Hello there,

Yesterday I received an offer from my new university to supervise 8 students on an MSc in Health Psychology course on their MSc dissertations. Obviously delighted and very flattered that they've put me forward for this.

Just wondered, does anyone have any experience of supervising MSc students?
a) On average, how much time did you devote to per student (obviously depends on a student by student basis),
b) were you paid for your time?
c) How often did you meet with your students in person? (Again, depends on student perhaps!)
d) Did you use dedicated office hours for helping students?
e) Has supervising MSc students helped your career at all? I'm not keen on staying in academia, but I think supervising and managing others should boost the managerial aspects of my CV.

I would be grateful for any experiences!

Hi Pineapple,

I have been supervising the practical bit of 2 MSc dissertation students because their research was similar to mine. Apart from that, I also becae friendly with them and helped them out a bit more in my own time.

a) Check if your uni has an MSc dissertation guide. My College specifies that students (BSc and MSc) are entitled to an average of 1 hour direct supervision per week. I used to spend more, because it was direct supervision in the labs, but I did get rewarded with fantastic international cooking!
b) As I am a graduate teaching assistant, it was sort of assumed I would do it, I did however log most of the official work into my teaching hours, so I did get paid for in, albeit indirectly.
c) 4-5 times per day, but actual experimental supervision was dependent on the stage of their research. They used to ask me for advise during meals and such, which I didn't mind giving as they were very enthusiastic about my/their topic
d) Occasionally I did if it was for procedures and analyses, but generally my supervision was lab based
e) I do put it on my CV, and I think it has definitely helped my relationship with my supervisor. Also, I get to use parts of their results for my thesis and now have contacts in international organisations with research monies. And ofcourse it does count as managing experience!

Hope this helps :)

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yep, I supervised about 15 this summer (similar to health psych type of projects).

a) I think we were told to devote about 10 hours of contact time per student, but probably more about 20 overall in terms of emails etc. Some are more demanding than others and some need more support!
b) I was paid per student
c) I had group meeting to begin with, but tried to meet once a month for the first few months and then more frequently if they needed specific help e.g. with analysis
d) no didn't have any anyway
e) yes, I'm in academia, but it has given me confidence in my own knowledge - i.e. i was suprised at how much I knew compared to them! Also, I can say that I have managed people and deadlines etc etc