Fundamentals of PhD Supervision

This course is designed for PhD-level supervisors.

The course evolves around questions of what the process of PhD-supervision entails. This includes discussing several challenges and ethical questions that arise in the relationship between supervisor and candidate. 

The course program is based on:

• Preparatory work from participants
• Active participation in class
• Participants sharing and discussing their experience

Doctoral degree programmes at OsloMet are organised differently, and dissertation requirements vary. This affects both what it means to be a supervisor and a candidate, and the relationship between these two roles. 

At the same time, different PhD supervisors have common challenges that arise from the process of supervision. 

The purpose of this course is to highlight the experience and challenges of PhD supervisors and encourage participants to reflect on and develop their practice in ways that increase the utility of the supervision process for both candidates and supervisors.

Key topics:

• Challenges in supervision practice
• Responsibility and involvement: The role of supervisor and candidate
• Analysing supervision
• Planning, implementing, progressing
• Co-authorship and the Vancouver rules

Eligible participants

This course is designed for active PhD supervisors. The course is structured around participants own experience, and it is therefore required that you have started your own PhD supervision.

If the number of applicants exceed our enrolment capacity, five participants from each faculty are granted admission.

Costs

The course is free of charge. 

Registered participants who do not show up or fail to cancel before the specified adjustment deadline will be invoiced for their hotel accommodation costs.

Course certificate

All participants will receive a course diploma upon the successful completion of this course.

This course is next offered in the autumn semester of 2026. The course is held in English.

• Course dates: November 11-12.
• Application deadline: October 25.

To sign up for this course, you must

• Register via EVUweb (evuweb.fsweb.no)
• Provide information about yourself via our online form (nettskjema.no).

To find the course in EVUweb: Select OsloMet as your institution, and log in with your electronic ID.

Admission requirements

This course is only open to active PhD supervisors. 

If you have not submitted your online form in addition to the EVUweb registration, your application will not be processed.
 

1. A description of a challenging supervision situation

Describe a specific situation in which you found supervising a PhD student (or Master student) challenging. Choose a situation that you still experience as a problem and would like to talk about —not one you’ve already resolved successfully. This should be a narrative in which you describe what happened and the sequence of events. Don’t mention names. If necessary, mark your text “Confidential.”

Print 6 copies and bring them to the course.

2. Example of feedback

For the seminar, please select an example of feedback you have provided to a PhD (or Master) student, preferably a document in which you provided written feedback. If you do not have such a document, you may instead prepare a description of a concrete oral supervision session and explain what you said and emphasized in your feedback to the student.

We recommend to select a piece of feedback that you think would be interesting to analyze during the session. Make sure to ask your student for permission to share the document.

Print 2 copies and bring them to the course (long documents may be shortened if necessary).

3. Interview a colleague

Conduct a short interview with a colleague who is a PhD supervisor and has experience with supervising at least one PhD candidate from the beginning and through to the defence.

In the interview, ask about the entire supervision process, including

1. The different work phases the PhD candidate was going through
2. The supervisor’s role in the different phases
3. Any challenges that arose and how they were handled.

Make a very short, point-by point note, and bring a copy to the class.

• Bastalich, W. (2017). Content and context in knowledge production: a critical review of doctoral supervision literature. Studies in Higher Education, 42(7), 1145-1157.
• Dysthe, O. & Samara, A. (Red.). (2006). Forskningsveiledning på master - og doktorgradsnivå. Abstrakt forlag.
• Fekjær, S.B. (2017). Ph.d. – en veiviser. Gyldendal akademisk.
• Krumsvik, R. (2022). Academic writing in scientific journals versus doctoral theses. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 17(2), 78-94.
• Lee, A. (2020). Successful Research Supervision: Advising students doing research. Routledge.
• Nicol, D. (2021) The power of internal feedback: exploiting natural comparison processes, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 46:5, 756-778, Full article: The power of internal feedback: exploiting natural comparison processes
• Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of educational research, 78(1), 153-189.

See also the following online course on "Joint Integrated Mentorship" (oslomet.instructure.com)

Information about PhD programmes at OsloMet (ansatt.oslomet.no)

Ethical guidelines for supervision at OsloMet (ansatt.oslomet.no)