How to choose my first PhD students

Question

I have recently started a position as assistant professor at a Chinese-British university. Now I am starting to get first requests from interested students who work on topics that are similar to mine but not exactly within my discipline/expertise (I am a political scientist and had a law student approaching me). Do you have any tips on how to

choose good PhD students and
set a reasonable number/cap for students I can supervise?

Maybe you don't need to be told this but first I recommend that you make sure you understand the relevant procedures in your department like how formal admission works, what the admission criteria are, how co-supervision is organised, how PhD students are paid for, whether they have to do courses and exams, what time they have to finish, side conditions like required publications pre-viva, what happens when there are problems; also how many PhD students your colleagues have (ask them for experiences). — Christian Hennig, Dec 02 '23 at 15:00
Does the research program you have (or in the process of designing) require having PhD students? In some fields of research this is the case (e.g. in most lab sciences) and in some, it is not (e.g. in math, theoretical physics, philosophy). You should probably elaborate on this issue by revising your post. — Moishe Kohan, Dec 03 '23 at 01:31

Buffy · Answer 1 · 2023-12-02T14:07:24.967

I suggest that you start small (one student) and then see how that goes. If it works and you are comfortable with the current state, consider accepting another. (see below)

At the start, I'd suggest that you select only people aligned with your own research interest. A law student might fit, or not, depending on their ideas and yours.

Finally, I'd suggest that you evaluate them in a face to face discussion in which you explore their ideas as well as their background. You don't want to do too much or too little for them. If they seem serious and have some idea about a topic, even if not well-formed, then consider them. If they seem excited about your suggestions rather than any idea they might have (as not all do) then consider them. You probably also have access to their academic record. If so, look there for alignment as well as seriousness of purpose.

If neither of you have suitable (and compatible) ideas for a research topic, then you should probably pass them on to a senior colleague. This happened to me as a student and worked to my advantage.

Give them a warning, that as an assistant professor there is some risk to them. You are inexperienced at this and your first order of business is getting tenure for yourself.

However, take some advice from local faculty and administration about their expectations. Try to meet them to enable your own chances for getting tenure.

+1 for "Give them a warning, that as an assistant professor there is some risk to them." — Agnishom Chattopadhyay, Dec 06 '23 at 03:16
Thanks for the great advice and also on what to do in the case of not accepting them! I think I will pass him on to a senior colleague — Niklas Weins, Dec 07 '23 at 03:04

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 01 '23 at 02:30

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"First you are known by who you trained with, then you are known by what you've done, then you're known by who you've trained."

Don't be in a rush to accept students, and then choose carefully.

answered Dec 01 '23 at 02:30

Andrew Coggan

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 03 '23 at 17:40

I wish I could say I came up with this idea, but what my mentor did (not with me, he was my teacher since undergrad) with my coworker is he came up with an assignment for my coworker to do over the summer. I think it was a lit review.

If he could review and summarize the literature well, a show of aptitude if you'd like, then he'd be accepted as his student. I'm not saying you need to do this exactly, but you want to make sure that you'd work well together, both as researchers and as people.

What I do (I'm still a PHD student) before I agree to work with anybody, is I video chat them (or meet in person), do introductions, and discuss our interests, academic and otherwise. So, a little discussion, on top of seeing what they can do on a new small assignment, should go along way. Supervision sometimes takes non negligible amounts of time on top of other duties, so making quite sure that they'd be a good fit BEFORE agreeing to work together/supervise them is a worthwhile investment of time.

How to choose my first PhD students

3 Answers3