PhD – Supervisor Coaching

The relationship between PhD candidate and supervisor(s) is an essential part of the PhD programme. There's a lot you can do to ensure that the relationship with your PhD supervisor gets off to a good start and becomes a positive experience.  In order to offer the PhD candidate a good start, the PhD supervisor project has been created. Under the guidance of a coach, an inventory is made of the specific wishes and needs of the PhD candidate for supervision. After that, the coach will facilitate the PhD candidate and the supervisor(s) to discuss these expectations and to make agreements that make and keep the communication and cooperation between PhD candidate and supervisor(s) transparent.
 

Approach
1.  The process starts with an individual coaching session (1.5 h) with the PhD candidate and a coach. In this interview, we will look at what insights the PhD candidate has about the PhD trajectory.
What questions and/or ambiguities are there? What are the expectations and how to meet them? What support can you expect from your supervisor(s)?
What is important for your supervisor(s) to know about you? What do you need from your supervisor(s).

2. After this inventory, an Open Dialogue session (1.5 hours) will take place with the PhD candidate and his supervisor(s).  The coach will guide the process in which mutual expectations are expressed and solutions and agreements are discussed together to streamline cooperation and communication.

 

Result
The agreements are recorded in a Supervision Covenant, which also includes agreements about the follow-up. This covenant is drawn up by the coach and submitted to the PhD candidate for approval. After approval, the covenant is signed by the PhD candidate and his/her supervisors.