Exploring Graduate Supervisory Excellence on a Global Campus

35 per cent of UBC Vancouver’s graduate student population is international and diversity within that group and among other graduate students, faculty and staff continues to grow. This growth poses many benefits as well as complex challenges to the graduate supervisory relationship, for both students and supervisors.

Please join us at this half-day symposium to explore the role of intercultural difference on an increasingly global and diverse campus and help us to frame further questions around which we can work together to effectively navigate conflict, power differentials, research goals and resource issues that can arise in the graduate supervisory relationship.

Keynote speaker: Dr. Nanda Dimitrov, Western University

Building Effective Graduate Student Supervisor Relationships Across Cultures

Dr. Nanda Dimitrov is the Director of the Teaching Support Centre at Western University, and adjunct research scholar in the Centre for Research on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Graduate students and faculty collaborate across cultures on international and interdisciplinary research teams, at the intersection of multiple cultural and disciplinary backgrounds and identities. Students and faculty in these teams may hold vastly different assumptions about the nature of the supervisor/mentee role, have differing expectations for level of initiative or independence; and use different approaches to resolving conflicts and giving feedback.

Using case studies and recent research on cross-cultural supervision, you will work together with others to identify strategies for responding to challenging supervision scenarios; navigating cultural differences in communication and feedback styles and explore strategies for creating a culture of mentorship that allows both students and faculty to succeed in a global academic and professional environment.

Detailed Agenda

11:30am Opening Remarks: Provost Andrew Szeri
11:30am Lunch
12:30pm Keynote & Case Study Workshop: Dr. Nanda Dimitrov
2:30pm Break
2:45pm Guided Small Group Conversations: Dr. Aftab Erfan
4:00pm Opportunities and Next Steps
4:15pm Closing Remarks: Dean Susan Porter

Register Now

This event is part of an Ombuds Office project to enhance graduate supervision. The project is supported by the UBC Equity Enhancement Fund.