Supervision

3.5.1/ Allocation of supervisor.

The Head of the Graduate School appoints PhD supervisors. In the appointment process, em-phasis is placed on the supervisors’ ability to cover all professional/academic aspects of the project. The research environment of the PhD student's supervisors must embrace academic breadth and must be at international level. The main supervisor must be employed at Health and be on the level of at least an Associate Professor. The main supervisor is responsible for the entire PhD study.

The PhD student can establish contact to potential supervisors through the Head of the Gradu-ate Programme. Often contact to supervisors, including main supervisor, has been established during the master study. According to the survey “Quality in the PhD process”, 79% of the GSHS PhD students state that one or more of their PhD supervisors encouraged them to become a PhD and 88% state that they contacted one or more of their PhD supervisors to get help or in-spiration for their PhD application. 50% state that they as a BA/Bsc or MA/Msc student got su-pervision from one or more of their PhD supervisors and 65% state that they worked for one or more of their PhD supervisors before they applied for their PhD scholarship.²⁹

29Appendix 1. Quality Framework for Doctoral Education. 2021. Table 4.2 p.15

Enrolment type 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2020 –

Integrated PhD 4.2 4.4 4.3 4.3 4.3 4.2

Ordinary PhD 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.2 3.3

The same survey also shows that the PhD project is usually closely related to the research field of the PhD student’s main supervisor and the average number of supervisor/ PhD student is 3.3 (2021).³⁰

3.5.1.1/ Main supervisor

The main supervisor must be employed at Health and be on the level of at least an Associate Professor. The main supervisor is responsible for the entire PhD study.

3.5.1.2/ Co-supervisors

The PhD student must find at least one co-supervisor with supplementary professional/aca-demic knowledge, which is considered necessary for the completion of the project.

There is no requirement for the co-supervisor to be employed at Health, but all co-supervisors should be on the level of a PhD or equivalent.

If the PhD project is conducted outside the university, one of the co-supervisors should be em-ployed by the institution at which the project is conducted. For industrial PhD students, one of the co-supervisors has to be affiliated with the company where the PhD student is employed.

A PhD student can have a total of four supervisors (incl. main supervisor). If the PhD student wishes to have more than a total of four supervisors affiliated with the project, he/she needs to submit an argumentation.

3.5.2/ Role and responsibility of supervisor

The main supervisor has the overall responsibility for the PhD student’s project and PhD studies.

At GSHS, this includes:

• To ensure compliance with all formalities relating to the PhD study as described in the PhD Order, AU order on PhD and internal rules at GSHS

• to discuss and review the PhD plan together with the PhD student;

• to offer regular and thorough supervision to the PhD student;

• to make sure that the PhD student is included in the scientific environment and is inte-grated in the daily workflows;

• to notify the head of programme as soon as possible if any doubt emerges concern-ing the PhD student’s ability to complete the PhD study;

• to introduce the PhD student to active (foreign) research networks:

• to advise the PhD student on how the dissemination elements can be included in the course of studies;

• to ensure that the PhD student composes a relevant course plan;

• to actively engage in written evaluations and in the oral mid-term evaluation.

• to write the main supervisor statement and submit it to GSHS no later than one week after the PhD student submits the PhD thesis (preferably before)

• to propose external members of the assessment committee in connection with the PhD defence no later than two weeks before the PhD student submits the PhD thesis.

3.5.3/ PhD students/PhD supervisor relations

The relation between the PhD student and her/his supervisor(s) is regarded as very important if not crucial to the success of the individual PhD programme. The GSHS has a strong focus on the relationship. This is reflected in the following initiatives by the GSHS

3.5.3.1/ PhD counsellor

The PhD student counsellor is a service provided to both the PhD student and the supervisors at the Graduate School of Health. The service covers PhD students who experience unsolved

30 Appendix 1. Quality Framework for Doctoral Education. 2021. Table 7.1, p.26

problems related to their PhD studies and supervisors who wish to discuss a dilemma or a spe-cific case regarding their supervision. The PhD student counsellor is an experienced researcher with long lasting supervisor experience. All discussions with the PhD counsellor are confidential.

3.5.3.2/ PhD supervisor course

The supervisor course aims to inspire better supervision e.g. by discussing dilemmas in supervi-sion and working with methods to match expectations, structure the process, provide feedback etc. Another aim of the supervisor course is to ensure that supervisors have updated

knowledge about the rules of the PhD programme and the faculty's guidelines in this area.

The course is offered twice a year.

3.5.4/ Student satisfaction with supervision ³¹

At the GSHS all PhD students have at least 2 and very often 3 (41%) or 4 supervisors (32%).

Overall the PhD students have very positive evaluations of their relation to main and co-super-visors, the availability of supervisors as well as experience with the content of supervision. A vast majority (96%) of the students finds their principal supervisor friendly and accommodating and a majority close to this (91%) finds that the supervisor recognizes their work.

The PhD student’s experience of the scope and content of supervision in core research compe-tences is overwhelmingly positive. (>70%) e.g. such as scientific writing, designing research studies, planning a change of environment, collecting and analyzing empirical data, comply-ing with responsible conduct of research etc.

The experience of the scope and content of supervision in other issues, such as completing a literature review, handling personal issues (work/life balance), teaching and future career paths is generally lower (<70 ) Only 48% of the GSHS PhD students state that they have experi-enced some supervision" or "comprehensive supervision” in teaching by their supervisor.³² The 2021 Quality survey includes questions related to the PhD student is feeling of independ-ence. 81% of the GSHS PhD students state that they feel in control of the project and 78% state that they experience that it is possible to explore new research paths within the framework of their project. This is very positive, as supervisors must support independence in the individual PhD study and support that independence grows through the PhD process. However it must also be observed that 10% of the GSHS PhD students agree or somewhat agree in the state-ment “Sometimes I feel that I’m nothing but an assistant to someone else’s project”.

The GSHS regards the overall evaluation of supervision as very satisfactory and as a sign of the fact that the supervision in general works well and according to intensions. However, there are some points of attention, such as e.g.:

1. Supervision related to personal issues.

2. Hands on supervision versus Independence in the PhD study.

3.5.5/ Student satisfaction with the research environment

The integration of the PhD student in the research environment is also very important both to the general well-being of the PhD student and to the success of the individual PhD pro-gramme. It is the responsibility of the departments and the main supervisor to support integra-tion. The PhD student must also actively reach out and engage in activities in the research en-vironment.

The 2021 Quality Survey includes questions related to the PhD student’s experience with the research environment.³³ PhD students' experience of opportunities for collaboration and feed-back in the research environment are generally very positive. 92% of the GSHS PhD students state that that they agree or somewhat agree that, “If they have any problems related to the PhD programme, they are always welcome to ask one of the other researchers”. 82% agree or

31 Appendix 1. Quality Framework for Doctoral Education. 2021. Chapter 7, 8 and 9

32 Ibid. table 8.1 p. 29

33 Appendix 1. Quality Framework for Doctoral Education. 2021. Chapter 6.

somewhat agree that, “there is a sense around here that working together on research is fun”

and 76% agree or somewhat agree that “here we present and discuss each other's research on a regular basis “.

Among all the Graduate Schools, the GSHS PhD students have the highest positive score on al-most all questions related to integration in research environment. ³⁴ E.g. 89% of the GSHS PhD students state that they agree or somewhat agree that “It is possible to talk openly with col-leagues about successful as well as unsuccessful experiences” and 89% state, that they agree or somewhat agree that “here both PhD students and professors are welcome to share their opinion” , 80% state that “ they feel that they are a part of the research community” and 88% “ feel respected as a co-researchers”

Although well integrated into the research environment still 20% of the GSHS PhD students state that they “often" or "almost always" feel lonely during their day at the workplace “ and 16% state that “they feel that they act alone in their project and lack the necessary feedback to make progress”. The GSHS management will follow up on these issues with the PhD commit-tee in autumn 2021.