‘Quantity, not quality’ of PhD supervisions key to promotion

Becoming a professor at a UK university is dependent on training high volumes of PhD students rather than delivering outstanding supervision, a report suggests.

Analysing promotion criteria made available by 70 UK universities, the study commissioned by the UK Council for Graduate Education and the Research England-funded Next Generation SuperVision Project found promotion up to full professor was “in most cases” expressed in terms of the number of “successful”, “timely” or “above-average” completions.

Having a “sustained record of successful supervision” was the most prominent criterion for promotion to professor, while the requirement was also widely found in promotion rules for the roles of senior lecturer, associate professor or reader, says the report by Stan Taylor, honorary professor of Durham University’s School of Education, where he was previously director of the Centre for Academic and Researcher Development.

By contrast, only 10 per cent of the universities with promotion criteria linked to PhD supervisions mentioned the need for high-quality supervision, says the report, titled Supporting Research Supervision Practice: a review of UK provision.

That low proportion came despite the majority of institutions (84 out of the 149 institutions surveyed) having either student-led or institution-led awards to recognise outstanding PhD supervision practice, which did not appear to contribute towards promotion decisions.

Only one institution mentioned efforts to promote the diversity of students undertaking PhDs in their promotion criteria, adds the report.

“It would appear that, at least in these institutions, reward was heavily linked to timely completions and not specifically to the quality of supervision either generally or in relation to diverse candidate populations,” says the report, which adds promotions are “linked far more to the quantity of supervision than to the quality”.

Speaking to Times Higher Education, Taylor said the emphasis on timely completions was “concerning” because “this cannot be seen as necessarily a reflection of good supervision”.

“Candidates may complete on time because of or despite the quality of supervision that they receive,” he explained, noting the “old adage that ‘bad supervisors make good students’ – in other words, the latter is compensated for by the shortcomings of the former”.

Instead of focusing on timely completions or volume of supervisions, universities should use “qualitative indicators of high quality supervision, of which there are at least four possibilities”.

“Student evaluations are potentially an important source, whether these are collected during candidacy or, more commonly, afterwards. There is also the extent to which supervisors have been successful in recruiting and supporting candidates from diverse backgrounds to undertake their doctorates,” said Taylor.

Experienced supervisors who contribute to the development of new supervisors by mentoring them or running workshops should also be rewarded, as should those who contribute to research training programmes for students, he added.

“Among those institutions where data was available, there were very few which embodied these criteria,” said Taylor, who commended the universities of Cambridge and Swansea for the diversity of their promotion criteria.

At Cambridge, there are promotion rewards for those who “consistently receive positive feedback from research students” and those who “contribute towards recruiting and winning support for research students”, explained Taylor.

At Swansea, staff are encouraged to grow “externally funded places bringing benefits to multiple academics within subject specialism” but also “support supervisors with the sharing of best practice” and “contribute to PGR activities/supervision that support a culture of excellence and inclusivity”.

“These were beacons for taking quality as well as quantity into account in criteria for promotion relating to research supervision,” said Taylor.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com