Working Well With Your Supervisor: A Collaborative Approach to Your PGR Journey

Your relationship with your supervisor and co‑supervisors is one of the most significant parts of your PGR experience.

A good PGR supervisor shapes your research journey in ways that go far beyond reading drafts or signing off milestones. At their best, supervisors are partners in your intellectual development, supporters of your wellbeing, and guides through the sometimes bewildering landscape of research. While supervision is often imagined as a top‑down relationship, the most effective partnerships are acts of co‑creation. Supervisors bring experience, perspective, and institutional knowledge; you bring curiosity, emerging expertise, and the ability to shape your partnership.

Supervision is evolving. The UKRI New Deal for PGRs and wider sector conversations about workload, wellbeing, and research culture are reshaping what “good supervision” looks like. Frameworks such as the UKCGE Good Supervisory Practice Framework emphasise clarity, equity, and developmental support as expectations that apply to both supervisors and PGRs.

At UoB, I work with the University Doctoral School to support this by offering all supervisors a comprehensive professional development programme designed to strengthen supervisory practice and help ensure you receive the best experience possible.

We have created an innovative programme of professional development for supervisors, offering masterclasses on cultural humility, neurodiversity awareness, and coaching skills; writing retreats that create space for reflective practice; and development sessions that help supervisors navigate changing expectations. These spaces model a collaborative ethos that benefits PGRs. Supervisors learn to listen differently, adapt their styles, and build relationships grounded in trust, clarity, and mutual respect. As a PGR, you’re part of this wider ecosystem of evolving practice, and your own approach to supervision contributes to shaping it.

Every supervisory relationship is different, shaped by personalities, working styles, and agreed boundaries. These approaches aren’t one‑size‑fits‑all, but they can be helpful tools when discussed and agreed with your supervisor:

• Meeting agendas: These can help focus discussion, signal what support you need, and reduce anxiety. It also enables your supervisor to prepare, leading to more targeted guidance.
• Share work strategically: Supervisors can only respond to what they see. Sharing drafts (even messy ones) with a brief note outlining the feedback you want helps them focus their energy where it’s most useful, for example, if you are unsure about the structure, or would like to know if a particular section makes sense.
• Be honest about challenges: If you are struggling, raise it early. Gentle, specific conversations can prevent issues from escalating.
• Build a wider network: Peers, postdocs, academics in your field, and professional services staff all enrich your support ecosystem beyond your supervisor.

Working effectively with your supervisor is an evolving process, shaped by ongoing dialogue and shared understanding. You’re an active partner in this relationship, and by communicating clearly, sharing work openly, and approaching the partnership with intention, you help create the conditions for a supervisory dynamic that supports your growth, confidence, and independence. Seeing supervision as collaborative can turn your research journey into something you actively steer.