ICHEM academics present at Conference on Research into Postgraduate Supervision

Two academics from the School of Management’s International Centre for Higher Education Management presented their work at the Ninth Biennial Conference on Research into Postgraduate Supervision in March 2025.

Hosted by the Centre for Higher and Adult Education at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, the conference focused on the theme ‘Postgraduate Supervision as Relational’.

Dr Gina Wisker and Dr Ludovic Highman presented findings from an ongoing research project examining how students experience the viva exam at the end of their doctoral studies, how this compares with their expectations of the process, and how this differs across countries.

The research is being carried out in partners at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and the University of Gibraltar. In contrast to the UK system, for example, candidates in New Zealand and South Africa are presented with examiners’ pre-reports and potential questions in advance – while in Australia, the viva has only recently been brought in as an assessment tool.

Ludovic explains:

“Our work is a cross-comparison between the UK, New Zealand and Gibraltar. We’re looking at how doctorates are assessed in these three locations by focusing on the oral examination (often known as the 'viva'). What differences are there, and is there a common ground?”

Developing the next generation of writers

Gina also hosted a half-day pre-conference workshop, 'Supervisors Supporting Postgraduates and Postdoctoral Colleagues in Writing for Academic Publication and Building a Research and Writing Career’, for around 15 participants from across the globe.

“The session was about supervisors supporting their doctoral students to write for publication, as I’m Editor of the journal Innovations in Education and Teaching International,” says Gina.

She continues:

“It covered the politics of getting published and the difficulty. In South Africa, doctoral students are expected to publish really very early, while they're doing their doctorates. Quite often their supervisors co-publish with them. It can help them to understand how the system works, but it's also a power relationship. So I take the stance that this is a nurturing, cooperative activity and we all benefit from it. That was the underlying message of the workshop.”

“It was great to be able to attend a research conference focused on teaching and postgraduate supervision, and not necessarily discipline-based research activities,” concludes Ludovic. “It's great that there's that recognition this pedagogic research is equally important.”