Your supervisory team is there to support you throughout your postgraduate research programme. This page provides information to help you understand the supervisor role and how to get the most out of the relationship.
Useful information
Supervision arrangements, including the responsibilities of supervisors, mentors and PGRs are outlined in the Code of Practice on the Supervision and Monitoring Progress of Postgraduate Researchers. See Codes of Practice, Policies and Guidance.
The Working effectively with your supervisor workshop will help you understand what to expect from the supervisor-researcher relationship and how to get the most from your supervisory team. It also covers the support available across the University which complements your supervision, and who can help you if things go wrong.
Vitae's Supervision and key relationships webpage looks at how to develop an effective supervisory relationship.
The Wellbeing Thesis Managing your supervisor webpage provides further advice and video resources.
Addressing problems
Postgraduate research can be an intense process and disagreements with supervisors may arise occasionally, but it is important for all parties to be able to contain and manage any tension which might develop in the supervisory relationship.
If you are having problems with your supervisor, if you feel able to, try to talk to them about the difficulties first and see if you can work them through.
If you don’t feel comfortable doing this on your own or if a conversation with your supervisor does not resolve the issue, PGR Conciliation may be able to help. PGR Conciliation is a voluntary, informal and confidential process which aims to help PGRs and supervisors mutually repair and resolve issues in the relationship. Find out more about PGR Conciliation.
If problems continue, you are advised and encouraged to approach your scond supervisor, mentor, School or College PGR Lead who will work with you to find a solution or, if necessary, to explore alternative supervisory arrangements.
The University of Birmingham is committed to providing a high quality postgraduate research experience supported by excellent supervision from a team of appropriate academic staff. We understand, however, that there may be some rare cases when postgraduate researchers need to raise serious concerns regarding their supervision experience. If you have a serious concern or you are dissatisfied with the action of your School/College, you can raise this via the PGR supervision experience concern form.