As a PhD candidate, I was often been asked about advices of choosing supervisors from my honour/postgraduate students. Regardless you are brilliantly smart or barely meet the academic requirement to enter the PhD program, choosing a suitable supervisor is always the first, and I would say, the most important step for your academic career.
What is a good supervisor?
There are two components that defines a good supervisor: network and supervision.
In the discipline of social sciences, networking is essential for your future career, including data collection, conferences, collaboration, jobs etc. Your supervisor is basically your first point of building your own academic network. So if you have a potential supervisor who is very popular in the field, he/she would usually have a well-established connection in the field. Indeed, people won’t tell you how well they are engaged with other people, but you can take a look at their publication list, such as how often they are interviewed by media, their collaboration with other academics — these are hints of their engagement in the field.
But there is always a trade off.
Academics who have good personal network sometimes are not good at supervision. Of course this is just my personal observation, but the logic is simple. This is just a preference of meeting cohorts or meeting students. Therefore, people who are busy in networking usually do not spend much time with their students.
So, depends on what you want. If you are confident that you are an independent learner, a good networking supervisor perhaps would be a suitable choice for you; but if you believe that you still have so much to learn, perhaps you need a nurtured supervisors who can give you more supports.
The university or the professor?
This is a question that I often been asked, and I always say choosing a good professor than a good school.
Here, we are not discussing some extreme cases, like a leading scholar in a university ranked 500 or below. It is choosing between a top-tier university and a good supervisor. Top-tier university usually has very good resources, which include fundings, networking, courses structure, and most importantly, reputation. These resources will be good if you want to enter the commercial world after your graduation.
But if you want to be part of academia, again your supervisor should be your first point of networking. He/she has the best knowledge about your field. Therefore, a good professor in a pretty average university should be a considerable option for students. They will also give you adequate resources similar to a good college.
Supervisor’s expertise or your interested topic?
Of course, your research interest is related to supervisor’s expertise is always the most ideal case, but it is often not the case, especially to students that can barely meet the requirement to enter the program, like myself.
Some people suggest not to work on the same area that your supervisor is in because you will have less control of your own research throughout the journey, and eventually you two will become competitors. I disagree on this perspective. I don’t find people within the academia is being that subjective. Instead, supervisor that has knowledge in your research area is indeed a bonus. You will find yourself spending less time in searching all the relevant readings and doing all the literature review because your supervisor will guide you what to read (trust me, this is not a learning process; it’s a waste of time). You may also have more resources, funding or connection in the related research area.
However, never choose an area that you are not interested in just because your potential supervisor is familiar with. This will be a disaster. There are many scholars worldwide that are open for supervision. So, never limit yourself in your home university. If you want to be an academic, you will have to move abroad eventually.
Final tips: spark your research proposal?
Many honour or postgraduate students think that they have to master their research proposal when apply for PhD programs. However, your academic results are eventually what universities first consider when reviewing your application. The research proposals are used to determine whether they can allocate a department member to supervise your project. So, when writing a research proposal for the application, you should demonstrate the relevance of your topic to a particular potential supervisor’s research area, rather than showing the significance of your research. In fact, never consider your research proposal for the application will be your final research topic. You will change it within a few months after you enter the program.
All the best with your application 🙂