How Does Supervision Shape Student Thesis Outcomes? Expanding the Theory and Measurement of Supervision and Its Impact

Abstract

For many students, writing a thesis is the final and pivotal step in their university education and their success matters for students themselves, but also universities and society overall. Despite involving large numbers of students, supervision at the undergraduate level is an understudied field of research in comparison to doctoral supervision. This article aims to advance the pedagogical literature on supervision, where the vast majority of prior contributions are qualitative case studies. We investigate what kind of supervision generates the best outcomes for undergraduate students writing their theses. Using a survey on thesis supervision answered by 251 bachelor and master level students, we assess how five dimensions of supervision (support, control, content, process and format) are related to four key outcomes (thesis quality, completion on time, deep learning and scientific curiosity). Our findings show that different types of supervision promote different outcomes. For instance, supervision focused on control is associated with higher thesis quality and more scientific curiosity, whereas supervision focused on support is associated with completion on time, but also with less scientific curiosity. Taken together, the article demonstrates the importance of a holistic approach to thesis supervision, and provides both theoretical and empirical additions of value to existing research.