Kgothatso Legong, fourth year medical student at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, underlines the importance of your supervisor
A supervisor can either make or break your research. It is imperative that a supervisor for research has insights into the topic of interest and show understanding with regards to calibre and hindrances which scholars might face on their journey. My group of researchers regard ourselves as being blessed because we were appointed with a supervisor who did not only show the above qualities but more like superb leadership qualities and great empathy.
From the Department of Plastic, Burns, and Reconstructive Surgery of Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, here is what I have learned about supervisor-scholar relationship:
- Keep to commitments.
Supervisors are busier than you think. Mine was a head of clinical unit at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital in addition to being a lecturer, a supervisor to other scholars as well who are graduate students, and a teacher. They operate on a strict time schedule and for your engagement with them, so should you. It is beyond disappointing to say the least when both parties have agreed on a time and date to meet and one of them does not keep to that commitment. Rescheduling meetings with your supervisor also means that your research lags and the timetable keeps shifting on later dates. This is risky since research does not have an indefinite period to exist. Not keeping your commitments with your supervisor risks the research’s conclusion and its publication.
- Supervisors can help overcome mishaps.
The challenges you will face when conducting your own research must not be tackled alone. Chances are that your supervisor has experienced and was able to overcome the little or big problems you could be facing at that time. One of the problems we faced during our journey was we did not know how we were going to collect data. Since the data we required was historical, a lot of the sources which we had available only had records of the recent captured data. We addressed this with our supervisor, and she was able to refer us to a database capture in the hospital who granted us access to historic, paper-based information which we were looking for. That information proved to be rich and resourceful as it was able to complement the electronic data which was very insufficient.
- Supervise yourself as well.
Our supervisor gave us more than enough freedom when it came to meeting deadlines. She understood that as much as we had research to complete; we, as undergraduate students, had other commitments which we needed to attend to as well. Clinical rotations and theoretical modules did not help but complicated our schedules more. If we did not think we were going to meet the deadline which we agreed upon with our supervisor, we emailed her detailing how we were not going to meet the deadline. But we did not end it there, we also outlined how we were going to make up for the lost time. Doing so held us to account and kept track of what was expected of us.
A supervisor is not solely responsible for management and oversight duties. Theirs is providence of guidance. It is up to a scholar to make their own research, which they are passionate about, to materialise.