Supervising Postgraduate Researchers

Supervising postgraduate researchers is one of the most challenging and rewarding tasks in all of academia.

This course will help.

Flat-lay image of several tablets displaying colourful slides from the Supervising Postgraduate Researchers course. The screens show diagrams, charts, illustrations, and short readings on topics such as supervision expectations, feedback, and culture

Support your supervisors

A good supervisor can shape the trajectory of a project, a degree, and even a person. They have the power to help change a culture, to promote rigour and quality, and to inspire the next generation of researchers.

Supervising Postgraduate Researchers is the ideal foundation for building confident, capable supervisors.

Designed for busy academics

This course is concise, engaging, and rich in multimedia. It’s based on the contemporary research literature. It’s perfect for training new supervisors, and provides an ideal refresher for those who are more experienced. It facilitates genuine reflection about the topics that matter. Supervision is, after all, "something you can learn and develop over time, not something that is innate." (Guccione & Stefanatos, 2023)

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A hand holds a mobile phone. The screen shows a colourful picture of a hamburger. It's titled "Beyond the feedback sandwich". There are annotations and descriptive text which are not legible at this scale.

Make it your own

This course is designed to be customised to suit your university’s policies, resources, support structures, and workflows. Almost any of the text can change to suit your preferences.

You may already have a suite of training offerings for supervisors. This course will help tie them all together. We have a simple process to make the customisations for you. When you launch, this course will feel tailor-made to suit your colleagues.

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  • Build communities of practice

    Our infographic discussion primers promote discussion between supervisors — to learn from each other and from literature, and to ask hard important questions that go beyond the scope of any online course.

    Some institutions use our discussion primers as the basis for engaging workshops that build vibrant communities of practice.

    A hand with a pen draws on a close-up of a Tricky Goose discussion primer about providing effective feedback.

  • Equip supervisors with tools

    The course includes resources for supervisors to use with their candidates to promote good practices and to have meaningful conversations.

    It’s one thing for an institution to tell supervisors what’s expected or what’s ‘good practice’, but it’s another thing to actually equip them for their challenging role. This course helps supervisors to help their candidates.

    A woman holds an A3 infographic discussion primer from Tricky Goose Training's course, "Quality Through Integrity". The title says "Peer Review".

Professor at an Australian university

“Very engaging, relevant, interactive...”

Supervisor at an Australian University

“I wish I had this training [when I started supervising] … I had to figure everything out.”

An open laptop shows a screen with the heading "Process & Practice". The same man is pictured twice — once shrugging, and another time deep in thought.

Process and practice

This course covers both the processes and practices of effective supervision. It’s split into two major sections.

  • Topics include:

    • Registering and keeping current

    • Selecting and attracting candidates

    • Postgraduate application process

    • Supervising as a team

    • Onboarding new candidates

    • The journey (i.e. milestones)

    • Project management

    • Examination

  • Topics include:

    • ‘Best practices’ (including supervisory styles)

    • Supervising writing

    • Providing feedback

    • Challenging behaviours

    • Quality and integrity

    • Career conversations

Assess learning and track completions

There are interactive ‘knowledge checks’ throughout the course, and a short quiz at the end. The quiz tests the genuine application of knowledge.

When a user passes the quiz, you can easily track completions. It’s designed to be the cornerstone of your training and support program, and to underlie your supervisor ‘registration’ or ‘accreditation’ processes.

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 FAQs

  • The entire course takes most academics about two or three hours to complete, although users can complete the course at their own pace, and leave and return at any time.

    There’s a natural break in the middle, and we encourage users to complete the course over two sessions.

    There are many optional resources to explore topics in more detail, and users can dip in and out as they please.

  • Yes! If you lead or coordinate research supervision for an Australian university, contact us and we'll hook you up with a free trial that you can review in your own time.

  • If your institution has a Learning Management System (a system that hosts online training for staff and students) this course will almost certainly work for you. We can provide a test package so you can be sure that it works before you commit.

    Using your own systems helps you keep your learner data secure, and provides a consistency with your other training offerings.

    The course runs beautifully on desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile, etc.

  • Yes. This course has been designed and assessed in relation to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2: Level A and Level AA.

  • The lead authors are:

    • Prof Wendy Wright (Dean, Graduate Research at Federation University)

    • Dr Mark Hooper (Director, Tricky Goose Training)

    The course was critically reviewed and improved by supervisors, leaders, and professional staff from three Australian universities.

    The course is choc-full of contemporary literature.

  • We offer this course to research institutions under a license agreement, usually for a period of two years. A license grants unlimited use by staff for the license period, and includes our unique customisation package.

    Contact us to discuss licence fees and how this course could be specially customised to suit your needs.

Want to know more?

Contact us