Guidance to help supervisors support the personal and professional career development of their doctoral students, including expectations of the supervisor, training resources available to students, and advice from experienced supervisors.
As supervisor, you are responsible for:
- discussing skills training and development with your student, at Candidature, Confirmation (for PhDs) and regularly throughout their studies
- where necessary, identifying additional subject-specific development and careers opportunities, both from within the University, and where appropriate, outside the University
- ensuring that compulsory training such as Academic Integrity, Research Integrityand in some cases Research Ethics and Governance, as well as a range of optional training..
Details of responsibilities can also be found at QA7 Sections 9.6 and 9.7 Skills & Careers responsibilities of the supervisor and supervisory team and QA7 Appendix 1 Responsibilities of the Supervisory team.
You should also direct your student to QA7 Appendix 2, which sets out the responsibilities of doctoral students.
“I would prefer it if they [the supervisor] actively engaged in my work by brainstorming ideas with me and helping write manuscripts. It would also be preferable to have a supervisor who put me in contact with other researchers doing related things to help build a sense of community.
“.. enables the student to really develop themselves, provides advice and feedback with the students’ character and style of working in mind.”
UK Research Councils and other funders expect doctoral students to demonstrate a commitment to Professional Development. Students are expected to develop a broad range of skills during their doctorate, that will not only enable them to more effectively manage their research but also enhance their future career prospects. By assessing, reviewing and recording their development needs from day one, and throughout their doctorate, they will be more able to identify their strengths, as well as areas for improvement.
Research Council UK
Times Higher Education
UK Research Councils and other funders expect doctoral students to demonstrate a commitment to Professional Development. Students are expected to develop a broad range of skills during their doctorate, that will not only enable them to more effectively manage their research but also enhance their future career prospects. By assessing, reviewing and recording their development needs from day one, and throughout their doctorate, they will be more able to identify their strengths, as well as areas for improvement.
Research Council UK
Times Higher Education
Skills and career development
Explore the RDF further:
- through the DoctoralSkills programme
- through the Vitae RDF document
- This guide is intended to help you support students in their personal and professional development during their doctorate
- The Doctoral College Professional Development web pages provide a wide variety of advice and resources to enable doctoral students to plan and manage their personal and professional development
- Students are encouraged to access training and advice through the The DoctoralSkills Researcher Development Programme
Pure is the University's system for managing information about research publications, projects, activities and impacts. Most of the information held in Pure is displayed in the University's Research Portal. All doctoral students are automatically set up with a Pure account and a personal profile page on the Research portal. Please encourage your students to use the system to keep an up-to-date record of all of their research activity at Bath.
“Encourage your students to teach. The experience of explaining things to others will help them better to understand how to write clearly.”
Further resources and support
- QA7 Sections 9.6 and 9.7 Skills and Careers responsibilities of the supervisor and supervisory team
- The UKCGE Research Supervisors Network has a blog post by Dr Richard Hinchcliffe on Informing and Advising PGRs on Non-Academic Careers and the Knowledge Based Economy
- The University of Glasgow has a video of supervisors discussing enhancing students' career prospects: