Master thesis supervisor

Hi

I'm just curious to know if people always got assigned a supervisor who was familiar with their subject area?
I didn't get assigned the one I chose and instead got someone who doesn't have a background in my subject area, but from the same department. (Economics).

I've never done one of these before so I'm a little worried about the type of feedback I will receive.

It looks like it'll be on form only, rather than content.

Has it always been this way with Master thesis?

Her research interest is on "Economics of new technologies, especially patents and licensing"
I'm doing my dissertation on trade policies.

Reply 1

Josb

6

Does he have other students? I hope you haven't been assigned to him because he doesn't have student.

Reply 2

Lexi42

OP

Original post

by Josb

Does he have other students? I hope you haven't been assigned to him because he doesn't have student.

There are 2 of us.

Reply 3

Klix88

17

Difficult. Most people I knew got their first choice supervisor, but we were warned that some years we wouldn't necessarily end up with the most appropriate person for our topic.

Hopefully you can still ask your first choice for a little subject-specific help now and again, even if they don't have the spare time to be a supervisor?

Reply 4

jelly1000

21

Original post

by Lexi42

Hi

I'm just curious to know if people always got assigned a supervisor who was familiar with their subject area?
I didn't get assigned the one I chose and instead got someone who doesn't have a background in my subject area, but from the same department. (Economics).

I've never done one of these before so I'm a little worried about the type of feedback I will receive.

It looks like it'll be on form only, rather than content.

Has it always been this way with Master thesis?

Her research interest is on "Economics of new technologies, especially patents and licensing"
I'm doing my dissertation on trade policies.

We haven't been assigned ours yet but I'm guessing that happens at my uni because one of my tutors mentioned if not enough people want to do his subject area he'll have to supervise people in a topic he's not familar with

Reply 5

Lexi42

OP

Alright guys, thanks for you replies.

Klix88, would you have been ok if you got someone who didn't have anything to do with your topic?
I really fail to see how this professor is going to help me, because 90% of the final grade is based on content.

It loooks like I won't have any other choice but seek help outside the Uni which really, is a shame.

Do you guys also only get a total of 4 hours of meeting time with them during Summer for your dissertation? I'm just trying to see if it's the same policy in all universities.

Cheers

Reply 6

Klix88

17

Original post

by Lexi42

Klix88, would you have been ok if you got someone who didn't have anything to do with your topic?

To be honest, my supervisor - whilst the right person for my subject - didn't give me much help whilst I was gathering data, as he was off campus on fieldwork from Easter onwards. Most of my research was carried out after the post-Easter assignment deadlines and practical support came from another member of the department's staff.

I was largely supervised by email. There was no set number of supervisor meeting hours - I certainly didn't get as many as four face-to-face hours. My supervisor read a couple of draft chapters towards the end of the process and even then, just told me that he was happy with them and suggested that I didn't make any more changes. (He was right as it turned out - my planned tweaks would have changed the direction of the diss when I ended up with a Distinction for the untweaked version).

If there's really nobody else in your department who is free to help, then it would be unreasonable for your supervisor to refuse permission to seek external advice.

There certainly won't be the same policy in every university. There probably isn't a uni where every department has the same policy. And even then, supervisors - as I found - expect (and are expected by the uni) to be working on their own research or actually take some holiday over the summer. You will probably find that your inappropriate supervisor isn't even available to you for a chunk of the time. Sadly the summer is a core time for the Masters diss. However, twas ever thus. Managing your supervisor is a necessity. Establish their availability in advance and implement a strategy which will work for you both. I agreed that I would send my supervisor a fortnightly email, telling him what I'd done since the last email and what I was planning to do in the next fortnight. He could then reply with any comments if he felt the need. Most of his responses amounted to "That's fine, carry on."

(edited 10 years ago)

Master thesis supervisor

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