Research Supervisors Network

A forum for all those involved in research supervision to share resources, expertise and experiences

This network provides a forum for discussion & learning, enabling supervisors to support each other in enhancing their own practice.

Regular workshops, seminars and webinars, delivered by world leading experts in the development of research supervisory practice, provide further opportunities for research supervision professional to evaluate and enhance their own practice.

1,447

Members of the network

246

Institutions represented

Get involved

The network is open to all research supervisors, and all those involved in research supervision, operating with the national and international postgraduate community. It is chaired by nominated representatives of the postgraduate sector.

Join the network by submitting your contact details to our Communications Officer »

The UKCGE Research Supervisors Network is free to join.

What we do

The network produces resources and runs various meetings per year, including:

free-to-attend online ‘town hall’ meetings based on current challenges faced by the community
A symposium at the UKCGE Annual Conference in the summer

Our impact

Alongside the personal benefits to members from learning from one another’s experiences, network discussions also inform the Council’s support for research supervision.

See, for example:

Enhancing Practice in Research Supervision

The Research Supervisor’s Bibliography

A Guide for Research Supervisors in Organisations Outside Higher Education

Who runs the network

[…] effective supervision involves much more than just experts passively transmitting expertise to novices who observe and hopefully emulate
Professor Stan Taylor, Chair, UKCGE Research Supervisor’s Network

Professor Stan Taylor

Chair, UKCGE Research Supervisors Network

Professor Stan Taylor is the Chair of the UKCGE’s Research Supervisors Network and the author of the Good Supervisory Practice Framework.

Stan was educated at the Universities of Oxford and Warwick. For many years he researched and taught in the social sciences at Warwick before moving into academic staff development. Subsequently, he became Director of Quality Enhancement at the University of Newcastle and then Director of the Centre for Academic and Researcher Development at Durham University.

Stan retired from Durham in 2013 and immediately took on new roles as an accreditor and consultant for the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and as an independent academic developer.

As an accreditor, he assesses individual applications for Fellowship of the Academy and institutional applications for continuing professional development schemes. He also provides consultancy on behalf of the Academy to institutions on the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF).

As an academic developer, he has worked across the range of academic practice but his specialism is doctoral supervision. He has worked with doctoral supervisors in over 20 universities in the UK and also overseas in institutions in Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Malaysia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and Thailand.

In 2016, Stan was co-opted to the UKCGE’s Executive Committee to oversee the creation of the Research Supervisors Network — a forum for discussion & learning, enabling supervisors to support each other in enhancing their own practice. In 2018, Stan became the Chair of that network.

Stan contributed to the criteria used in the Council’s Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year award at the annual THE Awards.

In late-2018 Stan authored the Good Supervisory Practice Framework and associated dimensions and attributes, and the “Guide for Applicants” used in the UKCGE’s Research Supervision Recognition Programme pilot.

In 2019, Stan was made an Honorary Professor in the School of Education at Durham University.

Find more UKCGE Resources on Research Supervision

ukcge.ac.uk