Your role

Supervisor Roles

A first or principal supervisor has the primary responsibility for determining the direction of the project, whilst taking into account the views of other members of the student’s thesis committee. They should ensure that the student has all the facilities and guidance they need and should encourage the student to attend conferences and transferable skills courses. They must appoint a second supervisor with the approval of the IGC PGSC. Where there are co-supervisors, the role of first supervisor must be shared, and an assistant supervisor appointed as below.

From the Code of Practice: “The principal supervisor (or the co-supervisor) is the person primarily responsible for giving the research student help and advice to obtain good training in research, choosing a topic of appropriate scope and significance, organising the research, composing a thesis that meets the University’s specifications, and submitting it in the appropriate timescale. It is important to note, however, that the student has direct responsibility for the production of their thesis and its final quality”.

A second (or assistant) supervisor must be in a different lab from the first supervisor, to provide a genuinely independent view. In practice this should mean that there is no direct line management responsibility between the two supervisors. A third supervisor may be appointed from within the same lab if there is a need for additional expertise.

An associate supervisor is a category that recognises an individual like a postdoc, possibly within the first supervisors group and who provides day-to-day supervision for the student.