Working with your PhD students and co-supervisors

To foster positive supervisory relationships and establish an effective working relationship from the beginning, all supervisors are encouraged to have an early conversation with their PhD students to discuss expectations, identify any possible mismatches in these, and seek to re-align. Supervisors and students are encouraged to revisit this conversation from time to time or when necessary. Such conversations should also take place between co-supervisors – see below. 

Some colleagues have found resources such as this one from the University of Adelaide, a helpful prompt for conversations about expectations.  

We are all responsible for creating an open environment that is research-intensive and supportive. 

• Reflect on how your supervisees might experience the inherent power differences in the supervisory relationship. 
• Communicate the procedures for complaint to your PhD students. 
• Keep up-to-date about mental health and wellbeing support and resources and make all supervisees aware of this support. 
• Contact the programme director and/or programme manager/administrator if you have any concerns. 

The relationship between supervisors and their students is a professional one. Meetings should occur at the LSE or in a public space, and should not occur at home.  

Taking an interest in your students' wellbeing and development beyond the core PhD project is often key to ensuring their success. While supervisors are not trained to address financial, mental health or legal matters, they are expected to remain up to date on where to signpost students so that they can do so if such instances should occur and to check in with students about their development beyond the research project itself. If you are uncertain what to do, you are encouraged to discuss this their programme director. Supervisors are also entitled to seek advice directly from the PhD Academy, including in cases where they would prefer not to identify the student. 

Remember that supervisors cannot guarantee confidentiality where there is cause for concern and should share information on a need-to-know basis.

All students are entitled to a team of at least two supervisors to provide academic support, and the supervisory team should work closely with the relevant Doctoral Programme Director to ensure effective support and oversight.  

The student’s programme determines the point by which Departments are required to have a supervisory team in place for each student: 

• By the end of the first term for MPhil/PhD students; 
• By the end of the first term post-upgrade for MRes/PhD students; 
• By the end of the first term on the MRes for UKRI funded MRes/PhD students. 

Supervisory teams will take different forms. However, irrespective of supervisory arrangements agreed between supervisory team members, one of the supervisors will be responsible for managing progression and meeting regulatory requirements and will be designated lead supervisor for administrative purposes.  

Supervisory arrangements will inevitably vary according to the research project, training requirements and approaches of those involved. However, it is important to ensure that Departmental norms and the requirements set out in the Regulations for Research Degrees are met. 

Discuss the division of labour between co-supervisors with the aim of ensuring that professional hierarchies between supervisors are not creating an imposition, and ensure your students know what they can expect from both supervisors. 

You might find this resource from the University of Ulster helpful as a starting point for discussing supervisory roles and responsibilities. 

Supervisors are expected to ensure that there is a clear and documented understanding of how the supervisory arrangements will work at the start of registration. This should be revisited regularly throughout supervisees’ enrolment, to ensure that arrangements remain functional. 

This UCL blogpost explores different ways of arranging co-supervision.