At the ECADOC 19 summer school we used an innovative approaches to working with research students called ‘collective academic supervision’. Collective academic supervision seeks to approach the development of researchers through a collective approach rather than through the one-to-one mentoring that is typical of doctoral supervision.

In the model researchers work together in a group, presenting their research and feeding back on the research of others. The supervisor acts as a facilitator and as a member of the group inputting ideas and feedback.

The collective academic supervision offers researchers a huge amount of feedback on their work and also fosters collegiality and peer communities.

Detailed guidelines on collective academic supervision

The model used builds on work that has been previously published in the following two articles.

• Nordentoft, H. M., Thomsen, R., & Wichmann-Hansen, G. (2013). Collective academic supervision: A model for participation and learning in higher education. Higher education, 65(5), 581-593.
• Wichmann-Hansen, G., Thomsen, R., & Nordentoft, H. M. (2015). Challenges in collective academic supervision: Supervisors’ experiences from a Master Programme in Guidance and Counselling. Higher Education, 70(1), 19-33.