Research

Introduction to Advising Doctoral Students introduces the program and prepares participants for later units. It asks the pressing question ‘What makes an effective doctoral advisor?’, which the full program aims to answer.

Preparing to be an advisor and recruiting the right students covers strategies for recruiting and admitting the students best fitted to an advisor’s doctoral program. It sets the stage for the courses that follow by helping advisors consider their attitude and suitability for doctoral advising, in addition to their institutional context.

Getting started suggests tools for clarifying advisors’ and students’ expectations of each other and aligning different advising styles to student needs. It gives advisors practical guidelines for keeping their students on track and helps them consider how they can support a diverse, inclusive doctoral environment.

Pre-candidacy covers the range of issues that advisors need to consider before their students advance to candidacy, including: creating a supportive doctoral environment, helping students follow best practices for research integrity, ensuring that students acquire the necessary research and writing skills, and delivering effective feedback.

The doctoral project and dissertation considers how advisors can help students find and develop dissertation topics, select appropriate members of their doctoral committee, and handle common problems that may come up throughout the research and writing process.

Cross-cutting challenges covers issues that advisors may need to consider at various stages of their students’ progress. In particular, the course focuses on helping students plan for and develop their careers, whether academic or non-academic; managing relationships with students and colleagues; and providing support to students who struggle with personal difficulties, learning disabilities, health issues, or an overall lack of motivation.

This concluding unit allows advisors to reflect on the program as a whole, to assess their own performance, and to apply what they have learned to real-life scenarios. It provides advisors with strategies to develop and improve their practice by seeking feedback and establishing their own mentor relationships.