Supervising TAs and Graduate Students
Western Guide for Supervisor-Student Conversations Regarding Expectations
At Western, we believe that best practices in graduate education require the development of healthy and productive working relationships between supervisors and graduate students. This document provides important information for both graduate supervisors and students, and is intended to support the development of that productive working relationship. Graduate students and supervisors are encouraged to read the contents carefully and to use the suggestions provided as you begin and progress throughout your graduate journey together.
Western Guide to Mentoring Graduate Students Across Cultures
The Western Guide to Mentoring Graduate Students Across Cultures is a handbook for graduate supervisors who work with students from cultures around the world. The guide addresses the most frequently occurring challenges in supervision across cultures and includes concrete mentoring strategies and case studies to help supervisors promote independence and initiative in their mentees, bridge power differences in the relationship, set boundaries, communicate effectively and support their students in the transition to Canadian academia.
Western Guide to Working with Teaching Assistants
This guide offers valuable strategies for working effectively with both tutorial and laboratory TAs, preparing TAs for grading, managing TA teams, mentoring TAs as junior instructors, and more.
Western Guide to Graduate Supervision
Based on the experiences of Western's graduate supervisors, this guide addresses the supervision of graduate students and focuses on best practices in mentoring, promoting student progress and clarifying expectations in the supervisor-student relationship.
SGPS Graduate Supervision Handbook
The Graduate Supervision Handbook will help you get the most out of the supervisor-graduate student relationship at Western. It provides in-depth advice on roles and responsibilities, communications, learning styles, time management, and many other issues.
Further Reading
Resources for Faculty
- Guiding Principles for Graduate Student Supervision (PDF) - Canadian Association for Graduate Studies
A list of 12 guiding principles which can apply to all graduate students, supervisors, and administrators of graduate programs across Canada - Mentoring: How to Mentor Graduate Students - A Guide for Faculty - University of Washington
Includes practical strategies for nurturing rewarding relationships, assessing expectations, getting initial meetings started, and planning for professional development - Nature's guide for mentors
Describes the qualities of outstanding mentors as distilled from quotes taken from the applications for the Nature awards for mentoring in science - How to Mentor Graduate Students (PDF) - Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
A guide for faculty seeking to improve their effectiveness as mentors. - Handbook of Graduate Supervision – University of British Columbia
Provides “in-depth advice on roles and responsibilities, communications, learning styles, time management, and many other issues” and is useful for both supervisors and students - Supervision & Mentoring of Postgraduate Students (PDF)- McMaster University
Covers the practice of supervision and mentoring as mechanisms for managing student
research to a successful completion - Supervising and managing researchers - vitae
Offers tools and advice for the supervisory process - Quality in Postgraduate Research conferences website (Australian Universities)
Contains conference papers and abstracts on several issues in graduate education including research on good practices for supervisors. - TA Training Module Catalogue
Resources for Graduate Students
- Relations with Supervisors - A Guide for Graduate Students (Western, Office of the Ombudsperson)
- Mentoring: How to Obtain the Mentoring You Need - A Graduate Student Guide (University of Washington)
- Mentoring and Networking: how to make it work (Nature Immunology)
- How to Get the Mentoring You Want: A Guide for Graduate Students (PDF) - Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
