Ask what you can do to prepare for your first meeting

Many students do not know their supervisor particularly well before beginning postgraduate supervision with them, and even for those who do know them, your first official meeting marks the start of a new working relationship. A good tip to help you feel less anxious or to prevent you from significantly overworking unnecessarily is to email your supervisor ahead of time and ask what you can do to prepare well for your first supervision. This will help you feel more confident when you arrive and also shows good organisational skills and awareness.

Clarify expectations early

The lack of structure around supervision and increased autonomy in your research can sometimes make communicating with supervisors stressful if you don’t know what to expect. Clarifying expectations around these sorts of things may help you feel more confident about being on track or identify if you need to agree on different goals with your supervisor:

• The frequency and length of supervision meetings

• Any updates your supervisor would like in between supervisions

• What your supervisor expects you to bring to each supervision

• Who will write up your supervision forms

• Any important goals or deadlines for the submission of work

Understand your supervisor’s style

Asking your supervisor how they like to supervise will help you understand their working practices and can prevent frustration down the line if your supervisor works differently from you. Most supervisors will either be hands-on and do regular supervisions, with clear feedback, meeting notes, and deadlines, or they may be hands-off and prefer their students to determine their schedules and needs. Understanding how you and your supervisor naturally work will help you identify what you need from them to work most effectively.

Keep in touch and don’t hide!

The easiest and most tempting thing you can do when things are tough in postgraduate studies is to avoid talking to your supervisor, but this will cause more problems than it will solve. The longer you go without communication with your supervisor, the harder it can be to reappear and pick things up again. Your supervisor is there to support you to do your best work, so if you need a break, an extension, or just a chat, try to keep in contact. You don’t need a whole meeting or lengthy email to explain; even a one-line apology email or request to reschedule supervision will be enough for your supervisor to be aware of what’s going on. If they are aware that you have something going on, they will be better positioned to support you further.

Find others you can talk to

Sometimes it can feel hard to talk to your supervisor, or they may not be the kind of person you feel comfortable talking to about life outside your studies and that’s ok! Having coffee (even remotely) with others in your department can help share the load and make the graduate experience less isolating. Other students or colleagues may also be able to direct you to mentors in your department or field and these can be a valuable source of informal insight and support. Your director of postgraduate studies, senior tutor, disability team, or university mental health specialists will also be able to support you and direct you to other resources that can help.