Supervising at a distance: Developing supervisor capacity

Project summary

This project is the second phase of the Doing Doctoral Research at a Distance project (2022), and has been funded with the support of the Stellenbosch-Warwick Alliance.

Phase One: Doing doctoral research at a distance

Phase of the project was led by Dr James Burford (University of Warwick) and Dr Katrina McChesney (University of Waikato, NZ), with the collaboration of Professor Liezel Frick (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) and Dr Tseen Khoo (Deakin University, Australia). It involved an international study capturing the perspectives of those who recently completed, or were currently undertaking, their doctoral research by distance. As well as hearing from those who may be officially enrolled “by distance”, we also sought to capture the experiences of also a wider range of people engaging in off-campus, online, flexible, hybrid, and cross-national modes of study.

The survey received over 500 responses reflecting a diverse range of experiences, contexts, and backgrounds. The research team used the data to produce a number of academic publications, including the book Doing Doctoral Research at a Distance: Flourishing in Off-Campus, Hybrid, and Remote Pathways (Routledge) as well as journal articles Conceptualising distance doctoral study after COVID-19: are we post-distance now? published in Distance Education (2024) and Living the best way possible: Distance doctoral students navigating care for others and themselves in Access (2024). We also developed a host of resources and an active Facebook community to enable distance students to connect with other doctoral researchers in a range of disciplines, contexts, and circumstances all around the world.

Phase Two: Supervising at a distance

Phase Two of the project extends the existing collaboration, with the support of the Stellenbosch-Warwick Alliance. It enables Dr Burford and Prof Frick to lead preliminary research exploring South African and UK supervisors’ experiences with distance supervision and identify best practices. The project involves the ongoing contributions of Dr McChesney as a collaborator from Phase One of the project, and the involvement of two new collaborators from Warwick (Dr Richmond) and Stellenbosch (Dr Tshuma) who join the team.

This project will utilise research findings to develop and then pilot a professional development package that could be used to seek funding for further supervisor capacity development across Africa and the UK with Stellenbosch and Warwick staff contributions.

Project objectives

To identify any changes that occurred to supervision pedagogy during the COVID-19 pandemic, including whether supervisors developed their knowledge/understanding of distance supervision pedagogy
To explore what best practices for distance supervision look like in the contexts of the UK and South Africa
To produce a suite of professional development resources and impact outputs (e.g. briefings) for use with supervisors.

This project has just begun, and further updates will be posted later in the project!

This project is funded by the Stellenbosch-Warwick Seed Fund

This project runs September 2024 to July 2026

Who works on the project?

Principal Investigator: Dr James Burford,Link opens in a new window Department of Education Studies, University of Warwick

Principal Investigator: Prof. Liezel Frick, Department of Curriculum Studies, Stellenbosch University

Co-Investigator: Dr Katrina McChesneyLink opens in a new window, Division of Education, University of Waikato

Co-Investigator: Dr Harriet RichmondLink opens in a new window, University of Warwick

Co-Investigator: Dr Nompilo TshumaLink opens in a new window, Centre for Higher and Adult Education, Stellenbosch University