Two supervisors at the same time

[Tina_HP]

Hi. The supervisor I approached told me he would be co-supervising me with another professor. Why would a professor suggest co-supervision?

 

How does co-supervision work? Would you suggest having two supervisors? Has anyone done MSc with two supervisors?

[ontariostudent]

It has pros and cons. Two supervisors means more mentorship, more expertise, and more potential availability. It also means co-ordination between two supervisors. Go for it if it seems good otherwise.

[Spacko]

I completed my PhD with two supervisors (started with one, but it's a complicated story).

 

From what I know, many cases where people have two supervisors stems from the fact that at least one of them is very busy and perhaps away from the lab a great deal. Or, they already have a number of students under their guidance and don't feel comfortable taking on another student by themselves.

 

Alternatively, the project they have in mind for the student may border on a field of study they are not an expert in, and they would like to bring in another supervisor to bridge that gap in knowledge and project direction.

 

In my case, it actually came down to the issues with lab funding. One lab had lots of money to help cover my costs, while my original lab fell on some hard times with grants.

 

Whatever the situation, there are pros and cons. More than likely, it will result that you develop a closer association with one of your supervisors (be it socially, or research-based), and the other supervisor will provide help and discussion as needed. That's what's happened to me anyways. So it was sometimes helpful to get discussion and ideas from two people. Of course, it can be a pain if the two supervisors aren't on the same page and each are suggesting different experimental paths to explore. You'll need to be strong in mind at times to choose the direction that 'you' think is best, and not cater to every single suggestion they make.

 

Another challenge on my schedule was a drain on my time. I ended up having to attend two sets of lab meetings every week, two sets of research talks of my fellow students, keeping up with other various lab commitments between two labs. Also, always getting two sets of signatures and reference letters for applications and forms. I guess these latter things are kinda minor, but it's something to be aware of.

 

Overall, my 'co-supervisor' has mostly had a secondary role and 80-90% of my research direction and discussion has come from my primary supervisor. If I were you, I would try to figure out these sorts of things ahead of time to see what the proposed arrangement is, is it 50-50, or 90-10? Don't be shy about requesting both of the proposed supervisors to sit down for a pre-meeting and ensure you're comfortable with how they think things will flow.

 

Good Luck!

[netfiltering]

Thanks for talking about your experience with this Spacko. I haven't been in this situation before, but from my past experience working in team settings, I think the number one thing to master is communication. Some professors are too busy to be bothered with the more "micromanagement" or "tactical" type discussions, but I think it helps to cc everyone involved on important emails, just to keep the communication channel open. Because sometimes what you think a supervisor knows or is in the loop on is much different from what they've really be debriefed on.

[AdamP]

Please tell me i'm not the only one who found the title of this thread hilarious.