Doctoral Training at the Faculty of Humanities - Supervision

The purpose of these guidelines concerning supervision practices in doctoral training is to introduce the doctoral researcher and their supervisor to the general principles of doctoral training supervision in the Faculty of Humanities. In addition, these guidelines aim to clarify the roles of the supervisor and the supervisee, to provide practical instructions, and to suggest solutions to possible problematic situations.
Supervision supports the long-term process that is the doctoral researcher growing into an independent researcher. A functional supervisory relationship requires both parties to reflect on their expectations and working methods. Good collaboration based on mutual trust greatly benefits research, writing, and studies.
Some doctoral researchers study full-time in salaried doctoral researcher positions or on a grant. Many are part-time students, conducting research alongside other employment or some other main source of income. This is one reason as to why supervisory relationships can vary greatly in practice. However, following principles of supervision apply to all supervisory relationships in doctoral training (also in part to licentiate degrees).

These guidelines use the following terminology, explained below.
1.    Doctoral researcher: a postgraduate student who has a right to study for a doctoral degree
2.    Person responsible for postgraduate studies at the subject department: usually a professor of one’s major subject with the responsibility for doctoral training in the said major subject. Responsible for evaluating applications to doctoral training and makes a statement/evaluation for the doctoral programme. Monitors progress of all doctoral researchers of the major subject on a general level, accepts completed doctoral study modules, and makes proposals for pre-examiners, Opponent, Custos, evaluation committee members, and when a supervisor is changed (all of these after having discussed the matter with the doctoral researcher and the supervisors).
3.    UGIS Supervisor: Supervisor with access to the University’s electronic systems, typically employed by the University (and in doctoral researcher’s major). Responsible for accepting doctoral researcher’s personal study plan and annual progress monitoring.
4.    Supervisor: Doctoral researcher’s supervisor, not necessarily employed by the University. Expertise in the candidate’s topic and able to commit to supervising. Possibly from another subject dept. of the Faculty, another faculty, or another university in Finland or abroad. A retired professor may act as supervisor but in this case there should be another supervisor (UGIS Supervisor) from the doctoral researcher’s subject dept. included in supervision, who ensures that the regulations and practices of the subject department, doctoral programme, and the University are adhered to and who has access to the University’s electronic systems.

With an external supervisor, matters such as the nature of supervision and possible fee should be agreed on in the beginning of the supervisory relationship. See Faculty’s guidelines on the Intranet (in Finnish).
 

Supervision can be conducted in various ways in practice, which means this is something that needs to be clearly agreed upon in the supervision plan among supervisors and the supervisee. The Faculty recommends that the electronic supervision plan is used.

The person who has agreed to act as supervisor has to familiarise themselves with the research topic and the doctoral candidate’s personal study plan, and confirm their consent to this task. The person responsible for postgraduate studies at the subject department has to carefully read the candidate’s application and state to the Faculty that they accept the supervisors and support accepting the applicant to doctoral training.

A supervisory relationship begins once the supervisor has agreed to the task. Prior to this, they have familiarised themselves with the applicant’s research and study plans and advised the doctoral candidate in making these.

Supervisors and the doctoral researcher agree on the principles of the collaboration in supervision such as the frequency of meetings and communication and include them in writing into the supervision plan. The supervision plan is reviewed annually in conjunction with the progress monitoring and reporting.
The parties also agree on the timetable of the doctoral thesis work, intermediate goals regarding the manuscript, and practices of giving feedback.

As doctoral studies progress, the parties determine other studies to be included in the doctoral degree in more detail and discuss any other important questions regarding the progress of the work. Depending on the major subject, either the UGIS Supervisor or the person responsible for postgraduate studies at the subject dept. accepts doctoral researcher’s new, completed studies as described in the study plan.

Doctoral training is coordinated in the doctoral programme to whom doctoral researchers report their progress annually. Doctoral researchers are sent an electronic questionnaire every year, the answers to which can be examined in the UGIS Portal by supervisors and the person responsible for postgraduate studies at the subject dept.

Changes to a supervisory relationship are agreed upon with the supervisors and the supervisee as well as the person responsible for postgraduate studies at the subject dept. Changes and new supervisors are accepted by the Dean meaning that proposals for changes have to be delivered to the Faculty by using the electronic supervision plan. The doctoral researcher fills in the form after discussion with the supervisor(s) and the person responsible for postgraduate studies. After that the supervision plan is send to the person responsible for postgraduate studies, They give reasons for including a new supervisor and confirm supervisors’ ability to take on new supervisees. Dean confirms the decision.

Supervisor(s), just like the doctoral researcher, both have the right to be heard when selecting pre-examiners and Opponent for the doctoral thesis.

A prerequisite for writing a successful doctoral thesis is functioning, good-quality supervision. In a supervisory relationship, both the supervisor(s) and the supervisee have rights, responsibilities, and obligations. These are presented below in relation to both parties. See also Rector’s decision on doctoral candidates’ supervision .

Doctoral researcher

has the right to receive feedback from the supervisor(s) on their studies and research within an agreed timeframe. It is recommended that feedback is given at least once a semester;

must commit to long-term work that is demanding by nature;

receives support from the supervisor, yet completes studies independently;

is responsible for the progress of their research and for seeking guidance if advice is needed or when encountering problems;

regularly informs their supervisor of the progress made in studies and research;

takes responsibility for decisions made regarding their research even when following supervisor’s advice and suggestions;

delivers an annual progress report to the doctoral programme (i.e. fills in the survey sent by the doctoral programme).

Supervisor

commits to a long-term supervisory relationship and communicating with the supervisee regularly;

advises the student and takes into account that the supervisee is only in the beginning of their research career and many practicalities of conducting research and writing a doctoral thesis may be unfamiliar to them;

commits to advancing the supervisee’s research, also by helping with practical matters such as searching for funding;

encourages the supervisee to send them research-related texts and gives critical and constructive feedback on them, but does not do the work for the supervisee;

makes sure the research is of high quality and that the doctoral thesis manuscript meets the requirements (of the subject department and the Graduate School) for submitting it to pre-examination. Checks the thesis with the plagiarism detection system Turnitin before making a proposal for pre-examiners;

supports the student during the finalising stage of the dissertation and when preparing for the public examination of the doctoral thesis;

agrees with other supervisors on how supervisory workload is divided between the supervisors (also included in the supervision plan);

has the opportunity to participate in supervisor training offered and arranged by UTUGS.

Both parties

must be aware of research ethics: both the supervisee and the supervisor must respect each other’s proficiency so that unfinished or tentative ideas, suggestions, and comments are treated with confidentiality. In a supervisory relationship, both parties give and receive ideas;

commit to following good scientific practices;

ensure that the principles of joint publications and projects are agreed on as early as possible and following the recommendations of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK;

agree on rights to research materials and results.

Supervisory arrangements can be reviewed and changed over the course of the research project. The supervisory relationship can be changed on the doctoral researcher’s or supervisor’s initiative if, for example, the research topic changes significantly, or if the supervisory relationship for some reason does not work anymore.

The supervisor estimates beforehand the time which would be spent on each doctoral researcher’s supervision annually and takes it into account in their annual work plan. The supervisor keeps track of the time spent on supervision.

Supervision does not always call for total agreement on everything. The doctoral thesis is an independent work, which means that the doctoral researcher is responsible for the decisions made in regard to it. Supervisors should be capable of recognising possible conflict situations and leave room for the candidate to make their own decisions. The Graduate School has procedural instructions on conflict situations in supervision.

The doctoral researcher and the supervisor should keep a record of supervision and progress of the thesis work. The doctoral researcher can, for example, make notes of meetings and, if necessary, update the postgraduate study plan. Notes are especially useful if the supervisor should change and a new supervisor be introduced to the thesis project. There are other benefits to making notes, as well.

The supervisor should acknowledge that there is a lot of unwritten information related to research work, which could appear self-evident to an experienced supervisor. The supervisor ensures that the supervisee learns the practices and customs of being a researcher: writing a good research plan, applying for funding, participating in scientific conferences, publishing in important publications of the field, preparing a manuscript for publication, networking within the academic community etc.

The doctoral researcher contacts the supervisor well beforehand and sends the research plan to them when the researcher is in need of a statement or a recommendation of some kind, e.g. for applying for funding.

The supervisor should introduce the supervisee to the ethical guidelines of research (see the recommendations of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK).

All doctoral thesis manuscripts submitted for pre-examination must be checked with the plagiarism detection system Turnitin. The supervisor familiarises themselves with the practices of plagiarism checking. It is advisable to make Turnitin part of supervision early on, already before the manuscript is finished (it is possible to check parts and early versions of the work with Turnitin).

Occasionally, a conflict can develop between the supervisor and the supervisee that cannot be solved by negotiation. In a situation like this, it is best to consult the person responsible for postgraduate studies at the subject department or the coordinator or director of the doctoral programme. They will help in finding a solution. The Graduate School’s procedural instructions on conflict situations in supervision may also prove useful. If negotiations do not lead to a satisfactory solution for both parties, the supervisory relationship can be terminated, and a new supervisor (or supervisors) appointed.

If the doctoral researcher changes their major, a new postgraduate study plan (research plan + personal study plan) must be drawn up, approved, and signed by the new supervisor and the person responsible for postgraduate degrees at the new subject department. The plan is also delivered to the Faculty Office to be confirmed by the Dean. Changing majors or supervisors is possible at all times throughout the academic year, regardless of application periods.

If the supervisor is no longer able to commit to supervising, they should notify the supervisee and the person responsible for postgraduate degrees at the subject department, who, after hearing the supervisee, will appoint a new supervisor.