Supervising Theses: Congruence Between the Expectations of Supervisors and Supervisees

Supervising theses at doctoral and master’s level is never easy. Complaints are often heard from both sides. Supervisors lament the fact that their students do not have the relevant skills to carry out research; students complain that supervisors are very difficult to contact and do not seem to provide much assistance. More often than not, supervisees expect the supervisors to guide them through every detail and aspect of the research writing process. On the other hand, the supervisors expect the supervisees to have sufficient knowledge about doing research. This mismatch of expectations often leads to frustrations on both sides. This qualitative study reported here investigated the nature of the supervising process at a faculty of education at a large public university in Malaysia, in particular investigating the expectations and problems encountered during the supervising process. The findings revealed that supervisors and supervisees have different conceptions of their roles and have different expectations of each other. The findings suggest that both parties need to clarify their expectations from the outset. This may minimize conflicts between the two parties.