Abstract:

In the past five decades, there has been significant emphasis on doctoral education. Doctoral education encompasses the PhD research process and encompasses the relationship between supervisor and supervisee, various supervision methodologies and techniques, as well as aspects of enculturation, socialization, and compliance with rules governing higher education and research. Doctoral supervision involves the mastery of teaching techniques, didactics, and methodologies to effectively guide and support doctoral students in their research and professional development. The primary objective is to promote the learning of the doctoral student and foster skills across various fields of knowledge.

In Portuguese Higher Education, the supervision is done by doctoral advisors. In general, the learning of what it means to be an advisor emerges from the practice lived as a doctoral student and from the day-to-day experiences in the role of advisor, since both the institutions and the legislator consider that any doctorate has the competence to supervise scientifically. However, this assumption cannot be applied to the practice of supervision, since it is a teaching practice with all the characteristics inherent to it and involves a mentoring and coaching component (Fillery-Travis & Robinson, 2018). Some Portuguese universities have established Doctoral Schools that provide brief, optional training courses for supervisors. While the primary goal of these schools is to assist doctoral students in developing transversal skills, they also address specific skill sets in certain instances.

The primary goal of this study was to examine the educational programs offered by Doctoral Schools, to understand the skills they aim to develop and how they accomplish this at the level of both supervisors and doctoral candidates. Drawing from existing literature and data obtained from official sources, the objective is to recommend curricular guidelines that facilitate the design of training programs for both doctoral students and supervisors, with a focus on their professional and academic development. To achieve the stated objectives, an interpretative case study was carried out. An analysis was conducted on documents from several doctoral schools, including the University of Coimbra, the University of Aveiro, and the New University of Lisbon. By comparing these documents with existing literature, the study presented the training requirements necessary for developing courses that offer comprehensive supervisory guidance to doctoral advisors and support doctoral students throughout their research.

Upon analysing the data, it is evident that universities offer a limited number and variety of courses for supervisors, focusing primarily on higher education pedagogy, supervision practices, models, conflict management, and project management. There are more training courses available for doctoral students, aiming to develop transversal skills such as communication, innovation, critical thinking, project management, and expectations for the PhD and future careers.

Based on the literature we propose that the university present each year a training plan for supervisors and a more structured offer of courses for PhD students.

Keywords:

Supervision, Orientation, Doctoral pedagogy, Supervision development, Training, Doctoral schools.