Graduate Research School

The Research Proposal Guidelines ask you to:

How you can approach this:

You are required to have more than one supervisor for your project. You should discuss with your supervisors their relative roles in your project. In your research proposal you need to outline each supervisors role and their percentage contribution to the project.

There are requirements for the Nomination of Supervisors.

There is no limit to the number of supervisors a student may have but it must be possible to ensure that all parties are able to meet regularly and agree on the direction of study and that each supervisor’s role in relation to the project and candidature is well defined.

One of the supervisors must be the Principal Supervisor. This is the supervisor who provides primary academic leadership in the supervision. This person must be research active as defined by the relevant Faculty/School to which they are attached, have research expertise and experience relevant to the area of the student’s proposed research and provide evidence of continuing and active involvement in research.

One of the supervisors must be the Coordinating Supervisor. This is the supervisor who takes primary responsibility for the academic management of the student’s candidature and ensuring that all administrative and reporting requirements of the supervision are met. This person must be an employee of this University. The Coordinating Supervisor will receive all correspondence relating to the candidature. The Coordinating Supervisor takes responsibility for communication with and between the other supervisors and, where this person is not also the Principal Supervisor, they will closely coordinate the student’s individual research training program with the Principal Supervisor. Supervisors can be both Principal and Coordinating supervisor. In such cases a Co-supervisor must be appointed.

A Co-supervisor will have specific expertise that is useful to the student’s research program and will be available as an independent person from whom the student may seek advice during the course of the candidature. They will also serve as backup for the Principal and/or Coordinating Supervisor. This person need not be an employee of this University but will be expected otherwise to hold adjunct, emeritus or honorary research fellow status.

One or more External Supervisors may be appointed. External Supervisors are not employees of the University and they do not hold formal adjunct, emeritus or honorary research fellow status. They will have specific expertise of relevance and use to the student’s research program.

Joint supervision across Schools or from outside the University is permissible. Where a student is jointly enrolled across two Schools (or centres), a Principal and/or Coordinating Supervisor must be appointed from School 1 and a Coordinating Supervisor from School 2.

In the early stages of your candidature, you should lay the ground rules regarding the nature of your working relationship with your supervisor. You may find the SPORS questionnaire useful.

Example entry in this section

Principal and Co-ordinating supervisor W/Prof XXX (75%): Meetings every two weeks. Review of research progress at each meeting. Will provide feedback on drafts of each chapter as completed and one review of the final thesis. As co-ordinating supervisor, W/Prof XXX will be responsible for ensuring that all administration and reporting requirements from the supervisors are met. She will receive all correspondence from the Graduate Research School relating to the candidate, and is responsible for all communication with and between other supervisors.

Co-supervisor A/Prof YYY (25%): Meetings every second month with student and principal supervisor. Area of expertise is in ZZZ and will provide advice regarding this component of the project. Will provide one review of the final thesis.