Your supervisor's roles
What to expect from your academic supervisor
- The Academic Supervisor will give advice on the subject area, relevant literature, presentation format, methodology, the structure of the dissertation, and the scheduling of the work to be done. The final responsibility for the dissertation always lies with you. Advisers are not expected to read and amend chapters, but they may require periodic progress reports and sample chapters. The responsibility for the quality and content of a dissertation lies with the author of the dissertation.
- Academic staff acting as Academic Supervisors cannot be expected to be available at all times, especially during the summer period, although staff will provide backup facilities during their absence. You should have meetings arranged with your Academic Supervisors at regular intervals, as appropriate. You are responsible for organising these meetings. The frequency of contact with Academic Supervisors depends on both your wishes and the wishes of the Academic Supervisor, but you should try to discuss progress with their Academic Supervisors at least once every 2 or 3 weeks, with more frequent discussions in the early stages.
- In the case of projects based in an outside organisation, Academic Supervisors may visit you in the organisation.
- You may ask their Academic Supervisors to read a draft of part of the dissertation, but it is up to the Academic Supervisor's professional judgement as to how much of the dissertation they are willing to read. An Academic Supervisor cannot examine a dissertation before it is formally submitted and any comments which an Academic Supervisor makes on a draft are provisional in that the Board of Examiners may come to a decision which differs from that of the Academic Supervisor.