A Research Supervision Framework for Quality and Scalability
Paul Stynes
a
and Pramod Pathak
b
School of Computing, National College of Ireland, Ireland
Keywords: Research Supervision, Taught Masters Programmes, Timetabled Group Supervision, Co-supervision.
Abstract: Academic staff provide research supervision based on the one on one approach or the apprenticeship model.
Current student recruitment policies are enrolling larger numbers of students on taught master’s programmes.
The current research supervision approach is not sustainable with growing numbers of students and
conducting research supervision that is scalable is a challenge. Increasing the number of supervisors leads to
difficulties with the consistency in the quality of the supervision. This research proposes a research
supervision framework that scales with increasing numbers of re-search students and ensures consistency in
the quality of research supervision among faculty. The framework combines teaching practices, timetabled
group supervision, co supervision, coaching and scaffolding. The research supervision framework was applied
in timetabled group research supervision sessions in May to August2020 with 15 students, September 2020
to January 2021 with 10students and May to August 2021 with 12 students. Results demonstrate an increase
in the quality of research as demonstrated by the publication of 4 book chapters, 3 peer reviewed international
conference papers and 3 invention disclosures. These publications occur during a period of growth in student
numbers by approximately 1000% from 2012 to 2020. This research is of interest to both Deans and faculty.
Deans will gain insight in how to ensure quality of supervision with growing student numbers on taught
master’s programmes. Faculty will gain insight in how to effectively supervise students in order to increase
their academic publications using alternative supervision approaches.
1 INTRODUCTION
Research supervision typically takes place on a face-
to-face basis in individual sessions. Research
supervision may take place at PhD level, Masters by
Research or through a taught Masters programme.
Although research is available on doctoral research
supervision, a gap in the literature on master’s
research dissertation supervision has been
highlighted by Macfadyen, et al., (2019), Cornelius &
Nicol (2015) and Drennan & Clarke, (2009). At
taught and research Masters level, both approaches
have a research dissertation as a final task to obtain
the qualification. A further difficulty is that a taught
masters would have a lower period of time based on
credits to spend on the research dissertation. The
contribution of the research dissertation on a taught
master’s programme typically varies between 25-30
credits. The duration of the dissertation on a taught
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4725-5698
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5631-2298
masters is typically 3 months full-time or 6 months
part-time in the last phase of the master’s programme.
Taught Masters programmes characteristically
have larger numbers of students studying on the
program. As student numbers grow the traditional
research supervision model known as the
apprenticeship model with one on one supervision is
not sustainable. The supervision of master’s students
is very difficult to define as there are many variables
based on the programme discipline, duration and
diversity (Pilcher, 2011). The aim of this research is
to investigate to what extent a research supervision
framework scales with increasing numbers of
research students and ensures consistency in the
quality of research supervision among faculty. The
major contribution of this research is a framework
that combines teaching practices, timetabled group
supervision, co supervision, scaffolding and
coaching. This research is of interest to both Deans
and faculty. Deans will gain insight in how to ensure
quality of supervision with growing student numbers
Stynes, P. and Pathak, P.
A Research Supervision Framework for Quality and Scalability.
DOI: 10.5220/0011093900003182
In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2022) - Volume 2, pages 395-403
ISBN: 978-989-758-562-3; ISSN: 2184-5026
Copyright
c
2022 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
395
on taught masters programmes. Faculty will gain
insight in how to effectively supervise students in
order to increase their academic publications using
alternative supervision approaches.
2 RELATED WORK
This related work is organised around the
apprenticeship model of supervision, group
supervision, co-supervision, teaching practice and
scaffolding. The role of the supervisor as an assessor
is also re-viewed as this is a factor that has workload
implications for master’s supervision as applied to
group supervision approaches.
The British single supervisor model uses an
apprenticeship model of training whereby a student
registers to study on an independent piece of original
research under the supervision and guidance of an
experienced academic researcher who advises them
on the conduct and publication of their research.
Higher education institutes are under increased
pressure from growing national and international
student numbers enrolling on postgraduate
programmes (Bitzer & Albertyn, 2011; Engebretson,
et al., 2008). As a result, there is increased pressure
on the supervisor workload (Bitzer & Albertyn, 2011;
Usher, 2002). The increasing workload of supervisors
of postgraduate students threatens the quality of
research (Deuchar, 2008). The apprenticeship model
is seen as being inappropriate to meet the needs for
supervising students and alternative supervision
approaches involving combining supervision groups,
student colloquia and individual supervision are
proposed by Dysthe, Samara, & Westrheim, (2006).
Bitzer & Albertyn (2011) present alternative
supervision approaches such as group supervision
and the team/panel approach to relieve the burden of
increased supervisor workload arising out of
increased student numbers. Groups may be comprised
of students with similar levels of experience in the
research process or mixed supervisor-and-student
groups (Samara, 2006). Group supervision has the
benefit of students producing higher quality
dissertations particularly when students interact with
their peers and supervisor (Lovitts, 2008). The
structure of the group supervision process reported in
Malfroy (2005) included a one-to-one follow-up
session with the supervisor after a group session to
build on the intellectual discussion and to help set a
new direction.
Supervisory Teams can involve a co-supervisor
that participates occasionally (Nulty, Kiley, &
Meyers, 2009) which can assist with the continuity of
supervision or they can bring additional expertise to
strengthen the supervision. Team approaches provide
a more holistic approach to problem solving, less
interpersonal issues, and enhanced quality of research
(Lee, 2009).
Dysthe, Samara, & Westrheim (2006) propose
that a supervision approach should combine
supervision groups, student peer groups and
individual supervision to remove the dependency on
one supervisor interaction and to manage the
academic workload. Macfadyen et al. (2019)
indicates that a supervision approach should prepare
for growing numbers of master’s students and be able
to adapt to individual student’s needs.
Marnewick (2020) proposed a supervision
approach to support the learning process of master’s
students during research supervision. The structured
approach includes self-learning, peer learning,
individual supervision, and existing teaching
practices. Teaching practices can be used by less
experienced supervisors to structure students’
supervision.
Manathunga (2005) indicates that experienced
supervisors use scaffolding of activities through the
research process. Dysthe, Samara, & Westrheim
(2006) and Crossouard (2008) indicate the
importance of having guidelines to ensure that the
supervisory team fulfil their roles and responsibilities.
Another issue that affects research supervision is
the role of the supervisor as the assessor of the
research, with a second independent assessor (de
Kleijn, Mainhard, Meijer, Pilot, & Brekelmans, 2012;
Cornelius and Nicol 2015) or it is done by two
independent assessors.
In conclusion, growing student numbers
(Engebretson et al. 2008; Bitzer & Albertyn, 2011)
and maintaining the quality of the research
supervision (Deuchar, 2008) are challenges faced by
institutes of higher education. Alternative forms of
supervision such as group supervision and co-
supervision, (Bitzer & Albertyn, 2011) and structured
supervision that includes self-learning, peer learning,
individual supervision, and existing teaching
practices Marnewick (2020), are shown to reduce the
supervisor’s workload and lead to students producing
higher quality dissertations (Lovitts, 2008).
Scaffolding of activities and research supervision
guidelines support inexperienced supervisors and
assist the supervisory team with clear roles and
responsibilities to create a supportive research
environment for the students.
CSEDU 2022 - 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
396
3 METHODOLOGY
This research investigates the challenges around
growing student numbers and maintaining the quality
of the research supervision.
The environment in which the framework was
developed was in a School of Computing at an Irish
institute of higher education. Students attended taught
master’s programmes in the area of Data Analytics.
The students in full time were diverse and
predominantly international. The taught masters
programme consisted of taught modules and a
research theme. The research theme consisted of a
Research in Computing module of 5 credits in
semester 2 and a Research Project of 25 credits in
semester 3. The research theme represents 33% of the
qualification. The students would typically engage in
applied research. Supervision was based on the
apprenticeship model involving one on one
supervision. We developed the framework over
several years from 2017 to date following an action
research approach. Action research seeks
transformative change through the simultaneous
process of taking action and doing research, which are
linked together by critical reflection (Lewin, 1946).
The framework was applied to the research project in
the MSc in Data Analytics We applied the research
supervision framework in timetabled group research
supervision sessions in
May-August 2020 to 15 students,
September 2020-January 2021 to 10 students
May – August 2021 to 12 students
Students first complete a research proposal that
consists of an abstract, literature review and proposed
methodology as part of research in computing in
semester 2. The students are assigned to group
supervision as part of the research project.
The delivery of the research project in full-time
over a 12-week period is as follows: -
In week 0, I would get the students Research
Project Proposal from Research in Computing and the
research paper that most influences their work from
the state of the art. I would provide detailed
comments on Abstract, Introduction, Literature
Review and Methodology in order to bring the
sections up to a standard that is publishable. I would
also ensure that the influential research paper has
been published recently in a reputable journal or
Scopus linked conference.
In week 1, I would go through the slides “Module
Overview, Research Handbook, and slide decks on
writing an Abstract, Introduction and literature
review. I encourage the students to identify a quality
conference that they would like to publish in with a
focus on Scopus linked international conferences.
In week 2, I go through slides on Methodology,
Design and Implementation. On a weekly basis, I
check the students’ progress in terms of what they
completed in the last week. I set goals with the
students that they have to complete in the following
week. Week 2 goals involve starting to scope out the
aim of the experiments that they will complete.
Where the first experiment is to replicate the state of
the art from the paper that most influences their
research. I also focus on the environment and
implementation of experiment 1.
In week 3, I help the student to sharpen their
research question in the problem domain and focus on
goals around the implementation of experiment 1.
In week 4 I flesh out each experiment that will be
documented in the results section with signposting
around "The aim of this experiment is to …".
In week 5, I go through slides on Results. I also
focus on completing experiment 1 and updating the
report on results.
In week 6 I go through the slides on Discussion
and Conclusion. I focus on getting the students to
update their conference style report with a discussion
of experiment 1. I also focus on getting the students
to implement experiment 2 based on making one
change to experiment 1.
In week 7 the co-supervisor joins the meeting. The
co-supervisor meets with each student and discusses
progress.
In weeks 8, 9, 10 and 11 we focus on completing
each experiment and making one change for the next
experiment.
In week 12, we check that the conclusion restates
the research question, objectives and the work done.
We check how successful student has been in
answering the research question and achieving the
objectives, that the key findings are restated, and any
proposals for future work or potential for
commercialisation are identified.
After the examination of the master’s research
project, we work with the student to refine the
research paper and submit to a Scopus linked
international conference. If the research has
commercial potential we submit an invention
disclosure form.
The research output quality is evaluated based on
publications and invention disclosures that are
recognised at a National and International level.
Publications are in the form of Book Chapters and
Scopus linked conference papers.
A Research Supervision Framework for Quality and Scalability
397
4 RESEARCH SUPERVISION
FRAMEWORK
The research supervision framework combines
teaching practices in section 4.1, timetabled group
supervision in section 4.2, co supervision in section
4.3, coaching in section 4.4 and scaffolding in section
4.5.
4.1 Teaching Practice
Teaching practices was applied to the research project
by allocating 5 of the 30 credits into semester 2 as part
of a module Research in Computing that consisted of
1-hour lecture and 2 hours tutorial. The Research in
Computing module introduces students to the
requirements of academic writing, including carrying
out a review of the state of the art in their chosen
domain, how to create a research proposal, the
importance of reproducible research, scientific
writing including citing and referencing, and the
presentation of results. 25 credits are allocated to the
Research Project module in semester 3. Students have
to submit a portfolio that consists of a research paper
style report, an artefact/product, a user configuration
manual and a presentation to be defended in a viva.
The traditional dissertation of 10,000 to 15,000 words
is replaced with a research paper style report shall
comprise up to 20 pages of between 4,000 to 6,000
words. The report describes the individual research
and production of an ICT solution. The format of the
paper follows a conference/journal style with
abstract, introduction, related work, methodology,
design, implementation, evaluation, conclusion and
references. The motivation for this change was to
reduce faculty workload in assisting students with
publishing their dissertation in an international
conference.
4.2 Timetabled Group Supervision
Timetabled group supervision is a structured activity
based on assigning 10 to 12 students from the same
thematic area to a scheduled class with a research
supervisor. The class is scheduled in a block of 4
hours. The first hour is a group session where the
supervisor goes through a slide deck on the research
process covering aspects of the research paper style
report in a timely fashion to the sections of the report
that students are working on. The remaining three
hours are based on a one-to-one follow-up session
between the supervisor and students to build on the
intellectual discussion and to advise the student on the
research.
4.3 Co-supervision
Co-supervision was applied to research groups to
ensure continuity of the supervision during the
summer holidays. The co-supervisor participates
occasionally and provides very different but
complementary support. They usually attend half way
through the research process. The students have to
give an update on their research progress, issues they
are encountering and the next steps. Co-supervision
is also applied to new full-time faculty as a form of
direct coaching the goal of which is to go through the
research supervision framework and create a
publication in a peer reviewed Scopus indexed
international conference/journal. This co-supervisor
participates for the full supervision.
4.4 Coaching
Coaching is codified in the form of weekly supervisor
guidelines that highlight the responsibilities that a
supervisor has in a temporal form for example before
meeting the student for the first time in the research
project the supervisor should critique the research
proposal from Research in Computing. The critique
should align the proposal to the sign posting in the
template and provide the student with comments on
the abstract, introduction, literature review, and
methodology.
4.5 Scaffolding
Scaffolding is in the form of a slide deck and a
template with signposting of the research vernacular.
The slide deck was created to provide consistent
instruction to the students independent of supervisor
experience. In addition, tips are provided to support
students with writing sections of the research paper
style report. The slide deck consisted of separate
slides on the abstract, introduction, literature review,
methodology, design, implementation, results and
conclusion. The template is based on a published
paper in an international peer reviewed Scopus
indexed international conference. The template
highlights signposting of the research vernacular and
is based on Oluwatobi, Murphy, Pathak, & Stynes,
(2021).
The template guides the student in creating a title
around 3 aspects namely the novel contribution,
classification of that contribution and the story. An
example from the template where the contribution is
CSEDU 2022 - 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
398
“An on-device Deep Learning”; the classification is a
“Framework” and the story is “to Encourage the
Recycling of Waste”.
The slides on the abstract discusses the structure
of the abstract in terms of background, objectives,
methodology, results and findings. The first sentence
in the abstract of the template discusses the story from
the title to provide context of the research. The second
sentence emphasises wording such as use of
“challenge” to bring out the research problem. The 3
rd
sentence articulates what the research is proposing
and that it is aligned to the title of the research with
phrasing such as “This research proposes an
framework (or model and so on) to. The fourth
sentence further describes the classification of the
research with phrasing around “The proposed
framework (or model and so on) combines…”. The
fifth sentence describes the methodology. The sixth
sentence starts with wording “Results …” to ensure
the student describes the metrics applied and results
achieved. The final sentence uses phrasing “This
research shows promise for …” to ensure the student
describes the benefit of this research to a stakeholder
that is interested in this research.
The slides on the introduction discuss the
background to the research, the motivation for the
research, the variables or factors that affect the
outcome of the research, research question, and
contribution. The template reinforces the slides with
phrasing “The aim of this research is to …” and “The
major contribution of this research is a novel …”.
The slides on the related work provide a guideline
for writing a critique, writing style and referencing.
There is a focus on identifying future work from a
journal or Scopus linked conference paper in order to
ensure that students work on a novel contribution that
is publishable. If a research paper is important to their
research that they will use or improve on, then they
should describe it in a paragraph in the literature
review. The paragraph should describe the purpose of
the research paper, methods used, main results and
strengths or limitations. Strengths are good practice
and something the student should aim to emulate in
their research. Limitations provide an opportunity for
students to improve on or extend that work. The
concluding paragraph of the literature review sums up
the strengths and weaknesses of the related work and
by assessing its contribution to the advancement of
knowledge, theory, or practice. The template provides
guidance in the first paragraph students should start
with a sentence that is directly related to the title of
their research. Phrasing for the concluding paragraph
to ensure students focus on summing up the strengths
and weakness “In conclusion, the state of the art
indicates …”.
The slides on methodology emphasise that
students experiment need to be verifiable by other
researchers, so that they can review the results by
replicating the experiment and guaranteeing the
validity. The slides describe the sections of a
methodology based on the steps followed in the
research; describing the materials and equipment
used in the research; explaining how the samples
were gathered, any randomization techniques and
how the samples were prepared such as cleaned and
transformed; explaining how the measurements were
made and what calculations were performed upon the
raw data; and describing the statistical techniques
used upon the data. The template provides phrasing
such as “The research methodology consists of five
steps namely … as shown in Fig. 1.”, “The first step,
…”, “The second step, …” and so on. Students must
ensure the steps are labelled in the figure and they
should name the step for example “The first step,
Data Gathering involves combining six waste image
datasets”.
The slides on design discuss presenting the
techniques and/or architecture that underlie the
implementation. The template provides phrasing
where the students must discuss the name of their
contribution from the title of their research paper and
the main architectural components of their design in
the following sentence “The … framework (or model
and so on) architecture as shown in Fig. 2.”. The
design section is split into a description of each
component. The second sentence in the template
ensures the students discuss all components in the
diagram starting with phrasing “The components of
the …”.
The slides on implementation describe the outputs
produced such as transformed data, code written,
models developed, questionnaires administered. The
description should also include what tools and
languages you used to produce the outputs. The first
sentence in the template ensures students focus on
implementation with phrasing “The framework (or
model and so on) was implemented …”. For
publications a screen shot of the graphical user
interface works well in this section.
For slides on results, discusses the presenting of
only the most relevant results using visual techniques
such as graphs, figures and tables. Presenting an in-
depth and rigours analysis of the results and how they
relate to answering the research question and the
current state of the art. Students are requested to
replicate the state-of-the-art as the first experiment.
This is to ensure students really understand what a
A Research Supervision Framework for Quality and Scalability
399
research methodology is in terms of replicating a
study and they really understand the state-of-the-art
approach. In addition, this provides an opportunity for
students to be able to discuss the results they get in
further experiments as a comparison to the state of the
art. The second experiment is based on making one
change to the first experiment. This may involve
implementing the future work identified in the state-
of-the-art research paper. A rich discussion can take
place in terms of the results of experiment 1 and how
they relate to previous research from the state of the
art. Experiment 2 may involve
changing/optimising/enhancing the framework (or
model and so on) and seeing if the results improve.
By following this approach there is clear and
systematic evidence of novelty and contribution to the
state of the art which is publishable in a conference or
journal. The template for the results starts each
experiment to ensure students are clear on the
experiment with phrasing “The aim of this
experiment is to …. To ensure that students discuss
the meaning of the results the template uses phrasing
“This result indicates that …”. The template
emphasises that students should describe the
diagrams and tables in detail. To make clear the most
relevant results the template uses phrasing “The
results show promise for …”.
The slides on the conclusion discuss the
conclusion in terms of restating the research question,
your objectives and the work done; stating how
successful the student has been in answering the
research question and achieving the objectives;
restating the key findings and finally describing any
proposals for future work or potential for
commercialisation. The template provides phrasing
that reemphasises the discussion in the slides with
phrasing “The aim of this research was to …”. “This
research proposes an … framework (or model and so
on) that ...”. “Results demonstrate that …”. “This
research can potentially enhance …”. This work can
be improved by …”. “This research benefits …”.
5 RESULTS
The research supervision framework was designed to
scale the supervision based on handling the growing
number of students registering on taught MSc
programmes. In 2012, 69 students were enrolled.
Enrolments reached a peak in 2019 with 814 students,
representing a growth of approximately 1000% since
2012.
From 2012 to 2017 faculty provided one on one
research supervision in the research project. An
observation was that there was a break in the
continuity of supervision when faculty went on
summer holidays. MSc surgery sessions were
provided to ensure continuity of supervision. The
MSc Surgery involved one academic checking all
postgraduate students’ progress. Progress was
reflected in the student’s blog, documenting the
chapters they have updated, the academic answering
research questions and identifying work that needs to
be completed.
Table 1 shows the interventions that were made in
creating the research supervision framework.
Table 1: Interventions in the Research Project.
Year Intervention
2017 -
2018
Group Supervision (6 students) and One on
One Supervision. MSc Surgery Session.
2018-
2019
Scaffolding in the form of a slide deck.
Timetabled group research supervision (15
students) and Co-supervision.
2019-
2020
Scaffolding in the form of a Slide deck.
Timetabled group research supervision (15
students) and Co-supervision.
2020-
2021
Coaching in the form of weekly supervisor
guidelines. Scaffolding in the form of a Slide
deck and template. Timetabled group
research supervision (10-12 students) and
Co-supervision.
Difficulties in recruitment of faculty to supervise
based on one to one supervision indicated that this
approach of scaling up research supervision was not
sustainable. A model of group supervision of up to 6
students in a thematic area with an increased focus on
Associate Faculty supervision was trialled to one
group of data analytics students in September 2017.
Associate faculty are part time faculty and would
predominantly have a PhD. An observation was that
student attendance during the research project was
problematic. Timetabled group research supervision
was implemented in 2018 in order to address the issue
of attendance. Group supervision increased from 6 to
15 students in order to address growing student
numbers. However, the supervisory model was that
supervisors would have to examine their students and
second mark an equal number of students over a two-
week period. A supervisor would have 30 students to
examine, comprising of 15 students that were
supervised and 15 students that were 2
nd
marked. At
2 hours per examination this would take around 60
hours over a two-week period. As associate faculty
are part time and may have a full-time job, this could
add an additional 30 hours per week for two weeks
leading to workload issues. The number of students
CSEDU 2022 - 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
400
assigned to timetabled group supervision was reduced
to 10 students in order to address the workload issue.
Whilst 10 students in a timetabled group supervision
is the right balance, this number could increase if
supervisors are not part of marking or they did not
have to complete second marking of other student’s
research style papers.
MSc Surgery sessions were poorly attended and
as such co-supervision was introduced to replace the
MSc surgery sessions.
We introduced scaffolding of activities around a
slide deck, template and research supervision
guidelines in order to create a supportive research
environment for the students.
Table 2: MSc research output quality recognised at National
and International level.
Date
Numberof
Students
Supervised ResearchOutput
May‐20to
Aug‐20
15
2BookChapter‐Lecture
NotesinComputerScience
Springer(Kumar,Pathak,&
Stynes,2020)and
SciTePress(Palani,Stynes,
&Pathak,2021)

3InternationalConference
Papers(Wagh,Pathak,
Stynes,&Nardin,2020),
(Kanhere,Sahni,Stynes,&
Pathak,2021),(Agughalam,
Pathak,&Stynes,2021)
  1InventionDisclosure
Sep‐20to
Jan‐21
10
1BookChapter‐Lecture
NotesinComputerScience
Springer(Ekundayo,
Murphy,Pathak,&Stynes,
2022)
  2InventionDisclosures
May‐21to
Aug‐21
12
1BookChapter–European
AllianceforInnovation
(EAI),EuropeanUnion
DigitalLibrary(Padalkar,
Pathak,&Stynes,2021).

Submitted‐Awaiting
Acceptance1Journal
 
Submitted‐Awaiting
Acceptance1International
ConferencePaper
Inpreparation1
InternationalConference
Papers
We applied the research supervision framework in
3 timetabled group research supervision sessions in
May-August 2020 to 15 students, September 2020-
January 2021 to 10 students and May – August 2021
to 12 students as described in Table 2. The 3 groups
of students were supervised and co-supervised by the
authors.
Results show promise with an increase in the
quality of research as demonstrated by increased
research publications and invention disclosures at
National and International level. We supervised 37
students on a taught master’s programme in
timetabled group supervision with co-supervision.
The research output of this supervision consists of
2 book chapters as part of lecture notes in computer
science with Springer, 1 book chapter with
SciTePress, 1 book chapter as part of the European
Alliance for Innovation and stored in the European
Union Digital Library, 3 peer reviewed international
conference papers and 4 invention disclosures. At the
time of writing one paper has been submitted to a
journal awaiting acceptance, one paper has been
submitted to an international conference and 1
conference paper is in preparation. This quality
research output as a result of the Research
Supervision Framework occurs during a period of
growth in student numbers by approximately 1000%
from 2012 to 2020.
6 CONCLUSION
The aim of this research is to investigate to what
extent a research supervision framework scales with
increasing numbers of research students and ensures
consistency in the quality of research supervision
among faculty. The framework combines teaching
practices, timetabled group supervision, co
supervision, scaffolding and coaching.
Results demonstrate that students we supervised
in a small group with co-supervision have been
successful at a national and international level in
writing 4 book chapters as part of lecture notes in
computer science with springer and SciTePress and
the European Alliance for Innovation, 3 peer
reviewed international conference papers and 3
invention disclosures. The framework has scaled with
growing student numbers during a period of growth
of approximately 1000% from 2012 to 2020. Pass
rates have also increased from 29% in 2012 to 88% in
2020.
Future work could investigate the effective use of
student peer groups to reduce the work load of the
supervisor. In addition, future work could explore the
A Research Supervision Framework for Quality and Scalability
401
role of a second independent assessor being an active
second supervisor in order to increase the likelihood
of publications at an international level.
REFERENCES
Agughalam, D., Pathak, P., & Stynes, P. (2021).
Bidirectional LSTM approach to image captioning with
scene features. Thirteenth International Conference on
Digital Image Processing (ICDIP 2021), 11878, pp.
81–88. doi:10.1117/12.2600465
Bitzer, E. M., & Albertyn, R. M. (2011). Alternative
approaches to postgraduate supervision: A planning
tool to facilitate supervisory processes. South African
Journal of Higher Education, 25(5), 875-888.
doi:10.33130/AJCT.2021v07 i01.019
Cornelius, S., & Nicol, S. (2015). Understanding the Needs
of Masters Dissertation Supervisors: Supporting
Students in Professional Contexts. Journal of
Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 4(1), 2-12.
doi:10.14297/jpaap.v4i1.161
Crossouard, B. (2008, March 1). Developing alternative
models of doctoral supervision with online formative
assessment. Studies in Continuing Education, 30(1),
51-67. doi:10.1080/01580370701841549
de Kleijn, R. A., Mainhard, M. T., Meijer, P. C., Pilot, A.,
& Brekelmans, M. (2012, December 1). Master's thesis
supervision: relations between perceptions of the
supervisor–student relationship, final grade, perceived
supervisor contribution to learning and student
satisfaction. Studies in Higher Education, 37(8), 925-
939. doi:10.1080/03075079.2011.556717
Deuchar, R. (2008, August 1). Facilitator, director or
critical friend?: contradiction and congruence in
doctoral supervision styles. Teaching in Higher
Education, 13(4), 489-500. doi:10.1080/135
62510802193905
Drennan, J., & Clarke, M. (2009, August 1). Coursework
master’s programmes: the student’s experience of
research and research supervision. Studies in Higher
Education, 483-500. doi:10.1080/03075070802597150
Dysthe, O., Samara, A., & Westrheim, K. (2006, June 1).
Multivoiced supervision of Master’s students: a case
study of alternative supervision practices in higher
education. Studies in Higher Education, 31(3), 299-
318. doi:10.1080/0307507060068 0562
Ekundayo, O., Murphy, L., Pathak, P., & Stynes, P. (2022).
An On-Device Deep Learning Framework to
Encourage the Recycling of Waste. In Intelligent
Systems and Applications, Lecture Notes in Networks
and Systems (pp. 405–417). Cham: Springer
International Publishing, ISBN: 978-3-030-82199-9.
doi:10.1007/978-3-030-82199-9_26
Engebretson, K., Smith, K., McLaughlin, D., Seibold, C.,
Terrett, G., & Ryan, E. (2008, February 1). The
changing reality of research education in Australia and
implications for supervision: a review of the literature.
Teaching in Higher Education, 13(1), 1-15.
doi:10.1080/13562510 701792112
Kanhere, S., Sahni, A., Stynes, P., & Pathak, P. (2021).
Clustering Based Approach to Enhance Association
Rule Mining. 2021 28th Conference of Open
Innovations Association (FRUCT), (pp. 142–150).
doi:10.23919/FRUCT50888.2021.93 47577
Kumar, A., Pathak, P., & Stynes, P. (2020). A Transfer
Learning Approach to Classify the Brain Age from
MRI Images. In L. a. Bellatreche, Big Data Analytics
(Lecture Notes in Computer Science ed., pp. 103–112).
Cham: Springer International Publishing.
doi:10.1007/978-3-030-66665-1_8
Lee, A. (2009, July 1). Some implications of European
initiatives for doctoral supervision. Political Science.
Lewin, K. (1946). Action Research and Minority Problems.
Journal of Social Issues, 2(4), 34-46.
doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1946.tb02295.x
Lovitts, B. E. (2008). The Transition to Independent
Research: Who Makes It, Who Doesn't, and Why. The
Journal of Higher Education, 79(3), 296-325.
doi:10.1353/jhe.0.0006
Macfadyen, A., English, C., Kelleher, M., Coates, M.,
Cameron, C., & Gibson, V. (2019, July 29). ‘Am I
doing it right?’ Conceptualising the practice of
supervising master’s dissertation students. Higher
Education Research & Development, 38(5), 985-1000.
doi:10.1080/07294360.2019.1597024
Malfroy, J. (2005, May). Doctoral supervision, workplace
research and changing pedagogic practices. Higher
Education Research & Development, 24(2), 165-178.
doi:10.1080/072 94360500062961
Manathunga, C. (2005, May 1). The development of
research supervision: “Turning the light on a private
space”. International Journal for Academic
Development, 10(1), 17-30.
doi:10.1080/13601440500099977
Marnewick, A. J. (2020). A supervision approach to
facilitate learning during the master’s research journey.
Teaching in Higher Education, 1-16.
doi:10.1080/13562517.2020.1811223
Nulty, D., Kiley, M., & Meyers, N. (2009, December 1).
Promoting and recognising excellence in the
supervision of research students: an evidence‐based
framework. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education, 34(6), 693-707.
doi:10.1080/02602930802474193
Oluwatobi, E., Murphy, L., Pathak, P., & Stynes, P. (2021).
An On-Device Deep Learning Framework to
Encourage the Recycling of Waste. In Intelligent
Systems and Applications - Proceedings of the 2021
Intelligent Systems Conference (IntelliSys) Volume 3
(Vol. 296, pp. 405-417). Springer Nature Switzerland
AG. doi:978-3-030-82199-9
Padalkar, A., Pathak, P., & Stynes, P. (2021). An Object
Detection and Scaling Model for Plastic Waste Sorting.
In M. Z. Philipp Wicke (Ed.), Proceedings of the 1st
International Conference on AI for People: Towards
Sustainable AI, CAIP 2021. Bologna, Italy: EAI, ISBN:
CSEDU 2022 - 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
402
978-1-63190-326-7, ISSN 2593-7642 Series CORE.
doi:10.4108/eai.20-11-2021.2314204
Palani, K., Stynes, P., & Pathak, P. (2021). Clustering
Techniques to Identify Low-engagement Student
Levels. In Proceedings of the 13th International
Conference on Computer Supported Education (Vol. 2,
pp. 248–257). CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-502-9;
ISSN 2184-5026, SCITEPRESS.
doi:10.5220/0010456802480257
Pilcher, N. (2011, February 1). The UK postgraduate
Masters dissertation: an ‘elusive chameleon’? Teaching
in Higher Education, 16(1), 29-40.
doi:10.1080/13562517.2011.530752
Samara, A. (2006, May). Group Supervision in Graduate
Education: A Process of Supervision Skill
Development and Text Improvement. Higher
Education Research and Development, 115-129.
Usher, R. (2002, July 1). A Diversity Of Doctorates: Fitness
for the knowledge economy? Higher Education
Research & Development, 143-153.
doi:10.1080/07294360220144060
Wagh, V. K., Pathak, P., Stynes, P., & Nardin, L. G. (2020).
An Evacuation Route Model for Disaster Affected
Areas. AICS 2020, (p. 12).
A Research Supervision Framework for Quality and Scalability
403