Hi there,

I was just wondering whether any of you have to supervise students doing writing their master's thesis? That is part of my job description and I am very fed up with this one guy who is looking for a topic just now. Every advice I give him, he doesn't listen and does totally unrelated stuff instead. A day before our meetings, he usually either cancels or send me pages and pages of irrelevant information he expects me to read before our meeting. I am so annoyed. And I have told him, but he doesn't seem to understand. All this takes time away from my own research time, so I am really fed up.

Any of you experience something similar?

yes, but with Undergraduate Students.

All I can tell you from my experience is the following: there will always be good and lazy students. Some will work hard and are grateful for your advice (although some hardworking students think they know everything better, so just let them do their own thing).

Other's are lazy. but you can't change them. In fact, if they get a good mark or not is up to their work and not to your input. In other words, even if (which I assume) you mark their work ultimately, the quality of work is not an indicator of your supervision abilities. Quite often it reflects the amount of work the students have done.

Help those who are willing to learn and ignore all the idiots who come in the last minute and never listened to your advice/don't work hard.

Hi there. I would say that the main thing for you is to ensure that you do your job effectively and professionally. On the one hand, if the student is procrastinating (e.g. giving you irrelevant material to read and thinking they know best) then either they are very bright and will do well, or they are heading for a poor submission in the end. You could look at this as an opportunity to develop your skills in dealing with a student who is perhaps unaware of their deficiencies. It would be, in my view, a very positive thing, if you could help this student to focus on what is important - set small tasks for them to focus on - focus on their strengths and not their weaknesses - don't use negative criticism - and never let any personal feelings (e.g. annoyance) get in the way as they are your weaknesses not the student's.

With regard to what Otto has said about "the quality of work is not an indicator of your supervision abilities", there is some truth in that if there is no personal problem with the supervisor/student relationship, but from personal experience, I know that the supervisor/student relationship ultimately has a detrimental effect on both the student's and the supervisor's work. A very bad road to go down! Ultimately, my supervisor was a guard and dictator (and was also incompetent) when they should have been a guide and a mentor.