works well for each student can require substantial trial and error.

In some fields of study, new researchers will interact with their advisor or another supervisor nearly every day as they are learning new skills in the laboratory or field. Some students continue to benefit from a brief daily check-in even after they have learned the necessary technical skills. Other students quickly come to appreciate the flexibility and responsibility associated with less frequent check-ins. Regardless of the field of study, I recommend meeting with new graduate students at least once a week, and balancing the level of supervision that they need with the level that they want.

Also understand that different students have different personalities, different personal responsibilities, and different goals. While some students enjoy listening to music or chatting while they work, others need a quiet environment to focus. While some students will always stay late for drinks and snacks, others leave to spend time with family. While some students are hoping for a job like yours, others want a career in industry, education, communication, or other fields. Respect these differences, and focus on the quality and quantity of work produced, not the number of hours spent in lab.

4. Provide guidance, criticism, and support

As a Ph.D. advisor, your job is to guide your Ph.D. student through the successful defense of their Ph.D. dissertation. You also have an obligation to help your student prepare for the next stage of their career. Therefore, you must help ensure that the student's work meets the high standards of their dissertation committee, of reputable journals, and of possible future employers. You must prepare your students to respond to the harshest critics of their work.

This will often involve pushing your students to do more (e.g. achieving a larger sample size) or to do better (e.g. writing a more comprehensive introduction for their research proposal). It may also involve telling a student that a research idea that they love (and may have spent many months working on) is inadequate for a Ph.D. dissertation. It may be that the preliminary results are unpromising, or that the work would not add anything significantly new to the field. While these may be difficult discussions, it is far better to kill an unpromising project than to let the student continue and end up with work that is inconsequential, unpublishable, and that would leave them poorly prepared for the next stage of their career.

While Ph.D. advisors fully expect to help students with their research, they should also be prepared to help them navigate the "politics" of their department and their field. This may include managing conflicts with people who use the same departmental resources, and the expectations of other professors (e.g. members of their dissertation committee or a professor they are teaching for). Other topics may include requests involving researchers working on a related question (e.g. sharing an unpublished reagent), the expectations of journal publishers and reviewers, and when and how to apply for research funding.

In addition to providing guidance and criticism for your students' research, you need to provide moral support. Good research is challenging, and all researchers encounter failure. Beginning researchers can have an especially difficult time differentiating between a "normal" amount of failure and an "unacceptable" level of failure. By stepping in to provide encouragement (e.g. "This is a common problem/an incredibly interesting question/something I think you'll be able to solve") in addition to actionable suggestions (e.g. "try adjusting B and C as described in previously published work"), you can significantly improve a person's mood and make them more productive.

5. Produce good researchers, not just good research

Almost all Ph.D. advisors are under substantial pressure to publish and to obtain external grants. In the short term, it may seem that the best way to achieve these goals is to treat graduate students as poorly paid employees, who follow your directions to maximize productivity and publications. But if graduate students are not given enough freedom to explore and make mistakes, they will move to the next stage of their careers without sufficient practice in developing their own research questions and recovering from mistakes. This will reflect poorly on you in the long term, so it is in your best interest to produce good researchers, not just good research.

Academic Writing Advice
All Blog Posts
Writing Advice
Admissions Writing Advice
Book Writing Advice
Short Story Advice
Employment Writing Advice
Business Writing Advice
Web Content Advice
Article Writing Advice
Magazine Writing Advice
Grammar Advice
Dialect Advice
Editing Advice
Freelance Advice
Legal Writing Advice
Poetry Advice
Graphic Design Advice
Logo Design Advice
Translation Advice
Blog Reviews
Short Story Award Winners
Scholarship Winners

Need an academic editor before submitting your work?

Prof. D'Amico won the Best Advisor Award!

The Outstanding Advisor award by the students of the Aeronautics and Astronautics department goes personal and touches me deeply during this 2024 Stanford Commencement and Father's Day.

It is several years that I try to improve myself as advisor and mentor of students and researchers. And I think that this task rivals the one of being a good father.

It is difficult to balance the various aspects and interests of this profession, especially when your mission is twofold: research & development excellence (in space) as well as the wellness, happiness, and empowerment of the student researchers (on Earth).

My gratitude goes to the AIAA Stanford Student Chapter and to the Space Rendezvous Laboratory. Thank you!!

Justin won the best PhD thesis!

Cooperation with Redwire and Kuldeep Barad

Lab Projects

Landmark paper on StarFOX flight results is out

	You might be using an unsupported or outdated browser. To get the best possible experience please use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to view this website.

What’s A Good GPA For Grad School? How To Get In

Updated: Mar 26, 2024, 4:18pm

What’s A Good GPA For Grad School? How To Get In

Applying to grad school can be stressful, especially if your undergraduate GPA could be higher. But there’s good news—you don’t need a 4.0 to get into grad school.

What’s a good GPA for grad school? It depends on the school and program. In general, graduate schools look for a minimum 3.0 GPA, but programs admit applicants with lower GPAs, too.

Grades aren’t the only way grad schools measure applicants. You also submit letters of recommendation and college essays , among other materials that can help you stand out. By doing your research and strengthening other areas of your application, you can get into grad school without a high GPA.

Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Education

Forbes Advisor’s education editors are committed to producing unbiased rankings and informative articles covering online colleges, tech bootcamps and career paths. Our ranking methodologies use data from the National Center for Education Statistics , education providers, and reputable educational and professional organizations. An advisory board of educators and other subject matter experts reviews and verifies our content to bring you trustworthy, up-to-date information. Advertisers do not influence our rankings or editorial content.

6,290 accredited, nonprofit colleges and universities analyzed nationwide
52 reputable tech bootcamp providers evaluated for our rankings
All content is fact-checked and updated on an annual basis
Rankings undergo five rounds of fact-checking
Only 7.12% of all colleges, universities and bootcamp providers we consider are awarded

What GPA Do You Need for Grad School?

Many grad schools require a minimum 3.0 GPA for admission, while some competitive programs may require a GPA as high as 3.5.

However, meeting the minimum GPA threshold doesn’t guarantee admission. For example, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s graduate school recommends applicants have a minimum 3.0 GPA, but the average GPA for admitted students is 3.54.

Competitive grad programs may have even higher average GPAs: For example, Harvard University ‘s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences reported a 3.8 average undergraduate GPA for fall 2023 graduate students. Many prestigious M.B.A. programs report the average undergraduate GPA for new grad students is 3.5 or higher.

Less competitive programs regularly admit students with lower GPAs , especially those whose applications highlight other aspects of their achievements.

How Do Grad School Admissions Officers Evaluate Applicants?

Grades aren’t the only factor grad school admissions officers consider when evaluating applicants. Ultimately, the admissions process aims to find students who will succeed in grad school. You can show your preparation for graduate-level coursework in several ways.

Elements outside GPA that play a role in grad school admissions decisions include:

Standardized Test Scores: High scores on tests like the GRE or GMAT can boost your chance of admissions. For test-optional graduate programs, consider submitting scores if you have a lower GPA.
Experience: Some programs require applicants to have research or work experience, so explain how your previous jobs or research opportunities have prepared you for the program in your statement of purpose.
Letters of Recommendation: Recommendation letters speak to your viability for grad school, which makes them a valuable tool for admissions officers. When choosing recommenders, ask faculty or work supervisors who can provide specific examples of your academic and professional strengths.
Statement of Purpose: Your statement of purpose explains your preparation for grad school, why you will fit into the program and what you plan to do with your graduate degree.
Undergraduate Transcripts: Admissions officers look for more than grades in your transcript. They want to see which courses you took, whether you meet prerequisite requirements and whether your transcripts show improvement over time.

How To Get Into Grad School With a Low GPA

Strengthening your application with research experience, work history or standardized test scores can help you stand out even with a lower GPA. You can also take graduate courses to demonstrate that you can succeed in advanced classes. Finally, if you thrive in interview settings, consider programs that incorporate interviews with faculty or admissions officers to showcase your strengths.

Here are some considerations for getting into grad school with a low GPA:

Apply To Grad Schools With Lower GPA Requirements

Instead of applying to grad programs that require a minimum 3.0 to 3.5 GPA, consider applying to programs with lower grade point average requirements. Additionally, some programs offer conditional or provisional admission for applicants who do not meet GPA minimums. If you qualify for provisional admission, you must usually earn a B or higher in your graduate classes to stay enrolled.

Research or Work Experience

Work or research experience can help you stand out despite a low GPA. While enrolled as an undergraduate, consider internship or volunteer opportunities in your field to build relevant skills. For research-intensive areas, ask faculty in your department about research assistant positions or undergraduate thesis options.

Letters of Recommendation

Strong letters of recommendation can make up for a lower GPA. Think strategically about who to ask for a recommendation letter. Professors who can speak to your academic strengths can reassure grad programs that you’re ready for advanced coursework. If you have full-time professional experience, ask supervisors who can speak to your work ethic and leadership potential.

Personal Statement

A strong grad school admission essay can help you stand out. Explain how the program will help you achieve your goals. Mention specific faculty members and their research to show the direct connection between the department and your aspirations.

Consider addressing your GPA as you explain your preparation for grad school. For example, if circumstantial impacts like bereavement or medical issues negatively affected your GPA, you can explain these situations in your statement.

Professional Experience

Fields like business emphasize professional experience in the admissions process. In your statement of purpose, showcase your work experience and the specific skills you’ve developed that relate to your grad program. You can also detail how the skills and knowledge you gain as you earn the degree will help you advance your career after graduation.

Strong Entrance Exam Scores

Some graduate programs require standardized test scores. Whether you take the GRE, GMAT, LSAT or another exam, high scores can strengthen your application if you have lower grades.

Adequate preparation is essential to getting high test scores. Give yourself ample time to prepare by creating a schedule to incorporate daily practice for several weeks or months, which can help you build and review test-specific knowledge. Find study guides or courses that prepare you for the test. Take practice tests to understand exam structure, pacing and question formats.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About GPAs for Grad School

What is a good gpa for grad school.

Many graduate programs require a minimum 3.0 GPA for admissions. More competitive programs generally admit applicants with a 3.5 GPA or higher.

What is the lowest GPA to get into grad school?

Grad schools often recommend a 3.0 GPA for admissions, but may accept candidates with a 2.5-2.9 GPA with provisional admission. If you have a lower GPA, consider retaking courses to raise your grades or take graduate courses to strengthen your application.

What are the odds of getting into grad school?

The odds of getting into grad school depend on the program and the strength of your application. If you’re interested in grad school but don’t have a high GPA, contact graduate programs for information on their admission policies.

How strict are GPA requirements for grad school?

The strictness of GPA requirements varies by institution. Some schools post a recommended GPA rather than a required minimum grade point average and evaluate applications holistically, offering conditional admissions for students who do not meet the recommended GPA. Reach out to specific programs on your list to learn more about their requirements.

What if my GPA is too low for grad school?

If your GPA is low for grad school, consider strengthening your application with standardized test scores, letters of recommendation and relevant research or work experience. You can also raise your GPA by retaking undergrad courses with low grades or taking graduate-level classes.

Ranking The Most Affordable States For College Students
How To Apply For College
Should You Attend Graduate School Online?
Choosing A Major: How To Find What Major Is Right For You
Online College Accreditation
Do You Need The SAT For College Admission?
Free Student Laptops
How To Transfer Universities
Online Checklist For Students
What Is A Good GPA In College, And Does It Matter?

ASVAB Study Guide 2024

How To Learn German: Tips And Tricks

How To Learn Korean Online: Everything You Should Know

How To Learn Spanish: A Complete Guide

How To Learn Japanese: Tips And Methods

How To Learn French: A Step-By-Step Guide

Genevieve Carlton holds a Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University and earned tenure at the University of Louisville. Drawing on over 15 years of experience in higher education, Genevieve provides practical, research-based advice on college degrees, career training and other higher education topics.

Get the Reddit app

Discussion forum for current, past, and future students of any discipline completing post-graduate studies - taught or research.

Does anyone out there actually have a good PhD advisor?

Who else out there has an absentee advisor and has been left to advise/fend for themselves? I'm curious to hear other peoples stories. On a larger scale, it seems like no one in my department gets the help they need.

At least 35 of America’s billionaires are PhDs. As academic jobs become scarce, doctorates should get down to business

Ph.D. graduates are increasingly choosing careers in the private sector.

Samantha Dewalt is managing director of the Lehigh@NasdaqCenter, an exclusive education-industry partnership between Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center in San Francisco .

Traditionally, a doctoral degree is regarded almost exclusively as a passport to scholarly distinction and academic tenure. Any person who committed the time, energy, and expense to attain a PhD appeared inevitably destined for the academy, free to pursue knowledge without commercial intent.

So goes the standard rationale—and training—for a doctorate. Candidates are groomed for careers in academia, where they will research, teach, and publish. That tradition, though well-intentioned, is overdue for a drastic expansion.

Saving research from ‘the valley of death’

Such an expansion has already begun. In December, the National Science Foundation awarded $100 million to 18 academic institutions all across the U.S. to “speed and scale research into products and services that benefit the nation.” The first-ever Accelerating Research Translation awards are designed to enable university scholars to convert academic innovation into commercial value and societal purpose. Each school awarded will partner with a mentoring institution of higher education already equipped with “a robust ecosystem for translational research.”

Lehigh University is among the recipients of the abovementioned National Science Foundation awards, with Carnegie Mellon University acting as its peer mentor. The $6 million award will be earmarked specifically to increase the translation of scientific discoveries in engineering, science, health, humanities, business, education, and other disciplines—by faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers into prototypes, products, and programs that will benefit society.

Meanwhile, as the supply of jobs in academia struggles to keep up with the demand, more PhDs are turning to careers in industry. In 2020, The Princeton Review warned, “If it’s your ambition to become a professor, you should be aware that the PhD. track is no guarantee of a life in academia .” As such, candidates will need to be prepared differently.

Make no mistake: Some college graduates bearing PhDs have proven highly enterprising. It is estimated that the private sector now employs about as many PhD graduates as educational institutions.

Most research finds that between one-third and one-half of all PhD graduates globally stay in academia , while others may migrate to the private sector. Almost daily, some entrepreneurial PhDs launch new ventures that eventually hit the jackpot. Indeed, Forbes has reported that “at least” 35 U.S. billionaires obtained a PhD before plunging into business.

But let’s face it: Academics are rarely trained to be entrepreneurs. They typically focus on conducting research, publishing manuscripts, and at times, developing intellectual property, but without cultivating the business knowledge or resources to turn innovations into viable market solutions. And it’s a shame when university research languishes on the shelf, never reaching the market—the so-called “valley of death”.

How America’s top universities are doing it

Universities are amping up efforts to educate PhD students about how to better capitalize on a doctoral degree. At Lehigh University, we have conducted a competitive analysis of what other higher education institutions, particularly those highly regarded for entrepreneurial activity, are doing to engage PhD students in entrepreneurial courses and programs. Among the schools we studied were Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Dartmouth, and UC Berkeley. Overall, our analysis identified a need—and opportunity—to transform PhD education.

More particularly, we found that although most of these top-tier universities offer entrepreneurship education for graduate and undergraduate students alike, few target PhD students. We also learned that because most of the graduate courses in entrepreneurship originate in business or engineering schools, few are truly interdisciplinary. We also found that PhD students are more likely to participate in entrepreneurial activity if they have faculty advisors who are themselves entrepreneurs or at least entrepreneurial-minded.

Stanford University particularly stands out as an exemplary entrepreneurial environment for students. It benefits from education-industry partnerships that provide access to the most innovative companies in Silicon Valley. UC Berkeley distinguishes itself, too, for its emphasis on interdisciplinary entrepreneurial development and close collaboration with nearby startup incubators.

Dartmouth College pioneered the first engineering PhD innovation program that provides entrepreneurial training to turn research discoveries into market solutions. The PhD fellows take additional coursework in business, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and spend up to six months at an industry internship.

Entrepreneurship education should be democratized. Other universities should follow the examples set by the top-tiers. All students—even those on a budget—should have access to the equivalent of an Ivy League experience.

Our university is taking a step in this new direction, to better expose our PhD students to entrepreneurial experiences and career pathways. Last fall, we introduced a hands-on, real-world, interdisciplinary course on entrepreneurship for PhD students. Built on a model designed by the National Science Foundation, the course is offered for credit and available to graduate students across disciplines through Lehigh@NasdaqCenter, partnering with the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Lehigh’s Office of Technology Transfer.

It’s time for doctorates to get down to business. More PhDs should treat the ideas that emerge from scholarship as entrepreneurial opportunities. But first, they must know how to harness all that valuable education in the service of both our society and our economy.

More must-read commentary published by Fortune :

Booz Allen Hamilton CEO : America needs a whole-of-nation approach in its great power competition with China
NYC comptroller: Food delivery apps are blaming minimum pay for inflation. It’s baloney
Big Tech employees missed out on $5.1 billion in 401(k) gains over the last decade because of fossil fuels, new research finds
‘As quick as 5 minutes in California or as grueling as 11 hours in Texas’: Research reveals new post-Dobbs map of abortion access driving times

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune .

Latest in Commentary

President Joe Biden delivers remarks about the Cancer Moonshot and the goal of ending cancer as we know it at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston in 2022 to mark the 60th anniversary of the former president's "Moonshot" speech.

America first declared war on cancer half a century ago. Today’s regulatory hurdles won’t help us win

Winx cofounders Jamie Norwood (left) and Cynthia Plotch.

How we reached profitability by educating Gen Z for free

Miles Astray made a point about artificial intelligence—with some help from a flamingo.

I won an AI image award with a real photo to show we’re not adapting to the technology fast enough. Then it was my turn to be surprised

Participants speak at the virtual Yale CEO Summit on June 11.

200 top CEOs reveal how AI is already transforming their sectors at Yale summit

Gen Zers are rediscovering interpersonal skills—with huge implications for all of society.

Gen Z workers are rediscovering interpersonal skills in the post-pandemic AI era—and the stakes couldn’t be higher

People visit the World of AI·magination exhibition at the Artechouse in New York on Feb. 1.

AI can contribute to human flourishing—but there are things it can’t replace

Elon Musk’s Neuralink forced a pregnant employee to work with herpes-infected monkeys that scratched her, lawsuit says

Electricity prices in France turn negative as renewable energy floods the grid

Daniel Radcliffe made $110 million as a child star—and now he’s defying the negative stereotypes at 34

Impossibly high home prices are ‘feudalizing’ California as unaffordable housing markets pose existential threat to middle class, study says

Peloton, the fallen fitness unicorn, faces a harsh truth despite its shiny new deal with Hyatt hotels: ‘I don’t think they thought [about] what was going to happen post-pandemic’

Ozempic is 1,300% more expensive in the U.S. vs the U.K.—so the boss of Novo Nordisk is being hauled in front of Bernie Sanders to explain why

IMAGES

How to choose the right PhD supervisor?
How To Be A Good PhD Supervisor / PhD Advisor? ( How To Treat Doctoral Students To Publish)
Choosing a PhD Advisor
10 Questions to ask your PhD advisor
Choosing your PhD advisor. #PhD #doctorate #gradschool #mentor #advisor #phdstudent
PhD advisors

VIDEO

Managing Graduate Student-Supervisor Relationship
Eligbility to pursue a PhD from USA video by Dr Ritika Gauba PhD & Post Doc Mentor advisor
Can you negotiate your PhD topic? #gradschool
What makes a good PhD research project?
Using social media to talk to young people about health
PhD Admissions Live Q&A (February 2021 Edition)

COMMENTS

What matters in a Ph.D. adviser? Here's what the research says
Either way, it's best not to have an overly hands-on adviser because that can handicap your future career, says Sotaro Shibayama, an economist and senior lecturer at Lund University in Sweden and the author of a new study of how advising style influences Ph.D. students' long-term success, published in this month's issue of Research Policy ...
What Makes A Good PhD Supervisor?
4. Is a Good Mentor with a Supportive Personality. A good PhD supervisor should be supportive and willing to listen. A PhD project is an exercise in independently producing a substantial body of research work; the primary role of your supervisor should be to provide mentoring to help you achieve this.
Ten simple rules for choosing a PhD supervisor
Graduate students have disproportionately higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to the general population , so your mental health will be tested greatly throughout your PhD experience. We suggest taking the time to reflect on what factors would enable you to do your best work while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
28 Questions I Wish I Had Asked When Selecting My PhD Advisor
List of questions: 1. Advisor-student relationship: Will the advisor-student relationship be more casual ("let's get a beer and chat about life") or just formal, and work-focused? 2. Are ...
Choosing a PhD Supervisor
The ideal PhD supervisor will be an expert in their academic field, with a wealth of publications, articles, chapters and books. They'll also have a background in organising and presenting at conference events. It's also important that their expertise is up-to-date. You should look for evidence that they're currently active in your ...
Managing up: how to communicate effectively with your PhD adviser
Your adviser is busy, so make the most of each one-to-one meeting by notifying them in advance of the topics you want to discuss, ranging from most to least important. Include one or two sentences ...
How to be a strong and effective adviser for doctoral students (opinion)
Ask questions. Gather information about the lives of your students. Ask about their well-being and that of their family. Find out what they are doing for self-care. Let them know you are invested in them as a person. If you ask how they are doing, 90 percent of the time they will say "fine," even if they are not.
PDF The Definitive 'what do I ask/look for' in a PhD Advisor Guide
⠀Advisor's current PhD students⠀ ⠀Current PhD students in program⠀ ⠀Advisor's current PhD student (candid)⠀ ⠀Yourself⠀ Research Fit & Projects How directly applicable will your future technical skills be to the roles you want after graduating. [If set on industry] What 'research methods' does the lab use?
How to choose the right PhD supervisor
4 red flags to be wary of in the search for a good match. 23 June 2020. Gemma Conroy. Thomas Barwick/Getty. A PhD supervisor can make or break a candidate's progress.
Top tips for choosing a PhD Supervisor
Numerous PhD students criticise their adviser/s and, due to unstable supervisor-student interactions, end up dropping out. ... As a result, selecting a good, friendly PhD supervisor is critical for engendering a healthy, long-term educational programme in which you are supported psychologically and emotionally. What are the qualities of a good ...
Top tips for choosing a PhD Supervisor
4. Supportive of your career. You should try to choose a supervisor who has a demonstrable history of assisting students in launching their careers. Typically, a good supervisor would introduce pupils to his or her co-workers and let PhD students know about any seminars or conferences that are pertinent to their field of study and future plans.
The PhD journey: how to choose a good supervisor
John Cowpe, a second-year PhD student from the University of Salford, agrees. "To get the most from your supervisor, you have to be interested in what they do. My supervisor will leap at any ...
What makes a good PhD supervisor?
A good PhD advisor requires a careful balance of traits and skills. You want them to provide guidance without being overbearing, and to offer advice while letting you figure things out yourself too. There's a lot to consider when choosing a PhD supervisor, so Dr Yengo and Professor Reeves have pinpointed a few of the most important qualities to ...
Ten types of PhD supervisor relationships
However, these policies need to be accommodated into already overloaded workloads and should include regular review of supervisors. Academics. PhD. professional mentoring. PhD supervisors ...
What are desirable traits for a PhD advisor?
A good PhD supervisor consistently graduates 1-2 PhD students every year. Of course, this depends on whether the PhD supervisor is in the earlier or later stages of their career. 4. Most number of PhD students concurrently supervised. A good PhD supervisor should be able to handle a large number (at least 3) of PhD students concurrently.
What is exactly the role of a phd advisor?
Indeed, others feel good when their advisor greets them each morning with a few kind words. In order to find a good match, you need to determine how much time you want your advisor to spend on your case. So you need to find out how busy he/she actually is. Then, one can generally expect from an advisor to be firm and polite at the same time ...
Questions to Ask a Prospective Ph.D. Advisor on Visit Day, With
These are my (@andrewkuznet) opinions, formed by being a SCS PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University in the US.This post is meant as a followup to a poster I made in 2019 with the help of many people. Following the trend, this guide was also created collaboratively. Every PhD, advisor, and situation is different, but I've written this question guide to help a diverse set of readers during ...
5 Tips for Becoming a Great Ph.D. Advisor
5. Produce good researchers, not just good research. Almost all Ph.D. advisors are under substantial pressure to publish and to obtain external grants. In the short term, it may seem that the best way to achieve these goals is to treat graduate students as poorly paid employees, who follow your directions to maximize productivity and publications.
How to spot a bad prospective advisor? : r/PhD
The best you can do is ask their students for that true tea they have on them. Please do ask at least couple of them. Storytime! During my Masters I had two supervisors from two countries. I wanted to go abroad for my PhD as it always been my dream. I had my fingers crossed for this project of my second supervisor as I was pretty successful ...
How to choose a good PhD advisor : r/PhD
For me, a good advisor is someone who challenges you to be the best version of yourself—not for their own purposes, but because they see that potential for you. ... However, I have never seen one as competent, supportive, and extraordinarily brilliant as my PhD main advisor. He's always scheduling meetings to take the process further step ...
What makes a good phd advisor? : r/PhD
So I'll be starting my PhD this fall and was curious what are some opinions on what makes a good PhD advisor? Knowledgable, organised, supportive, reasonable. Knowledgable about both the material, field and methods you'll be using. Organised in their approach, group and projects, supportive of your work and personal goals and circumstances, and ...
Prof. D'Amico won the Best Advisor Award!
The Outstanding Advisor award by the students of the Aeronautics and Astronautics department goes personal and touches me deeply during this 2024 Stanford Commencement and Father's Day. It is several years that I try to improve myself as advisor and mentor of students and researchers. And I think that this task rivals the one of being a good ...
10 Best Financial Certifications
To earn a CFP certification, an advisor candidate must hold a bachelor's degree or higher from an accredited educational institution. A minimum of 6,000 hours of professional financial planning ...
What is more important during a PhD, the advisor or the top ...
iliveinmydream. • 1 yr. ago. Your advisor is important throughout your doctoral years (to help you succeed or fail). The University ranking (name recognition) is important when you graduate PhD and apply for jobs in academia. Even then, it is only important if it is one of the top programs in the nation. 4. Reply.
What's A Good GPA For Grad School? How To Get In
Applying to grad school can be stressful, especially if your undergraduate GPA could be higher. But there's good news—you don't need a 4.0 to get into grad school. What's a good GPA for ...
Does anyone out there actually have a good PhD advisor?
So yes, the proverbial good PhD advisor does exist. But from what I know of my advisor's history, and from what I know about her advisor as a human, it seems to me like she had a really terrible experience herself in grad school, in a time when women were seen as looking for their MRS, not their PhD. She made it through and is a better advisor ...
At least 35 of America's billionaires are PhDs. As academic ...
The PhD fellows take additional coursework in business, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and spend up to six months at an industry internship. Entrepreneurship education should be democratized.

Community Blog

What Makes A Good PhD Supervisor?

Introduction

The Role of a PhD Supervisor

Qualities to Look For in A Good PhD Supervisor

2. Is an Expert in their Field of Research

3. Has Enough Time to Provide Good PhD Supervision

4. Is a Good Mentor with a Supportive Personality

Browse PhDs Now

Join Thousands of Students

Ten simple rules for choosing a PhD supervisor

Introduction

Rule 1: Align research interests

Rule 2: Seek trusted sources

Rule 3: Expectations, expectations, expectations

Rule 4: It takes two to tango

Rule 5: Workstyle compatibility

Rule 6: Be sure to meet current students

Rule 7: But also try to meet past students

Rule 8: Consider the entire experience

Rule 9: Trust your gut

Rule 10: Wash, rinse, repeat

Conclusions

How to find a PhD supervisor

Finding an expert in your field

Who can supervise a PhD student?

Contacting a PhD supervisor

How to choose a PhD supervisor

What are the qualities of a good PhD supervisor?

#1 Substantial research expertise

#2 Clear about their career plans

#3 Previous experience as a PhD supervisor

#4 Personality

#5 Organisational skills

Can I change my PhD supervisor?

PhD supervisor guide

Our postgrad newsletter shares courses, funding news, stories and advice

Select your nearest city

Do you want hassle-free information and advice?

Create your account

COVID-19 Is Making Us Rethink Everything

Memo to Faculty: AI Is Not Your Friend

Share This Article

Bad-Faith Counteroffers

A 3-Step Process for Gaining a Tenure-Track Job

Let’s Finally Tackle the Problem of Pay Inequity

Sign up for a free account or log in.

How to choose the right PhD supervisor

1. Interview the supervisor

2. Get an outside perspective

3. Look beyond the PhD

4. Consider the supervisor’s working style

Top tips for choosing a PhD Supervisor

You may also like

.css-1txxx8u{overflow:hidden;max-height:81px;text-indent:0px;} The secrets to success as a provost

What are the qualities of a good supervisor?

The secrets to success as a provost

Your browser is unsupported

Graduate College

What are the qualities of a good supervisor?

The PhD journey: how to choose a good supervisor

It’s a love-hate thing

Storm warning

And the worst bits?

Words of wisdom

Jungle fever

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

More from New Scientist

Pluto and the largest moon of Neptune might be siblings

Driverless cars are mostly safer than humans – but worse at turns

The truth about social media and screen time's impact on young people

Chemists invoke bizarre Maxwell's demon on the largest scale yet

You're viewing this site as a domestic an international student

What makes a good PhD supervisor?

Meet Professor Reeves: UQ PhD advisor and Deputy Associate Dean Research (Researcher Development), Faculty of Medicine

Meet Dr Yengo: UQ PhD advisor and Group Leader of the Statistical Genomics Laboratory , Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB)

The role of a PhD supervisor

Choosing a PhD supervisor

Qualities of a good PhD supervisor

Tips for the first meeting with a PhD supervisor