Supervisors

Find information for supervisors of research students.

The Wellington Faculty of Graduate Research (WFGR) is committed to supporting your work as a supervisor. To do this we offer supervision workshops throughout the year, provide access to a range of resources on supervisor development, and offer advice on supervision-related issues that may arise.

The supervisor’s key responsibilities are to guide the candidate through the academic and administrative requirements of the degree, provide feedback on progress and develop the candidate’s research skills and knowledge. The WFGR website provides access to Victoria University of Wellington guidelines relating to supervisors’ responsibilities and candidates’ responsibilities. In addition, most of the information on the WFGR website for Current PhDs is also relevant for supervisors.

Further information is also available on the staff intranet.

Orientation to supervision

Because supervision practices vary between universities, the University requires all supervisors who are new to the University (as well as any staff who are new to supervision) to complete an Orientation course before starting to supervise research students at Victoria University of Wellington.

The Orientation to Supervision workshop is offered three times each year. This workshop includes information on the policies and procedures relating to postgraduate research supervision. The orientation also covers the practical support available for postgraduate research.

2021 programme dates:

Tuesday, Feb 23, 1-4:30pm Registrations for this session are now open

Thursday, June 24, 1-4:30pm

Tuesday, Oct 12, 1-4:30pm

Workshops for supervisors

The Wellington Faculty of Graduate Research offers a number of workshops for supervisors every year, including on the Doctoral Examination Process and Strategies for providing feedback on candidates’ writing. All supervision workshops are advertised on the Current Events page of the WFGR website.

We also recommend that supervisors who are new to the University attend doctoral workshops with their students, where possible, as a way of familiarising themselves with information and advice delivered to doctoral students through the WFGR Doctoral Workshop programme.

Additional supervision resources

As supervising research is a complex and dynamic activity, workshops cannot convey all that you need to know. It is therefore important to make time to discuss your experience with peers, reflect on practice and access resources that explore different aspects of research supervision. As a start point, we've put together a list of recommended resources.