Doug Specht, Senior Lecturer and Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Media and Communication, wrote an article for Wonkhe based on his new research on how location can affect supervision meetings for students.
In the article, Specht drew upon his new research, and wrote: “Most students still receive their supervision on campus and in their supervisor’s office. This has many benefits, in terms of students feeling comfortable in a professional setting in which boundaries and expectations are made clear through the setup of the space (e.g., an office signals ‘working space’ to students).
“The norms associated with the office can actually have a relaxing effect on students, with doctoral researchers suggesting that ‘[it] helps create healthy boundaries if the meetings are in the office’, and that in more public spaces they have to be “aware of who is around and who is listening.”
He added: “But many doctoral researchers reported that their supervisor’s office was no longer a suitable space for supervision. The increase in shared and open-plan offices across universities means that supervisors’ offices are often too noisy, busy, or unavailable to be suitable for meetings. This is a situation exacerbated by the use of supervisors on fixed-term contracts that may never be given offices and have to hot-desk.”
Drawing upon the return to campus post-pandemic, Specht wrote: “As the return to campus continues, universities would be well-placed to consider how the estate can support teaching in the form of supervision, providing physical spaces for meaningful discussions about research in which both supervisor and supervisee can work at their best.”
Read the full article on Wonkhe’s website.
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