Whilst the ultimate responsibility for completing the doctorate rests with the researcher, your support and encouragement at times when they might be struggling to keep their momentum and enthusiasm going can make a significant difference to their progress.
What should I be doing at this stage?
- Encourage the researcher to manage meetings to get the best out of them, e.g. agreeing dates, agendas and outputs from meetings in advance
- Help them review their research plan, e.g. setting intermediate goals and revising if the path changes, anticipating and planning for deadlines
- Use personal development planning to review progress and recognise development needs
- Ensure they are keeping up-to-date with the literature and maintaining good bibliographical records
- Check they have a realistic writing up plan
- Make them aware of the two demons of the doctorate: perfectionism and procrastination
- At a basic level make sure you know where your researchers are and what they are doing
Adapted from content on Vitae webpages.