Do you have a co-supervisor for your master's or PhD research?

I do have a co supervisor for my PhD. I'm a little confuse of the actual role that a co supervisor plays in our research. Do we have to meet co supervisor as much as meeting the main supervisor? I felt kinda awkward to meet my co supervisor since she's the type that kinda difficult to deal with. I prefer to work with my main supervisor. It's even more difficult to deal when the main and co have conflicting ideas.

Well, most of the time its quite hard to deal with both the main and the co-supervisor
As you've said, conflicting ideas (and probably some money matters) can be really cumbersome for the student @____@

Still, I'm sure your main and co-supervisor are literate in specific aspects of your field right? So usually you'll have to consult both of them anyway. For instance, my main supervisor is good at molecular biology; whereas my co is good at conventional morphology and taxonomy. Most of the time their area of expertise won't overlap

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This post has been edited by Mr.Wang: Apr 15 2012, 07:39 PM

my case is different. my main will always invite co during our discussion. they collectively give ideas.

when main is not around, then we'll look for co.

my co during my master is just a name only. never involve in anything, and got his name listed in all my master publications.

Both have the same expertise in my field. But the main supervisor is more easy to deal with cos he is the type that open to suggestions and give me more freedom in my research. On the other hand, co supervisor is more strict and likes student to follow her idea, very persistent type.

That's good. But it's quite difficult to find a mutually free time from both supervisors.

This happened to me during masters too. It has it's advantage and I prefer that way.

For my case, all paperworks need to get his signature and this caused much delay. Also, my opinion is that authors should contribute or add value to the paper, not just because one is co-supervising. But that time, i was just a small fish

I thought only need to get either one of the supervisor's signature/stamp, like I always did. I did not add co supervisor's name in the paper that I publish

Hehe procedures. When i was about to submit my thesis after viva, it was delayed by 3-4 weeks because need my co-supervisor signature and he was too busy to flip my thesis. Lucky you, some lecturers / researchers are ethical enough to refuse having their names in paper when they have no contribution, while others will go berserk .

Anyway, back to the topic, i think it is good to keep co-supervisor in the loop so that he or she will know what is happening.

You've the right not to add him as the co author in any publication if he really didn't contribute in the paper or your research.

I'd keep in touch with my co supervisor, but not sure how frequent.

Yeah i did that and he started giving me problems (thats why he took a long time to sign off my thesis).

My perfect co would be someone that is not too protruding and does not insist on being at every discussions (due to time constraint). Would be good if he or she can complement the main supervisor in some areas, or maybe having good networks

Unfortunately its easier said than done

I really dislike supervisors/ co-supervisors who never contribute anything (apart from asking students to add more unnecessary work into their papers/ thesis); and I even hate those who take credit for themselves or belittle our efforts/work put into the paper/thesis... Its sad that unprofessional supervisors like this (quite a lot summore) exists among the scientific community

I always do that

Most of them tend to take a free ride

You are lecturer already bro? Or still student?
If I do that I'll probably just forget about graduating

My main is an expert in the field (OB/HR) I'm writing.

My co is a statistics expert and also an expert in the business field.

Both are helpful so far. Can't say for the future.

A student. Make sure you're in good term with your main supervisor if you want to grad. Main supervisor has more say than your co supervisor.

Guys, what's the minimum number of hypothesis/research questions is needed for PhD level?

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Added on April 25, 2012, 3:31 pmMaybe we're quite in the similar field.

This post has been edited by seanwc101: Apr 25 2012, 03:31 PM

my main supervisor when i am doing master research is a lecturer who is master degree holder, excel in handling administration job, talkative but weak in guiding research candidate. Asking me to write conference paper but the main writer should be his name and also tag along his friend name (free ridesm). I nearly quit the research field until my researcher frens suggest me to find another co-supervisor. Thank god! my Co-supervisor is an associate professor malay women, quite busy but helpful, knowledgeable and easy to talk with. The lesson i learn when finding supervisor is "don't simple trust the information stated in the CV especially when a lecturer boasted himself as hardworking, resourceful.... but in fact....you know"

I didn't know that a lecturer with only master's degree can become a main supervisor for master's by research student. Wow, ask you to write and expect you to put his name as the main author???? That's too much! Unfortunately, it's hard to figure out which supervisor is good, unless we have work with them before.

You talked to the dean to get a co supervisor?

My master supervisor also expected the same thing from me, and kept delaying my thesis until i have submitted a certain number of papers with his name as first author. Of course i refused and all hell breaks lose. During viva, i was not afraid of the external examiners but my supervisors instead! Was a very intense and stressful period towards the end of my master.

This post has been edited by Human Nature: Apr 25 2012, 06:56 PM

The graduate office staff assigns me to him as i am not the bachelor degree student in this uni previously. He had well establish networking (so-called cable) with management staff and i found that many academic staff boycott him such as purposely absent to jamuan organized by him. What is more, that's really hard for me to seek help from other lecturer with the same area of expertise as my main supervisor. Some of them refuse to help me. After struggle for two semester, i decide to talk to dean straight away and assigned with another co-supervisor. Unfortunately, i cannot change main supervisor as i defense my proposal dy. That's really a nightmare for me to deal with him in the past three years.....


For Lyners who decide to step into research field, don't judge a lecturer by his/her cv. Better try contact graduate students under their supervision to ask for clarification whether he or she is trustable or just a mr/dr/prof kangkung in fact....

This kind of supervisor is everywhere.

That's why I just stick with my supervisors that I've worked with previously. Difficult to judge other lecturers that I don't recognize.

Oh....good.

Which uni are you in?

in Unimas.

As for my experience, both of my co-supervisor are very easy to deal with since one of them is experienced in stomach content while the other one is more on embryonic development and feed formulation, both are related to my main objective.

The downside is that they tend to add in more ideas and give me more works to be done

That's true

If one is hardworking, I don't mind. The fact of the matter is that I am not

Sounds like you need at least 4 years to complete it

My co supervisor did nothing but to be awarded with a title as a co supervisor. Whatever you publish or do might reap in benefit for her as well.

This post has been edited by kanseiworld: Jan 28 2014, 05:07 AM