Supervisors should be available to help their graduate students at every stage, from formulation of their research projects through establishing methodologies and discussing results, to presentation and possible publication of dissertations. Graduate supervisors must also ensure that their students’ work meets the standards of the University and the academic discipline.

Specific responsibilities of a graduate supervisor:

• assists the student with the research topic selection ensuring that it is suitable and manageable
• is sufficiently familiar with the field of research to provide guidance and/or has a willingness to gain that familiarity before agreeing to act as a supervisor.
• is accessible for consultation and discussion of the student’s academic progress and research. The frequency of meetings will vary according to the discipline, stage of work, nature of the project, independence of the student, full- or part-time status, etc. For many, weekly meetings are essential; for others, monthly meetings are satisfactory. In no case should interaction be less frequent than once per term.
• establishes a supervisory committee (with input from the student and colleagues where appropriate), and convenes a meeting, at least annually, to evaluate the student’s progress and provides a written report of the meeting.
• responds to written work submitted by the student, with constructive suggestions for improvement and continuation. The turnaround time for comments on written work should not normally exceed three weeks.
• makes arrangements to ensure continuity of supervision when the supervisor will be absent for extended periods, e.g. a month or longer.
• when necessary, assists the student in gaining access to facilities or research materials.
• ensures safety of research environment, and that it is healthy and free from harassment, discrimination and conflict. When there is a conflict in advice or when there are different expectations on the part of co-supervisors or members of the supervisory committee, the supervisor is expected to endeavor to achieve consensus and resolve the differences.
• assists the student in being aware of current graduate program requirements, deadlines, sources of funding, etc.
• encourages the student to make presentations of research results within the University and to outside scholarly or professional bodies as appropriate.
• encourages the student to finish up when it would not be in the student’s best interests to extend the program of studies.
• acknowledges appropriately the contributions of the student in presentations and in published material, in many cases via joint authorship.
• ensures that recommendations for external examiners of doctoral dissertations are made to the graduate program advisor and forwarded to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in a timely manner.
• assists the student to comply with any changes that need to be made to the thesis after the thesis or dissertation defense.