Australia

Doctoral education in Australia originally followed the conventions of the UK system, where Ph.D. candidates tended to work with a single supervisor. Over time, the challenges and problems associated with this dyadic model have become apparent, and Australian universities have now moved towards a team/panel supervision model in which principal/primary supervisors work with co-supervisors to provide disciplinary advice to candidates. This chapter reports on current supervision practices in Australia, informed by a search of publicly available information about institutional policies and empirical research into co-supervision in the country. All Australian universities have some form of team supervision in place, but practices vary enormously in how this is conducted. A tool for establishing expectations about how supervisors work together is offered as a means of clarifying practices for both supervisors and Ph.D. candidates.