Recommendation 9: Review of existing professional development programs to ensure they address the needs of supervisors.
The project recommends that universities review their own procedures to ensure they have in place systematic and structured programs for the induction of new supervisors. Such programs should include:
- some centralised and formal component;
- some local component (this is what especially needs to be strengthened); and
- systematic mentoring programs that include peer support, as well as mentoring between less and more experienced supervisors.
The project also recommends that universities rethink strategies for ongoing development of experienced supervisors by including reactive, pre-emptive and proactive dimensions within their supervisor development programs that will enable them to:
- seek more innovative and creative solutions to supervisor development beyond the standard course workshops;
- balance allocation of expertise and resources between central and local programs;
- tie the requirement for formal registration of supervisors to faculty-based programs on professional development;
- introduce a mentoring program (with benefits for both less and more experienced supervisors); and
- allocate resources to facilitate and support other informal supervisor learning opportunities that foster ongoing discussions about supervision.
The project also recommends that universities consider further developing and implementing modules on supervision in existing postgraduate higher education teaching programs.
Recommendation 10: Review of existing and future resources for supervisor development
The project recommends that universities conduct a review of their existing resources for supervision development. This review should be undertaken with a view to identifying strengths and weaknesses in current provision of resources, and with a view to identifying the additional resources required by supervisors to meet new challenges and demands. Such a review should include the potential for enhancing existing resources, the value of using resources developed at other universities; and the possibilities of making more extensive use of resources such as fIRST.