Tips for Continuing a Supervisory Relationship at a Distance

By Dr Heather Mackenzie, Manager - Doctoral College Professional Development Programme

As we are all trying our best to continue our supervisory relationships at a distance, we thought it might be useful to share some tips from supervisors and PGRs about how to make this work successfully. Some of these are good ideas for working together generally, but especially in these unusual times, and others apply specifically to working together at a distance. These may well be things you are already doing, and how you manage the supervisory relationship at a distance is going to need to be tailored to the circumstances you and your PGRs are in. Individual research projects will be affected differently by the current situation, as will the personal circumstances of both PGRs and supervisors.  For research projects that are primarily lab-based the current situation will be especially challenging and we recognise this.  However it is also the reason why it is especially important to maintain a close supervisory relationship and open discussion about the challenges that you need to overcome. In all situations, however, it’s going to be important that you keep in regular contact with each other.

Quick Links:

Preparing to face new challenges

Having successful remote supervisory meetings

Other tips for a successful remote supervisory relationship

Preparing to face new challenges:

• Understand each other’s point of view: Now, more than ever, we are all facing multiple complex challenges. This means as supervisors and PGRs, we need to take time to understand each other’s experiences and challenges as much as possible so that we can continue to work together successfully. Thus, it may be useful to start a conversation about what challenges you are both currently facing (e.g. technology, finances, childcare, working space etc). How might you manage the supervisory relationship to accommodate these? How can you help each other? What support is available from the University?
• Review your working practices: All supervisory relationships are different, and reflect the preferences each party has for the frequency and nature of your contact and meetings. At the start of your working relationship, you probably set up some agreed expectations about how often you would meet, and what you would discuss. You should now have a conversation about whether and how these might change to accommodate the current circumstances. Do you need to meet more/less frequently? How will you meet (e.g. will you video conference? If so, what software will you use? Would the telephone work better?)? How will you contact each other between meetings? How long is fair to wait for a reply?
• Consider how your agreed plans need to change: While it’s likely that you have already done so, it’s important that you discuss how the current situation will affect PGRs’ research and training plans, and registration. This could be the source of significant anxiety (perhaps on both sides), and that’s entirely understandable. Now would be a good time to reflect upon whether, and to what extent, these might change. Depending on the circumstances and research project, you might be able to continue the research project as planned. If not, you might decide to watch and wait, while prioritising other research activities such as writing, public engagement or ensuring your records/notes are up-to-date and organised. However, you might also consider whether you can take a different strategy to the research project to enable it to continue in a virtual form. There is no rush to make a decision about how to proceed, so keep talking about how to move forward and bring in the rest of the supervisory team for advice where possible. If you are a laboratory or field based researcher, you might find the suggested activities you could undertake while you cannot collect data outlined in the following infographics useful: Scientist without a Lab? and Field Scientist without the Field? If you are considering moving towards collecting data virtually (where this is possible), it would be worthwhile reviewing the guidance signposted by RIS .
• Schedule regular meetings in advance: If you don’t do so already, scheduling regular meetings in advance is a really simple but effective way of maintaining contact while you are off-campus. Even if you don’t have much to discuss, it can be really beneficial to have a quick meeting to check in with each other and maintain your relationship. If you don’t do this, there is a very real danger that many weeks will go by before either of you realise how long it has been since you last met especially as you have so many other commitments to consider.
• Keep informal contact going: You may both be used to having quick conversations in the lab, or bumping into each other in the staff room or corridor. Obviously these aren’t going to happen when you are working from home, but you can still send each other emails and use Teams chat to keep in touch outside of meetings. As a supervisor, if you know your PGR is at home alone, or is facing other challenges at the moment, this contact may well be very important to your PGR. As a PGR, try to engage with your supervisor more often than you usually would, and be open about any challenges you are facing (they are there to help).

Having successful remote supervisory meetings:

• Send documents in advance of the meeting and agree an agenda: As with face-to-face supervisory meetings, documents should be sent a few days in advance of the meeting so that participants can read them and be fully prepared to talk about them. While screen sharing is a useful tool, it should be used sparingly and it’s not a replacement for giving someone time to read documents ahead of time. Make sure you number the pages of your document, as this can make it a lot easier to discuss these remotely, especially when you aren’t screen-sharing.
• Take time to catch up about your personal lives: It works really well to start each remote meeting with a quick catch up about your lives outside of work/research (as far as you are both happy to share). All supervisory relationships are different, and while some supervisors and students will have a friendly relationship, others will be far more professional in nature. However, now would be a good time to put your usual working relationship to one side and find out more about each other’s personal lives. Not only will this help you to understand each other better, but, the supervisory meeting may in some cases be the only contact the supervisor and/or PGR will have in a day, and is therefore far more than a professional meeting - it is social contact, and also serves as an important connection between PGR and University. You’re also likely to meet each other’s housemates, family, children and/or pets so whether you like it or not, you are about to find out a whole lot more about each other!
• Choose a mode of communication that works for you: Lots of video-conferencing has been taking place using Microsoft Teams, and this can work well for supervisory meetings at a distance (it can be lovely to see another person’s face after lots of time spent alone). However, you can meet just as effectively over the phone if you would prefer. It’s also possible to do voice-only calls through Microsoft Teams, so you don’t have to turn your video on if you don’t want to or you don’t have a good Internet connection.
• Don’t forget about the time difference: When setting up a supervisory meeting across countries, don’t forget that you may be in different time zones - agree which time zone you are talking about when you set a time to meet.
• Keep records and check understanding: PGRs should still take care to make notes of the key points covered in remote supervisory meetings, and to agree concrete actions with their supervisors by email.

Other tips for a successful remote supervisory relationship:

• Assume good will at all times: We all know how easy it can be to mistake sarcasm for criticism in an email. The chances of inadvertently offending someone are much higher when email becomes a more frequent tool for communication, and when people are working in challenging times. As your relationship is conducted exclusively online, it’s going to be important to assume that all comments are well-meaning, however they come across. If you are at all unsure about what was meant, make a note to check this when you next catch up verbally.
• Provide very clear written requests/feedback: Any requests made/feedback provided in writing should be very clear and explicit, with as much detail as possible. It can be very useful to set an agenda item at each meeting for you to discuss any queries about requests made or feedback received. Again, assuming good will at all times applies here too but it’s also important to make an effort to be as polite and friendly in tone by email as you would be in person (if not, more so).
• Keep communicating: If your situation changes, remember to communicate this to your supervisor/PGR as you would ordinarily do, including if you become unwell and won’t be studying, or if you take annual leave, or if there are any changes to your personal circumstances more generally. Living in uncertain times brings its own challenges and anxieties, and it’s important that PGRs and supervisors recognise this too. We are all trying our best in difficult circumstances, and we’re not always going to find it easy to make progress.
• Consider joint supervisory meetings: If you would ordinarily have shared supervisory meetings with a group of PGRs, there’s no reason you can’t continue to do so. If you don’t ordinarily do so, you could consider whether this might be a good thing to set up for the time being, especially if PGRs with the same supervisor are facing the same/similar issues or are working on similar activities (e.g. writing). You can still have one-to-one meetings should there be any specific or personal issues that need to be discussed.
• Set up peer support mechanisms: As a supervisor, you might encourage your PGRs to have video conferences with each other outside of your supervisory meetings, to ensure that they have regular opportunities to socialise and talk about their research. As a PGR, if you would like to do this, you could also set up regular video conference ‘coffee’ meetings for you and your peers as a way to keep in touch.