======= Date Modified 31 Jan 2012 23:41:33 =======
Choosing a good PhD supervisor is a crucial matter.
But what if the best supervisor, the person that really knows better than anyone the field you want to investigate, is a foreigner and you don't personally know him?
My point is, does anybody has the experience of addressing researchers they don't personally know to supervise their PhD thesis (at least one of the members of the Supervising Committee)? Would it make sense? Would the person accept the invitation, under reasonable arguments, of course?
I kind of have this dilemma and would like your help to discuss this...

I would look for a supervisor who is experienced (Had several PhD students) although you can get a great supervisor who has never had a PhD student (He'll be extra enthusiastic!). Also look for a supervisor with good collaborations as this will help your project. I would like to stress however that a institute can be more important than choice of supervisor for most PhD's (I.e. a non-humanities one), I had a good supervisor for my PhD (which I ended up failing), I honestly believe he tried his best to turn it around but my collaborators (in my opinion) were non-existent and my university had a poor research rating with poor facilities.

Hi Ruxnux,

At the beginning of my phd I approached someone I didn't know who I thought would be a good option. She was quite receptive and keen so I wouldn't automatically reject the idea. However, I'm guessing that when you say a 'foreigner', you mean they live abroad? If so, it could make supervision quite difficult due to practicalities in communication/meeting up to start with so I'd be inclined to look more locally.

My uni stated that if having an external sup, I'd still need an internal one as well so, in the end, I ended up with 2 internal sups - it was just easier! One has very little experience and another with a bit more experience (not sure how many peep they've supervised in the past but not many though). Both are enthusiastic, one more than another. Is experience a factor in their enthusiasm? Maybe. But they both love the subject and are passionate about research and teaching and that's what's helped me the most because they've been ever so supporting.

In my opinion, people require different things from supervisors. I needed guidance with the research process/methodology more than anything so I was happy that my supervisors weren't experts on the field (although they both have an interest on it!). I don't believe that sups need to be the experts as I feel we become experts ourselves during the phd (as we increase our knowledge and conduct research). Plus, I'd like to think that all academics can look at research critically regardless of whether they have an interest or not so a sup doesn't NEED to even have an interest, although it obviously helps!

In terms of approaching them, I think supervisors are happy to get new PhD students who are willing to write literature and do research in a topic they are interested in. So I think that you should always approach them. I kind of went about this in a different way. I had a PhD topic that I was interested in, I identified possible supervisors and then slightly changed my research topic so that it was interest to them.

HTH,

Hi there.

From what I have seen, that is, many people in my university writing proposals that their current or previous teachers would supervise purely out of convenience. Then, without considering how many students each supervisor already has, they have ended up as one of about 15 or 20 PhDs with the same supervisor, and never being able to get an appointment or much guidance from them.
I would look for a supervisor of course with the right academic credentials, but also find out how many people they're currently supervising.

It can't help to at least email or meet up with a potential supervisor you don't know before you decide, I'm sure they'd be flattered by the interest!

All the best,

Linds.