How to nurture PhD student independence

Abstract

One of the main goals during the PhD education is the development of independent researchers.
This is also included in formal regulations and considered as one of the most important issues.
However, whilst higher education departments are in common very good at teaching by transfer
of in-house research knowledge on specific research topics, development of an individual’s
independence is more about nurturing, leadership manner and is very individual.
Considering that independence is such an important issue, one would think that there are
guidelines for supervisors on how to develop it, similar to research knowledge. However, this is
not the case and guidelines based on experience on how to nurture PhD students are rare and yet
might be helpful for many supervisors, perhaps mainly for younger supervisors than seniors.
In this work a simple method for monitoring student independence is presented. A survey was
conducted among supervisors where they judge the possibilities of the method and make some
suggestions and improvements. The survey is discussed and evaluated. The results indicate a
need for guidelines and that the proposed method could be a good starting point for further
development.