Course PhD-student as supervisor for undergraduate students – how and when?

The course A293 The PhD student as supervisor for undergraduate students – how and when? is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2025.

Criteria for participation: University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Requirements for participation: The course is designed for participants who undertake co-supervision of undergraduate students. It is recommended that the PhD students attending this course are co-supervising undergraduate students during the course period.

Aim: As a part of their teaching responsibilities, PhD-students sometimes act as co-supervisors for undergraduate students’ bachelor projects, written assignments, master thesis, or research year assignments. In doing so, the PhD-students play an important role as a near-peer-supervisor guiding the students in their learning. This course aims to prepare PhD-students for their role as co-supervisors on undergraduate students’ assignments and/or learning processes. The course is relevant for all PhD students who wish to improve the quality of their supervision of undergraduate students.

Learning outcomes: By the end of the course, the participants can:

• Discuss and reflect on requirements and responsibilities of the different supervisor and co-supervisor roles,
• Provide feedback to undergraduate students’ products in a way that facilitates the undergraduate students’ learning process,
• Align expectations and interests with students and co-supervisors, and
• Take measures to balance supervisor control and undergraduate student independence.

Workload: The full workload of the course (including preparation) is expected to be 48 hours.

Content: Before the first day of the course, participants read 1-2 articles and prepare a few online learning activities about their actual experiences with the supervision of undergraduate students.

Between the two course days, participants conduct an interview with a student and write a short paper about supervision. In addition, participants read 2-4 articles. The participants are expected to log on to Brightspace two weeks prior to course start to conduct the selfpaced study.

The main themes of the two course days are:

• The roles, requirements, and responsibilities of the PhD-student as a co-supervisor.
• The power of feedback – how to provide feedback that promotes learning?
• Alignment of expectations and interests in supervision.
• The art of asking questions that promote learning in the supervisory dialogue.
• Discussions and peer-feedback on the participants’ assignments.

Instructors: Iris Maria Pedersen (course organizer) and Mette Krogh Christensen, Centre for Educational Development.

Venue:  Centre for Educational Development, building 1910, room 228, Aarhus University, Aarhus

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 21 August 2025
• 03 September 2025 09:00 - 15:00
• 25 September 2025 09:00 - 15:00