Online course | “How to improve PhD supervision”
Reflect on and improve supervision of doctoral researchers.
Date & Time: Thu 10 December, 9 am – 5 pm; Fri 11 December, 9 am – 1 pm
Target group: Academic staff who supervise PhD students, either as main or secondary supervisor
Format: open course, few places available for GEOMAR supervisors
Training mode: Live-online, via Zoom
Language: English
Trainer: Dr. Bärbel Tress, Tress Academic
Registration Deadline: 12 November 2026
Course content:
This course supports supervisors in reflecting on and providing excellent supervision for their doctoral researchers. Participants learn how to optimise the relationship between them and their doctoral researcher, including expectation management, leadership styles, and handling of challenging situations. They exchange experiences with colleagues and learn how to organise productive meetings, how to foster independence, and having candid conversations. Participants get advice on the decisive early steps of the relationship between supervisor and doctoral researcher, the supervisory process, timely completion, and tools for evaluating and further developing their supervisory skills. During the course supervisors test the application of these tools in practical exercises. They can reflect on what they would like to implement in their personal situations, as well as on an institutional level. At the end of the course, they have a variety of instruments at hand that they can apply directly for improving supervision of their doctoral researchers.
The course covers the following topics:
- International developments in PhD education
- Biggest problems of PhD students
- Time to completion
- Challenges of supervisors
- Good practice in supervision
- Developing supervisory styles
- Enhancing the supervisor–student relationship
- Clarifying expectations
- Setting up supervisory agreements
- Organising productive supervisory meetings
- Handling difficult conversations
- Monitoring student progress
- Enhancing student motivation
- Self- and peer-assessment
Course concept:
The course includes a combination of lectures, exercises, and questions and discussion rounds. We survey the participants’ specific training needs prior to the course to provide relevant course input. Contents, exercises and examples will then as far as possible be adjusted to the subject-specific requirements of the participants. The course offers ample room for addressing individual questions on the various aspects of the course topic.
Course benefits:
Peer exchange: During the course, participants have the chance to address individual aspects they personally want to change in their supervision with colleagues from the same field/institute. They can exchange on issues of PhD supervision in a stimulating and motivating environment.
Course documentation: All learning steps and aims are documented in a detailed handbook in English in order to increase learning progress and study of the course subject beyond the training. Every participant receives one handbook.
Online resources: Course participants will be informed about the possibility to further benefit from additional online resources that are provided through our company website.
Preparation by participants:
Online survey: In order to determine the specific training needs of participants, we run a short online survey among participants about four to six weeks before the course. In the survey, participants can express their course-related questions, mention problems or suggest topics they would like to be discussed during the course. Surveyed data are treated confidentially and used only for preparing this course. Please consult our Privacy Policy for further details on data protection at https://tressacademic.com/privacy-policy/ .
Topics for discussion: Participants are invited to submit topics related to their own supervision for peer-group discussions. This gives them the opportunity to get input on more individual issues from their peers.