Power imbalance and power shift between Chinese international research students and their supervisors

For international research students, dealing with the ‘delicate’ student–supervisor relationship constitutes one of the greatest challenges when pursuing a research degree overseas. Much literature considers the subaltern status of students and the positional advantage of supervisors as academics within the higher education field. Informed by and different from this literature, this chapter investigated the ways in which power evolves, operates, and shifts between Chinese international research students and their supervisors during their research journey in Australian universities. Drawing on Bourdieu’s sociology, this study analysed 18 Chinese international research students’ viewpoints on student–supervisor relationships and identified ‘power imbalance’ and ‘power shift’ between Chinese international HDR students and their supervisors. The findings suggest profound power imbalance in three interdependent aspects, that is, perceived supervisor authority, student consent to supervisor authority, and students’ self-perceived deficiency. Notably, power shift—traces of resilience to symbolic violence—were also identified, including empowerment by supervisors, students’ accumulation of scholarly authority and autonomy, and students’ resistance. By dint of these findings, some important pedagogical implications in negotiating power are proposed for (international) research students, supervisors, universities, and powerful institutions.