Also published in 2012 in BES Bulletin 43(1): 31-32.

DOING A PHD WITH MULTIPLE SUPERVISORS IN MULTIPLE PLACES EMILY C. GRIFFITHS

Many people move institutions to start their PhD and some people even move to a different country. For some the PhD itself may require visits to several institutes and countries. Mine was one of those international multi-institute PhDs and here I hope to share with you how I got to be in this position and strategies for dealing with a PhD involving multiple supervisors, multiple institutions, and multiple countries. I accepted my PhD offer to work on a parasite ecology project with Owen Petchey, Amy Pedersen and Andy Fenton. Owen and Amy were at the University of Sheffield and Andy was at the University of Liverpool. All three of them were working together on the same research grant. Just before I started my PhD Amy moved from Sheffield to take up a post at the University of Edinburgh. Now there were three institutions to travel between and at least a four-hour train journey to get to Edinburgh. I proceeded with the PhD in Sheffield and all three supervisors were still involved in the project. Iʼm quite a determined person so I went in with the attitude that I was going to manage the situation as best I could. Each of my supervisors has their own expertise and I definitely wanted their guidance so I started out with the aim of communicating with each of them regularly, both individually and together. Then, part way through the first year of my PhD, my remaining supervisor in Sheffield told me that heʼd been offered a professorship at the University of Zü̈rich. I considered moving to join his new lab, but for a variety of financial, personal, and logistical reasons I chose to remain in and affiliated with the University of Sheffield. This was possible thanks to a new supervisor in Sheffield stepping in (Phil Warren). Furthermore, the University of Zü̈rich were understanding of the situation and made funds available for me to make regular research visits there; other funding allowed for regular research visits to Edinburgh and Liverpool. Still, I was then doing a PhD with four supervisors, in four institutes, and two countries. Not what I imagined when I started my PhD! Now Iʼm in my third year and the end of the PhD is in sight. There are some things Iʼve done well and some I could have done better, so Ill share my insights with in the hope that other BES members can benefit from the lessons Iʼve learnt. Organisation Keep a digital record of every formal meeting with your supervisor(s). Email a summary of each meeting round to all your supervisors so they all know and understand what youʼre working on. This summary also gives the supervisors something to read just before your next meeting, so theyʼre fully up to speed when you start talking. Be goal-oriented and keep a rolling to-do list. Know what you need to accomplish in a given time and have a plan for how to go about it. This is especially important if you will not see or meet with your supervisor in a while. One good way to do this is decide at the end of each meeting with your supervisor what things you should achieve by the next meeting. Record this task list in the meeting record, so it can be referred to at the next meeting. What if you donʼt meet your goals? Research usually throws up challenges, where new methods donʼt work or take longer to implement than youʼd hoped. I often kick myself for having bad time management, but research is never totally predictable. By regularly reviewing your goals with your supervisors you should be able to fit some current problems into the bigger picture of your PhD. And itʼs often rewarding to look over past goals to see what you have achieved, even if current endeavours seem unfruitful.

Also published in 2012 in BES Bulletin 43(1): 31-32.

Friendship Maintain a strong local support network. It might be appealing to live your life on the road, visiting other universities, and meeting up with old acquaintances. But having good friends in a place you call home will help you through difficult times. You might be concerned for the future, miss your family, be frustrated with a lack of progress on a particular project, or be annoyed with someone at work. These concerns can arise anywhere, but knowing you have some solid friends you see fairly regularly whom you can talk things over with can be a real comfort in itself. Sometimes itʼs tempting to spend almost all your time in the lab or office in order to make impressive progress by the time you next meet with a supervisor. Itʼs good to work hard, but donʼt do this at the expense of having friends or enjoying a hobby. Taking an evening painting class, joining a weekend hiking club, or doing lunchtime fitness class are all ways to make friends, unwind and refresh yourself for more work. If you stay immersed in work you may well be unclear in your thinking or spend time doing some unnecessary work. Taking time to think or talk about how your PhD is going and what routes you should take is especially important if your supervisors give conflicting advice. Communication Distributing digital meeting reports is very useful, but never underestimate the value of a face-to-face conversation. When you and your supervisor(s) are in the same place in the same time then make sure you meet up and talk about how your PhD is going. Short and regular updates can help reassure you and your supervisor(s) that you are on top of things. Detailed emails can take ages to write and conceal the emphasis of speech, though they are a quick and easy way of getting the same information to a group of people who canʼt all meet together. A chat on Skype is free and can be the best way to resolve an issue with someone far away. But, if you can arrange it, visiting another institute for a day or two could save a weekʼs wasted effort working alone at your home institute. This visit might be to attend (or even give) a seminar or symposium, to work on a one-to-one basis with a postdoc or supervisor, or to get to know some other researchers or group members working with your supervisor. Discussing science with all these different people is one of the advantages of links with other institutions. I could look back and see my supervisors moving universities as a great hindrance to my PhD. However, supervisors sometimes have to move expecting them to stay in place for me (or their other students) is unrealistic. So instead, Iʼll highlight some of the bonuses. Firstly, my supervisors got funding and promotions so I can learn a lot from them about how to have a successful career as an academic ecologist. Secondly, Iʼve had the chance to network with and learn from other ecologists at three other universities besides my own. Thirdly, Iʼve had the opportunity to become a more independent researcher by taking the initiative to manage my own PhD. My multi-supervisor, multi-institution PhD experience has had its challenges, but so does any PhD. Iʼve learnt that these challenges are manageable; with organisation, friends, and good communication, multiple supervisors should present little problem to a PhD student. Iʼve enjoyed many aspects of my PhD, but perhaps most of all I have enjoyed learning far more from the input of supervisors with different approaches to ecological research than I would have got had I been part of a smaller, more localised research group.