student/supervisor relationships
student/supervisor relationships
traits of a good student/supervisor relationships
Each student will have a different relationship with their advisor/supervisor, depending on their professional and personal needs. Depending on their past academic experience, for example, some students may need more support (such as students returning to academia after being away a long time, students with learning disabilities, mental health issues, or international students new to the system) and some students may need less support from their advisor (such as doctoral students who did their master’s degree at OISE and are already quite familiar with how things work).
Regardless of the amount of support you need from your advisor/supervisor, here are a number of traits that define a good student-advisor/supervisor relationship.
Respect: Mutual respect is a must
You should respect your advisor/supervisor, both at the professional level (as an expert in their field) and at the personal level (as a decent human being).
Your advisor/supervisor should respect you, too. A good advisor/supervisor will consider you a colleague (rather than simply a student) and treat you accordingly.
Trust: Mutual trust is indispensable
You should believe that whatever your advisor/supervisor recommends that you do, they’re proposing with your best interest in mind.
Your advisor/supervisor should have no reason to doubt you. It’s important to be honest—your advisor/supervisor can only help you if they know as much about your situation as is possible.
Communication: Effective communication is key
It’s best to establish some communication rules. Your advisor/supervisor is a professor who is likely busy teaching, doing research, publishing, performing various departmental duties, and advising/supervising other students besides you. However, that doesn’t mean you should come last in their list of priorities.
You should know how to get in touch with your advisor/supervisor reliably.
You should have an idea of the amount of time your advisor/supervisor will typically need to get back to you for each of the following: providing responses to quick questions, scheduling in-person meetings, giving you feedback on your drafts.
You should have an agreed-upon system of how to contact your advisor/supervisor if you haven’t had any response from them longer than is usual (i.e., whatever turnaround time you both agreed on).
You should not keep each other in the dark. Even if you’re busy, it should be standard practice to send each other acknowledgments of having received a message. If completing a task is taking you longer than you had anticipated, it should be standard practice to send each other updates about your progress.
To ensure that you can communicate effectively, it’s best to establish these types of rules as early as possible. Some advisors/supervisors will do it themselves; if they don’t, you should bring up the discussion of some basic communication rules yourself.
Shared Responsibility: Know what to expect and what is expected of you
Entering into a student-supervisor relationship, you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect from your advisor/supervisor but also what an advisor/supervisor expects from you.
While it is part of the advisor/supervisor’s job to provide you with assistance and support, you also need to be proactive: know the policies, regulations, and deadlines that apply to you; keep your advisor/supervisor informed of your situation (e.g., if you’re planning to be absent); take initiative (e.g., don’t always wait for the advisor/supervisor to schedule a meeting—you can ask for one yourself, etc.)