Managing HDR Supervision

Effective supervision is a key element in the success and learning experience for higher degree by research students.

This webpage is a resource is to assist you in the important role you undertake for Flinders University HDR students. The University is required to have a Register of HDR Supervisors and a HDR Supervisor Development Program to ensure a high-quality, authentic and engaged supervisory experience for our higher degree by research students.

Find out more about how to become a registered HDR Supervisor at Flinders University.

Getting Started with your HDR Student

HDR supervision is a rewarding, regulated and complex environment. Flinders University policy and processes regarding research supervision follow national standards of good practice in supervising students. Supervisors are required to provide intellectual support, procedural guidance and broader pastoral support. To ensure all of these aspects are met, supervisors are expected to provide the following:

Get to know your student.
Gain a mutual understanding of each other’s roles and responsibilities and set expectations.
Plan and structure supervision sessions.
Develop strategies to help students get started.
Use available resources.
Enable a scholarly research community.
Provide effective feedback.
Facilitate the writing process.
Enable students to reach a conclusion.
Review and evaluate your practice.

To participate in the HDR Supervisor Development Program and remain up to date with best practice refer to the HDR Supervisor Development Program webpage.

Candidature Management Tools

The documents listed here may be useful as conversations starters or resources for supervision meetings.

The majority of your candidature management administration can be actioned via Inspire . Learn more about Inspire and access the quick reference guides. Students use Inspire to submit degree management forms for your recommendation, assess their research skills, plan their research training and book into available training courses and for the examination of their thesis.

You can use Inspire to view your Register of HDR Supervisor record and HDR Supervisor Development Program points and training compliance expiry.

Expectations of supervision survey

HDR student meeting template

Charter of HDR student and supervisor responsibilities

Using GenAI in HDR Studies

Helping your prospective HDR student

The HDR Admissions Team in the Office of Graduate Research will help you and your prospective HDR student from enquiry through to admission.

Study HDR - DOMESTIC and Study HDR - INTERNATIONAL web sections support prospective students to:

Determine their eligibility, including academic qualifications, English Language proficiency requirements, and research experience
Search for a course and research area
Search for a supervisor and how to establish contact
Search for scholarships**
Lodge their application including identifying an education agent for international offshore applicants

**If you want to establish a scholarship for your student funded from your research grant, use the Scholarship Opportunity Service One request.

Prospective applicants should use an enquiry form at the bottom of any HDR course information page, to request support or more information.

You can contact the team with any questions at: HDR.Admissions@flinders.edu.au

Helping your students develop

Students commence a HDR with different levels of skills, experience and knowledge and may need to undertake some development activities such as online learning, workshops or discussion groups to successfully complete their HDR and pursue their aspirations. The Researcher Development Team will help your student with all their professional development needs via the Research and Employability Skills Training (REST) program. We have also developed the Doctoral Graduate Attributes which describe the skillsets that HDRs will need to develop throughout their candidature.

Helping your students engage with industry

Students can gain valuable skills and connections by engaging with industry. Engagement with industry can include internships of at least 3 months FTE either paid or unpaid, industry scholarships and/or industry supervision.

To find out more go to the HDR Student Industry Engagement for Supervisors webpage.

Helping your students through their candidature

The HDR Progression Team in the Office of Graduate Research will help you and your HDR student throughout their candidature.

To find out more go to the Progression and Milestones and Degree Management webpages. You can email the team at: HDR.Progression@flinders.edu.au.

Helping your students through their examination

The HDR Examinations Team in the Office of Graduate Research will help you and your HDR student throughout their examination and completion process.

To find out more go to the HDR examinations and completions webpage. You can email the team at: HDR.Exams@flinders.edu.au.

Useful forms, templates and policy and procedure references for the Examination of HDR students:

Principal Supervisors are required to nominate two external examiners three (3) months in advance of their student submitting their thesis. Please refer to the HDR examination procedures (section 3) for further information regarding the criteria for external HDR examiners. Examiners should be nominated in Inspire.
It is the responsibility of a Principal Supervisor to initially approach a potential examiner to check their availability and request a copy of their CV and publications. The following email template may be useful for supervisors to use/edit when initially approaching an examiner.
Template email for supervisors to approach an examiner
Supervisors should encourage their students to complete an Intention To Submit form in Inspire. This form can provide the supervisor with information about when the student plans to submit their thesis for examination and also an opportunity for a student to declare examiners they DO NOT want to examine their thesis.
A dedicated webpage for HDR examiners is available for students and supervisors to view. This page will give you insight as to what is required of external examiners.