Introduction

In this introductory chapter, we discuss how supervision of degree projects is an essential part of higher education, as students in many countries and disciplines are expected to write some form of final thesis (undergraduate projects, BA theses, MA theses, etc.) during their education. We highlight that supervision of degree projects is in many ways a complex activity, involving a range of activities in which students and supervisors are involved; supervision meetings, writing and commenting on texts, questions and answers by e-mail or telephone, etc., and also includes interaction and communication with other actors such as course coordinators, seminar leaders, fellow students and colleagues. Furthermore, we discuss how academic supervision is undergoing a process of professionalisation and point out how this book contributes both to existing research on supervision primarily based on interviews, which discusses, for example, supervisors’ expectations, experiences and attitudes or proposes different models of academic supervision, and to research based on documented supervision interaction, which examines supervision practice in more detail, looking at what supervisors do and how they do it.