ABSTRACT
This article focuses on what has hitherto been an under-researched and essentially ‘secret’ area of academic life, but which is now being subjected to an increasing amount of research: the supervisory relationship between research students and academics. The nature of this relationship varies significantly between disciplines, with research students in the laboratory sciences typically experiencing much more regular, even day-to-day, supervision as part of a research group. This article, however, examines the experience in the humanities and social sciences, where the supervisory relationship is more typically individualised, and research students often pursue a lonely road, perhaps only meeting their supervisor every month or so.
