Raising standards of Doctoral supervision: seminar at MSM focuses on training, reflection and shared learning

Maastricht School of Management has a prestigious Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program that is globally ranked and internationally accredited by among others AMBA, IACBE and ACSBP. The program is also offered in partnership in Lima and Germany with AACSB-accredited Universities such as Centrum Catolica GSB and RWTH Aachen University, and soon in China with AACSB-accredited Nanjing University Business School.

Maintaining and raising the standards of supervision in this doctoral program is a priority for the School. Therefore, MSM has in recent years been working on an Erasmus+ funded research project on supervision in professional doctoral education, in collaboration with top institutions in Italy, the UK, and Ireland.  Most recently, on 30-31 May 2017, MSM organized a two-day seminar on doctoral supervision for more than fifty of its DBA supervisors in Maastricht.

Through various train-the-trainer sessions and interactive activities, the seminar enabled supervisors to get to know and learn from each other. After a welcome by Dr. Pascale Hardy, director of MSM’s DBA School, and the official opening by MSM’s Dean Prof. Wim Naudé, the seminar proceeded with trainings on supervising qualitative and quantitative research as well as on best practices regarding co-publishing with candidates, which were offered by Prof. Marios Theodosiou, Associate Professor at the University of Cyprus.

The contents and organization of MSM’s renowned Research Methods and Skills course, which is an obligatory component of the school’s DBA program, was introduced by its coordinator Dr. Jakomijn van Wijk. These sessions were complemented by a presentation from senior MSM supervisor Dr. Stephanie Jones about her decade-long experience in supervising MSM’s DBA candidates from emerging markets as well as a panel session with three of MSM’s brightest DBA candidates who shared their expectations, the challenges they faced and their advice on supervision best practices.

The seminar created a vibrant intellectual community of experienced and motivated supervisors and initiated various conversations and debates that will surely be continued on the newly created online forum for MSM’s doctoral supervisor community. In short, the dynamic vibe of the seminar and the ample opportunity for reflection and exchange generated unprecedented enthusiasm among participants to supervise MSM’s global DBA candidates and great momentum for MSM’s DBA School.

Over the last years, MSM has been consistently investing in its Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) School in many ways. The Research Methods and Skills Program that precedes the DBA’s MPhil and DBA stages has been upgraded and extended. It now has five modules that take conditionally admitted candidates through the entire empirical research circle (dealing with research design, qualitative and quantitative methodologies for data generation and analysis and proposal writing). These modules can be completed on campus as well as in a blended format that combines face-to-face and online teaching modalities.

To further enhance institutional learning on DBA supervision, MSM has also been part of a prestigious Erasmus+ funded project on supervision of professional doctorates called SuperProfDoc. This project has resulted in valuable new empirical insights in best practices relating to supervision and candidate-supervisor interaction. These new insights and programmatic and processual changes have also led to an updated DBA Supervision Manual to complement the DBA’s Education and Examination Regulations.

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