Doctoral student supervisor or project leader – or both?

Doctoral education in the fields of medicine and health sciences is often deeply integrated with the research of departments and of individual researchers. Although this arrangement undoubtedly comes with many benefits it could also be expected to raise challenges for doctoral student learning and supervision. Here I report on findings from workshops for research supervisors at a large Swedish medical faculty. Data comes from observations, reflective writing (n= 204) and an open-ended questionnaire (n=137). One particular challenge facing many supervisors in this study is a conflict between student learning and emancipation on one side, and research production and adherence to predefined research plans on the other. Typically, this conflict arises when the supervisor and student share and are dependent of the same research project. What has become apparent is the existence of a role conflict, or blurring, between the role as supervisor and the role as project leader. In this presentation I will illustrate this role conflict further, and its potential consequences for doctoral student learning, and present suggestions from supervisors on how doctoral education and supervision could be improved. Today’s candidates are tomorrow’s researchers – and supervisors.