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Supervising Honours

The Honours year is a significant transition stage for students in terms of work demands and expectations and also in the changed status from undergraduates to potential postgraduates. Students are expected to exhibit a degree of independence and negotiate a different relationship with staff from that of an undergraduate. The Honours year tests their initiative, independence and self discipline as well as their scholarly potential.Cathy Hawes: Honours study at Flinders University: Perspectives of Students and Coordinators
HERDSA Article: 1999

	Kinds of Learning
	Supervisor Obligations
	Student Issues

• explores a known field through a small, guided research project
• challenges the boundaries of one's own knowledge
• evaluates the appropriateness and value of what is known and what is constructed.

• evaluating relationships between ideas in the field of endeavour
• developing a deeper understanding of how knowledge is constructed in the field of endeavour
• working on personal values in relation to an area of knowledge in the field of endeavour
• learning to develop a "limited commitment" to a point of view in the field of endeavour. That is, they are able to develop an informed and reasoned opinion using evidence, at the same time recognising the limitations of most theoretical stances.  They should be able to demonstrate that they are aware that they may have to review their position if subsequent evidence challenges it.

According to the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee, the purpose of an honours program is to provide students with research training. Therefore honours programs nearly always have a strong research component. Many supervisors go on to publish the honours research that they have supervised, in conjunction with their students. Furthermore, many honours students continue on directly to a higher degree, often with the same supervisor they had in their honours program. Honours supervision requires somewhat different strategies to PhD supervision and is governed by different policies because of the nature of its size and its time constraints.

Supervisor Obligations

• An Honours supervisor has a responsibility to guide, advise and give constructive criticism. The supervisor guides the student through each stage of the research project: identifying a suitable topic, framing research questions, setting the theoretical perspective, selecting methods and techniques, planning the research design, seeking ethics approval, gathering and analysing the data, and writing the report in the form of a thesis. Supervision is conducted through regular meetings with the student (face-to-face, telephone and email/IRC) and through written commentary on written submissions from the student.

• The supervisor also monitors the well-being of the student, checking that stress and other demands of Honours are being adequately managed
• The supervisor should be the first port of call for discussion of any problem, academic or non-academic, the student may wish to raise, for example equipment breakdown, difficulty with access to subjects, or problems accessing computer facilities.

Occasionally students have problems that cannot be resolved in consultation with the supervisor; unfortunately, sometimes the problem is the supervisor-student relationship. This is where early discussion with one of the research co-ordinators is vital.

Cathy Hawes conducted an in-depth study in 1999 to explore the experience of Honours study at Flinders University from the perspectives of both the students and Honours coordinators. Issues canvassed covered reasons for doing Honours, supervision, support, resources, information, problems encountered, employment and future plans. A number of issues were identified which may influence students' progression to further study. The dominant issue identified by students was that of student stress

Reducing stress in Honours study:

"A word of encouragement is always welcome". Most Honours students in Hawes's study indicated a high level of stress, predominantly around the following areas:

• Unrealistic Expectations
  Many students consider a grade of less than a first class Honours a failure. It should be clearly indicated that they can continue on to further study without a first class Honours. They are often confuse the requirements for scholarships for entrance into postgraduate studies.
• Time Constraints
  Time management training is pivotal as most Honours students have many commitments, such as work and family, outside of study. It is the student's responsibility to initiate and maintain regular contact with supervisors, raising questions and problems as early as possible. However, the supervisor's role is to keep a check on student progress, including time management, at the meetings.
• Uncertainty of Requirements
  Because Honours study is completely different to undergraduate study, in terms of time and structure and task format, many students are unsure of what is expected of them. This can cause anxiety and sometimes delays in starting. Uncertainty can be reduced through
  • making examples of Honours theses available to students as early as possible
  • directing students to Honours handbooks stipulating what is required, these can be available online or in print format.

• Supervisor Choice
  A successful student-supervisor relationship is crucial to the success of an Honours project, sometimes students feel that they are not communicating effectively with their chosen supervisor and this adds to the anxiety. It is important that the criteria for the relationship are established early and that any problems are addressed as soon as they emerge.