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Doctoral Supervisors
The objective of a doctorate is to educate creative, critical and autonomous researchers. Skills development should be driven by the doctoral candidates themselves, in consultation with their supervisory team, in order to become independent both in their research and in their personal development (according to LERU Advice Paper, Good practice elements in doctoral training, 2014).
Doctoral Agreement
As stressed in the fifth Salzburg Principle on doctoral education, supervision plays a crucial role: "In respect of individual doctoral candidates, arrangements for supervision and assessment should be based on a transparent contractual framework of shared responsibilities between doctoral candidates, supervisors and the institution (and where appropriate including other partners)." The University of Basel provides a doctoral agreement template (see download section) in order to summarize the doctoral project, to monitor specific training needs of the doctoral candidate and to define annual meetings with the doctoral committee.
Information for Supervisors
Providing professional development to supervisors is an institutional responsibility, whether organised through formal training or informal sharing of experiences among staff. Developing a common supervision culture shared by supervisors, doctoral school leaders and doctoral candidates must be a priority for doctoral schools (Salzburg II Recommendations: European universities' achievements since 2005 in implementing the Salzburg Principles, 2010).
High Impact Documents
- Good Practice elements in doctoral training, LERU Advice Paper 2014
- Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training, European Commission, 2011
- It takes a global village to develop the next generation of PhDs and postdoctoral fellow, Maresi Nerad, 2011
- Salzburg II Recommendations, EUA 2010
- A Model for the Supervisor-Doctoral Student Relationship, Tim Mainhard, 2009
- How are doctoral students supervised? Concepts of doctoral research supervision, Anne Lee, 2008
- The European Charter for Researchers The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, p. 14, European Commission 2005