Improving Doctoral Success by Matching PhD Students with Supervisors

Introduction Advances in technology are leading to new possibilities for the access and availability of PhD studies and, above all, to profound changes in the way relationships between supervisors and students are established during postgraduate research, especially when these relationships are conducted at a distance. One of the most sensitive aspects of the development and successful completion of distance postgraduate research is the support and guidance received from supervisors (Jones, 2013). As far as the supervisor's role is concerned, this guidance varies according to the supervisor's profile and the stage of the research as well as the student's profile and needs. Hence, different supervisory roles and different models of supervision can be identified. The present study addresses a particular dynamic of supervision in which supervisor and student use online communication systems instead of meeting face-to-face. Online postgraduate research works in a different way than face-to-face supervision because it presents greater difficulties and requires changes in supervisory roles. Several authors, including Price and Money (2002), Macauley (2002), and Hartikainen, Suhonen, and Sutinen (2006), have pointed out these difficulties. This study focuses on Spanish doctoral programs in education sciences in which Latin American students participate. Although several doctoral-program formats exist in Spain, almost all the cases investigated here belong to the training phase, usually two years long, and the research phase, in which students develop the thesis. The students in these doctoral programs are characterized by their internationalization, mature age, and part-time status, and because they are conducting the research stage at a distance they have not completely abandoned their obligations to their academic institution. This type of distance PhD student usually relies heavily on systems and environments that enable communication management--such as virtual learning environments--and online communication tools--such as e-mail and videoconferencing. Thus, the communication space itself conditions the specific elements of the supervisor-student relationship. This study analyzes the elements of supervisory style and, alongside this, the supervisor's skills, both of which are key in a distance context. Literature Review A key factor of the success of a research project is the relationship between the supervisor and researcher during the training stage. This relationship is influenced by a variety of factors, among which are the characteristics of both supervisor and student (including interests, experiences, and prior knowledge at the onset of the research), supervisor roles, and supervisory styles. Effective supervision of researchers during the training stage is a multifactorial process that involves not only issues such as the relationship between students and supervisors at all levels, but also the infrastructure available, institutional and government policies, structures, and procedures (Abiddin, Ismail, & Ismail, 2011; Green, 2005; Holbrook et al., 2014; Jiranek, 2010; Jones, 2013). Weaknesses of Postgraduate Programs and Factors that Affect their Successful Completion Researchers have identified the following as significant predictors of completion of the postgraduate research project: degree of attendance (part- or full-time), availability of research funding, age, excellence of prior academic record, discipline (sciences or arts), gender, suitability of the research topic, intellectual environment of the department, and access to appropriate equipment and to computers (Bourke, Holbrook, Lovat, & Farley, 2004; Jones, 2013; Latona & Browne, 2001; Lee, 2008; Pearson & Brew, 2002; Rodwell & Neumann, 2007). Love (2001) identified the following as the main weaknesses of doctoral programs based on traditional models: * A large number of students do not complete the program. …