ABSTRACT
Since the number of higher education students has trebled and become less homogeneous in recent years, new strategies are called for as staff resources have not changed proportionately. Significant research has been done into teaching and learning, but one facet still seriously overlooked is research or project supervision. As Acker et al. (1994) point out, research on thesis supervision has been little studied, despite numerous testimonies to its critical importance and exceptional difficulty, while Brown and Atkins (1988) suggest that research supervision is ‘the most complex and subtle form of teaching in which we engage’.
