The project recommends that universities provide additional ways to facilitate opportunities for rich and sustained conversations across academic communities about research education, and that they ensure systems and processes are in place to facilitate and support such conversations.
Such conversations would include at least:
implications of changes in research degree education for students and for supervisors;
- processes for compliance with Quality Assurance standards;
- ways of theorising what it means to be a supervisor;
- the nature of good supervision practices, including insights from cross disciplinary, cross institutional discussions; and
- specific strategies that support supervisors in their work with students.
The project also recommends that such conversations, and the systems and processes that support them, be located at both local (faculty) and central levels, and that they include cross disciplinary and cross institutional perspectives.
Recommendation 2: Further support and develop leadership in research education
The project recommends that universities enhance their leadership in research education at central and local levels, (e.g. graduate school and at local/faculty levels).
At the central level, leadership could be enhanced by more systematic coordination across universities of all activities pertaining to research education and professional development for researchers.
At the local/faculty level, leadership could be enhanced by:
- recognising the increasingly important role of research degree coordinators in leading and supporting supervisor development at the local level within (and between) faculties, and providing appropriate resources and support to enable these coordinators to be proactive in this area; and
- developing and coordinating systematic mentoring programs that function within and between faculties.
Recommendation 3: A project on leadership in research education.
The project commends ALTC for its support to date for the investigation of research education and recommends that it consider making research education a priority issue for the future.
Further, the project recommends that ALTC commission a project specifically on leadership in research education and that this project address ways in which universities can develop and implement models of distributive leadership in research education. Such a project would support universities to enhance research education leadership at both central and local/faculty levels.