Establishing a Holistic Approach for Postgraduate Supervision

The internationalisation and democratisation of higher education in the twenty-first century has raised myriad issues surrounding postgraduate supervision. Research supervision which was once regarded as a ‘private space’ defining a narrow and intense relationship between an academic and a research student is today viewed as a multidimensional relationship involving a fabric of interwoven experiences which necessitate a more holistic approach to postgraduate research supervision. This paper proposes to put forward a holistic approach to support postgraduate supervision based on the findings derived from a study conducted in two public universities in Malaysia. The study involved a total of 66 Malaysian postgraduate students and 30 supervisors. Data were collected using questionnaires and semi structured interviews. The study investigated aspects such as the roles and responsibilities of supervisors, qualities of the good supervisor, supervisory practices and challenges faced by both parties. Initial findings indicated that there were differences between supervisors’ and supervisees’ expectations of the roles and responsibilities of their supervisors and supervisory practices. Nevertheless, both supervisors and supervisees highlighted similar issues and challenges such as the need for research students to develop competence and confidence in the following skills: academic reading, writing, research and conceptual skills. Postgraduate supervision should be viewed as a facilitative process involving a number of domains and processes that can help student progress their candidature through effective mentoring and providing support for student participation in academic practice. Therefore, based on the findings the proposed holistic approach for postgraduate supervision takes into consideration the tenets laid down by educationists such as Maslow, Rogers, Gardner and Vygotsky alongside the four main domains of the Malaysian National Education Philosophy so that students are cognitively, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced.