When choosing a PhD supervisor, this is how it normally works.
You send a request to few of the professors who might have funding, most of them do not
reply.
Suddenly to get a response from one of those, you become so grateful and so excited that
you immediately make a decision to join that Professor.
This quick decision could be a recipe of disaster and you could destroy your whole carrier,
because funding is not the only thing you should be looking for.
In this video, I'm going to show you five critical questions which you must ask your
PhD supervisor before accepting his or her supervision.
So let's get started after a short break.
Hello and welcome to my channel.
My name is Tahir And if this is your first time Please sit the subscribe button and also
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For those who do not have time to watch full video, I have put these questions here.
You can read these questions and you are welcome to skip this video.
But for some serious students who want to learn more about this, please watch full video.
Now before we talk about these five questions, there are two assumptions and three important
things you should understand.
And then we will talk about these five questions.
What are my two as the options?
The first is their mission is that you are on a scholarship because in my opinion, PhD
must be on a scholarship.
If you do not get a scholarship, don't do PhD.
And the second exemption is that you know how many publications you are expected to
have by the End of your candidature.
This information is available on University's website.
Some universities require only three conference paper, some might need three conference and
one journal and some universities, they do not demand any publication.
So these are the two exemptions.
No, there are three important things which you must consider before asking these questions.
The first thing is that you are a valuable commodity for the university.
You are an important valuable person,
as a PhD student, for their supervisor
and for the university.
So don't just be grateful that someone has accepted you because that supervisor might
be more interested in getting you then what you are because you will be doing the hard
work to put his name on your publications.
You will be doing publications that will rank that university.
So don't under evaluate yourself.
You are valuable for the professor, you are valuable for the university.
This is first thing.
If you don't understand this, you might not be able to even ask any question.
Second important thing is that these questions are not to be asked in an email.
These questions must be asked in a meeting in a sitting with the supervisor, you have
to arrange it and by looking in the eyes, but politely and professionally and the third
important thing you should understand is that you are not judging the person as a researcher
or as a supervisor.
Because you
are just a newbie in the complex world of academia.
What you are looking for, is just whether that person is a good fit for you or not.
You are not in a position to judge anyone Whether he or she is a good or a bad professor.
So these are the three important things you should keep in your mind.
before asking these questions.
Now I will be using words for assuming a male supervisor, because it's hard to say he or
she all the times, but a supervisor could be a female as well.
Now let's talk about the questions.
Now.
The first question is, Do you have plans to leave this university within next few years,
this is very important for those students who have
planned a particular supervisor because they want to do research in a particular field
of science.
And normally in any university.
Every professor has a specialization in one field.
So if you are only interested in that field and the supervisor goes away, then you will
be in trouble because the new person which will be assigned to you as your supervisor,
will not be knowledgeable in that particular field.
This problem will eventually be solved somehow there are techniques and strategies you can
do, how to tackle this situation, but it will waste your time.
And it is good to ask this because he might not have any plans and you will be in a peace
of mind.
And I have seen many students who got this problem.
No, you have to accept whoever University assigns to you.
So this is good to ask.
The second question is how the authorship of publications will work.
There are a few things to understand here.
So there are only few countries and universities where there is a code of conduct.
Normally
this is done with the you and your supervisor, you negotiate with your supervisor and decide
who will be the first author who will be the second author and so on.
And other important thing is sometimes in a university, there are large groups you also
support, research work of other groups.
You Spend some time working with them other than your
supervisor
in that situation, what will happen, whether they will put your name on their publications
or not what is going on in the university?
So you have to discuss this with your supervisor.
What is the practice going on?
Are there many groups we have to collaborate and how other publications authorship will
work?
Now, the third question is,
would you be able to send me to conferences where my paper has been accepted at least
once a year.
Now, this is very important.
Now, I am not a big fan of conference papers and I have mentioned this in my other videos
that if you can
avoid publishing the conference paper
that is good, always focus on a journal if you think that you can publish in a journal
paper, because conference papers are worthless,
they will not add value to your resume,
but there are few students
who are not able to publish in journals and you Your University only requires three conference
papers and you should be focusing on conferences as
well.
So this is the first reason for conference paper.
There is another reason for publishing in conferences, which I have already mentioned
somewhere else in my videos, and that is networking.
And when you submit to a conference paper and the paper is accepted, then it is very
important that you attend that conference.
And this needs some funding, travel grants, some living expenses, and only your supervisor,
your university can support you.
Because you are a student, you are not making a lot of money to support your travel.
So therefore, this is very, very important that your supervisor is willing to send you
in the conferences, because you have to network with other researchers in order to get your
potential interviewers in other university for your job opportunities your carrier device
So, this is what you should be focusing on during these five years, how to network with
other people in the academia and how to get some job after you complete your PhD.
So, I always try to attend a conference at least once or twice a year.
And therefore this question is very important to ask in the beginning, because if he or
she makes a commitment, then he will definitely try to fulfill that commitment later on and
you will be happy.
Now the fourth question is, Do you consider yourself a hands on or a hands off supervisor?
No hands on supervisor are those supervisors who are very actively involved in activities.
He will be on your shoulder all the time, pushing you to do experiments to get some
reserves will always be having discussions with you easily accessible in the lab with
you.
So this is hands on.
Hands off is a person who mostly stays he needs to room, you will not see him sometimes
weeks, sometimes months he will give you a free hand whatever you do, he will show you
this is the lab and then you and your PhD know this type of person is not always bad
this type of person sometimes suits you.
But if you are a mommy and daddy type student who needs step by step instructions all the
way who was dependent on tutors during his at USC or a level who was dependent on teachers
for instructions all his life, then this supervisor is not for you.
If you are self discipline, if you have strong research links with other researchers in the
community, then this supervisor will be fine, even better for you.
So this deserves a separate video and I will make some time.
But this is an important question to ask.
Now the last question how many PhD students you have supervised who also have completed
PhD.
This is very critical question.
And the most important question to ask why this question is important?
Because this question is that deal breaker.
If the person says to you, I don't have any student who have completed the PhD, then my
advice is, stay away, full stop.
You don't want to be a practice ground for that person.
Now, you might ask a question that if nobody joins him as a PhD student, then how he will
get experience?
Well, the answer is that there are some fool people who will never ask this question.
There exists a bigger fool than you in this world.
Actually, there exists a bigger fool than any fool.
So therefore, don't worry about this.
This is none of your business.
But my advice is that you should not be the first to join this kind of super Why is that
there are a lot of issues supervising a PhD student and until someone has
some experience,
you should stay away.
Now, if the average duration
of his PhD students is very long, they complete PhD in seven years for example, then there
could be some other reasons and you have to dig deeper to try to understand because there
are not many options for supervisors for you
know, the last thing I would like to
mention is that even if you get the best supervisor, there is no guarantee that you will complete
the PhD.
Nearly half of the students change their
supervisor in a hope that they will complete their PhD because their
expectations are sometimes very high.
So therefore, this video was only to help you decide your PhD supervisor.
So I hope that you liked this video.
If so, please give it a thumbs up.
Thanks for watching and see you next time.