Effective doctoral supervision is the cornerstone of successful doctoral education, requiring a combination of essential skills, nuanced understanding, and collaborative approaches. VILNIUS TECH organises a yearly event “Training for Doctoral Supervisors” to continue the growth of academic staff, by inviting distinguished guests from top universities in the world. This year's special guest – Dr. Janet Carton from University College Dublin (Ireland).
Dr. Janet Carton has contributed to doctoral education development for almost 30 years, having a particular passion for the professional development of doctoral students and research supervisors. She introduced supervisor training to TUD in Ireland in 2001 and has since designed and implemented initiatives driving cultural change in two of Ireland's largest universities. We invite you to learn more about her training and insights.
– What are the biggest challenges for PhD supervisors?
I think probably there are some of the core areas, irrespective of what's happening in the world, that are regarding time. We're working in a very time poor environment and research supervisors have less and less, but also to be considerate of priorities. So it's very challenging now for supervisors to juggle multiple priorities, and supervision is a very important one but there's a lot of constraints from the universities on them.
And the second thing that people need to be aware of is that the supervisor and the student – it's a professional relationship, and many of the issues that come out or become problematic in doctoral education are because of a breakdown in that professional relationship. So supervisors need to be aware that because they have more knowledge of doctoral education when the student comes in, that they should try to establish a framework to support that professional relationship, and then the student, as they become more autonomous and grow, can co-create that relationship with them. But this can be challenging because it's often personality based. So what supervisors, I think, need to be aware of is that they need to reflect on their own way of doing things, their own pedagogy and that will help in both the time situation, and then in building that professional relationship. And in the bigger world then you've everything like AI, open science, all of those activities. But in a few years time there's going to be something else. So it's about having that core foundation right and then you'll be able to move, be flexible in those changing times.
– What challenges and opportunities does AI provide for academic supervisors?
Well, for educators, I think, they need to be aware that the learning outcomes and the learning aims might need/will need to be reflected upon and looked at because the students are learning in a different way. So, our traditional methods of determining how they're learning and what they're learning will have to be looked at. This is challenging because nobody really likes change, but I think education across the world has become aware they need to embrace these changes. So, everybody's learning at the same time – the students and the supervisors. But from an education perspective, it's about looking at the possibilities with this new type of learning. And then also with doctoral education because it's the highest degree that can be awarded, we have to look at how we measure the learning outcomes to ensure that the level of “doctorateness” is achieved.
– What key role does doctoral school play and why is it important?
I think it's very important for students who are doing research that they have an identification beyond the disciplinary area. So even though a doctoral school might be of engineering, or of social sciences, or whatever, they do have a sense of community when there is a doctoral school, and they also have a sense of being aware of what's required of them in a PhD process. So, there's the identity, which is really important for the community, for the supervisors and the students, and there's also the sense that they will be directed through this process by a university, or by the community that is part of the doctoral college.
Also, I think, from the supervisor's perspective, from the university perspective, it enables that critical mass of learning in research to grow and flourish more easily than in isolated pockets around the university.
– What are the most popular areas of study for PhD students today?
Well, the most popular are usually the same everywhere. They tend to be in the sciences, in the biomedical sciences, in IT, in engineering. However, there is also a growth in the humanities, in certain areas there. And, I think, what's important is to know that the actual doing of a doctoral degree gives you very similar skills from a transferable skills perspective. So even though you have the technological learning in one, and you have more of the philosophical approach, the actual learning or “doctorateness” can be quite similar from both.
– How has the doctoral journey and supervisor practices changed?
We have a couple of things there. So, the first thing in relation to what is actually available for PhD students to help them through their doctoral journey. There's an awful lot more than there used to be. And about 25 years ago there was no supervisor development, so for supervisors nothing was in place. Now for supervisors there are more things in place and there is a general awareness that the supervisor practice is a professional training practice.
For students, we have come through a few cycles. I would think maybe 10 years ago, there was a pre-pandemic, there was less of a dependency, more of a sense of community and interaction between students, whereas now there's a little bit more isolation, believe it or not, because of their dependency on tech for information. And we have found that there can be a little bit of a struggle to ensure the students have that appropriate information about the support that they have because they are learning about information within the university in different ways than we would be familiar with.
– What advice would you give to current and future doctoral students and their supervisors?
Some advice would be to ensure that when you start, from a student's perspective, on the PhD program, you interact with your supervisor as much as possible and you establish a way of working with your supervisor, so you clarify expectations about how both of you will be working together. And that's also a recommendation for the supervisors. So that is the first step in the foundation of that professional relationship.
I think students need to be aware that they need to take agency, to be more empowered, that the PhD is their own PhD, and that they have more power in highlighting their needs for their learning with their supervisor than they actually do. It's not like an undergraduate degree, you will not be directed in the same way, and you need to be open to that, in order to enhance your learning.
From a supervisor's perspective, I think what they need to be aware of is that the support for them has increased. They need to be aware that their practice of supervision can be very specific to themselves, that they need to think, what the best practices are, and they need to avail of whatever offerings within the university are available. For example, the program we're on today (Training for Doctoral Supervisors 2025), that will help them and guide them through the process of supervision. So, there are more of those things for supervisors. There's more of a sense of identity or recognition of the complexity of the supervisor role. So, supervisors should avail of whatever they can, and for students, they need to be aware that there's in general more PhD students, in some countries there’s slightly less, so, it's no longer the case that having the PhD is a guarantee to certain career trajectories, that it's one very important step and they need to maximize the learning they get from it, not just from the discipline but from their own professional identity.
