Supervisions are at the heart of the education system within Cambridge and are one of features which set it apart from other universities. Unfortunately, the quality of supervisions is not always the highest and, due to the college-based nature of supervisions, there is great variability throughout the university. CUSU represents not only the undergraduates who are supervised but also the graduate students who often take supervisions as part of their study. CUSU therefore campaigns to increase training and feedback which will be of mutual benefit for all.
This section considers the two current campaigns for mandatory supervisor training and better supervision feedback systems and also looks at the 2004 Quality of Supervision Report produced by CUSU.
Supervisor Training
CUSU believes that all supervisors should be trained before being allowed to supervise. These sessions would not need to be long but would greatly increase the quality of supervisions and decrease the number of complaints. For those Oxbridge graduate students who are asked to supervise for the first time, years of being supervised will give them some idea of what to do. However, for those from other universities, especially those in other countries, which do not operate a supervision system, a basic level of training would be extremely useful as they have little to which to relate. Even for Oxbridge graduates, sitting at the other end of the table can be unnerving and a short workshop would be of great benefit to all involved.
For more information about the status of supervisor training within the university, please see the following paper, written for the College Education Network.
Supervisor Feedback
All students should be able to give anonymas feedback on their supervisors. This will be of mutual benefit to supervisors and those being supervised. For the supervisors, the feedback will flag up areas which may require attention and suggest, constructively, things which can be approved. For those being supervised, being able to give feedback allows Directors of Studies to monitor the quality of supervisors in their colleges and quickly deal with any problem areas.
Many colleges have initiated feedback systems but they have not be universally put in place. There is no reason why this should be as CARET (the Cambridge Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies) has developed a Student Feedback Tool which can be used for exactly this process. CUSU is working with college Academic Officers, through the Education Network, to have feedback properly instigated within every college.
Quality of Supervisions Survey and Report- April 2004
In April 2004, CUSU conducted a survery of its members in order to assess the quality of supervisions throughout the university. Its findings were written up into the Quality of Supervisions Report which is still regarded as an essential guide to how supverisions are regarded by students.
The main findings were summerised as:
"It is clear that many students at Cambridge University value the supervision system highly. All students are more likely to find that they have had a positive experience of the supervision system and have found supervisions extremely useful. Many report that their supervisors are excellent teachers and they value the close and individual attention from a subject expert that small group teaching offers. Many students find that supervisions give them a deeper understanding of the course, allow any difficulties they have in understanding to be addressed and provide them with ideas and guidance on how best to realise their academic potential. It is, for many students, the most important part of the undergraduate teaching the University provides and what makes the quality of teaching so high in the University.
Yet although in general quality of teaching is high, it appears difficult to monitor and control quality of teaching. In many instances, students report isolated cases of very poor teaching or state that their experience of supervisions has varied widely. Students have a perception that the quality of their supervision teaching is crucial in deciding how successful they will be academically and are concerned when they feel that some of their teaching does not meet the required standards or that other students appear to access better teaching than they do. Students are likely to comment that the supervision system is an excellent one, but that more effort needs to be taken to ensure that all individuals within the system are as capable at teaching as others are and that there is 'standardisation' across the system on areas such as providing guidance on supervision work, providing feedback on supervision work and equipping supervisors with the necessary skills to be good teachers. Students are likely to comment on the need for supervisor training, and such training could highlight the many areas of good practice that students describe and are summarised in this report in order to ensure that more students experience a consistently positive experience of supervisions." [page 67]
At the Easter I meeting of CUSU Council in 2004, CUSU Council unanimously passed a motion which resolved:
- To support the recommendations outlined in the Quality of Supervisions Report.
- mandate the CUSU Academic Affairs Officer to bring the Report and its recommendations to the attention of relevant people within the University e.g. the Senior Tutors, Directors of Studies, Faculties and Departments, the General Board Education Committee, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education, the Vice-Chancellor and the Staff Development Section.
- To encourage all colleges and faculties to follow the good practice identified in the Report.
- To continue the ongoing campaign for mandatory supervisor training for all college and University teaching officers.
- To encourage the faculties and colleges to improve student feedback mechanisms and look into the possibility of introducing anonymous reporting systems.
- To mandate the CUSU Academic Affairs Officer, the CUSU Womens' Officer and the members of Campaign for Change to continue to draw attention to the fact that some groups of students do not have as positive experience of the supervision system as others do.
- To encourage college student unions to follow up the findings in the individual reports on their college.
The Quality of Supervisions Report therefore offers a renewed mandate for the importance of having mandatory supervisor training and effective feedback systems. It also suggests that the University, as a priority, should explore the reasons why many students from minority groups within society seem to find supervisions more problematic and find ways of resolving these issues.