C6 - What matters most to you as supervisor? Cultivating a Supervisor Lens for the RDF

Workshop overview: 

Vitae have been instrumental in developing various and numerous lenses to enable those of us working in researcher developments, as well as academics themselves, to identify the skills most imperative to any given task.

One lens that has not yet emerged is the Research Supervisor lens.  Following a North West Regional workshop where discussion was held extensively on this topic, and using Vitae Development cards, three groups tried to whittle down the qualities and skillsets to a maximum of 15 - which was extremely challenging and provoked much interesting debate!  Is it possible to do this? What about institutional shape and strategy, does this have a bearing?  What about discipline area, what role does this play and what bias or favour does it introduce?  There was clear evidence of very real differences of opinion - and it was suggested that the Conference may be an ideal opportunity to access the views of staff who support research students, in a supervisory capacity - or one closely in parallel - to determine what they saw as the essential qualities and skills for the role.  To that end, you are invited to come and share your perspective, and help us to create this new lens.  A possible working group will follow the conference, to discuss findings - but involvement in this will be purely voluntary.  No press gangs, we promise.  So please, join us and share your views.

Workshop topics covered: 

• What is the role of the supervisor?
• What qualities and skills are essential to perform the role effectively?
• Does subject base influence the perfect quality/skill set?
• If so, how do we address this in order to develop a universal model?
• If not, is it possible to create generic perfection?? 

Themes covered:

• Engaging research leaders, principal investigators and supervisors to transform professional development of researchers and embed professional development in the research environment
• Leadership development of early career researchers including researchers’ as leaders in different disciplines
• Researcher development within structured doctoral programmes, including perspectives on doctoral training centres/ partnerships, Innovative Training Networks (ITNs) and other cohort based models; including European and international collaborations and organisational benefits and challenges in managing diverse researchers experiences
• Researcher development across boundaries including international collaborations, inter-cultural competences, international researchers’ experiences, business/industry collaborations and engaging society through open research

Workshop outcomes: 

• Generation of new insight into the role of supervisor
• Broader perspectives on qualities and skills - to take back to own institution training and development programme
• Contribution to creation of Vitae Supervisor Lens

Format:

Workshop