Cohort Supervision: a creative approach to dealing with supervision challenges

The pressure on research teams to increase the number of postgraduate students, to improve their throughput and to provide more comprehensive research capacity development opportunities to these students, challenge research leaders to find alternative models of postgraduate training and supervision.  In this video, cohort supervision is presented as a blended model of supervision, offering many benefits to the students and the research team. Additional readings offer valuable guidelines for the implementation of a cohort program for distance and e-learning students. Video, 6.25 minutes.

Developed by Dr Henriëtte van den Berg (Research fellow, University of Free State). Thanks to Prof Gina Wisker (University of Brighton, UK)  for sharing ideas and practices from her experience as a supervisor in a cohort research  group and to Mr Brian Munro for the video recording and editing.

Who might find this useful?

Research supervisors, students and staff involved with institutional postgraduate management may find the video and additional resources useful.

How can our faculty/research group incorporate the components of a cohort research approach to expand supervision capacity in our faculty/department?

Explore these additional resources

• Manyike, T.V.  (2017). Postgraduate supervision at an open distance e-learning institution in South Africa. South African Journal of Education, 37(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.15700/saje.v37n2a1354
• Wisker, G., Robinson, G.  & Shacham, M.  (2007). Postgraduate research success: communities of practice involving cohorts, guardian supervisors and online communities. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44 (3), 301-320.
• Wisker, G. & Robinson, G.  (2013). Doctoral ‘orphans’: Nurturing and supporting the success of postgraduates who have lost their supervisors. Journal of Higher Education Research and Development, 2, 300-313.