On the 31st of May, the EGSH hosted an online session called “Challenges for Supervisors” in collaboration with the EGSH PhD Council. This collaboration is part of an ongoing project to create a comprehensive document that can provide guidance and norms for supervisors and PhD candidates throughout the PhD trajectory. The session focused on discussing the "Golden Rules of Supervision," a document originally established at Leiden University, which the EGSH PhD council would like to adapt for dissemination at the EUR.
The Golden Rules document consists of nine overarching rules, covering topics such as commitment, time awareness, and consistency. Each rule includes suggestions for both supervisors and PhD candidates. During the session, supervisors engaged in discussions about their thoughts, experiences, and opinions regarding these rules, both in breakout rooms and plenary discussions.
The discussions revealed important insights about the Golden Rules document. It was noted that the document describes what ideal supervision should look like, but may lack tangible support for addressing everyday challenges. Some of these challenges include the varying roles of supervisors from manager to mentor to coach, the evolving nature of supervisory relationships over time, external pressures from funding organizations, partnerships and large supervisory teams, and the integration of students into the EUR/Dutch organizational culture, especially for international candidates. The next steps involve incorporating the perspective of PhD candidates, which will be undertaken by the PhD Council in the coming months.
The EGSH and the PhD council express gratitude to the attending supervisors for their valuable contributions and look forward to sharing the progress and future stages of the document.