SCMS Strengthens Quality Research Supervision and Assessment
The School of Communication and Media Studies (SCMS), University of Education, Winneba (UEW), has organised a day’s training to promote quality supervision and assessment of research for faculty members.
The workshop, which took place in the SCMS Seminar Room at the South Campus, expanded participants' knowledge of the supervisor's role in conceptualising the research problem and designing the research inquiry; internal and external assessors' expectations for thesis assessment; and supervisor-student relationship in thesis supervision.
The Dean of SCMS, Dr. Christiana Hammond, in welcoming participants to the training, remarked that universities attain international recognition based on the quality of research staff and students publish.
The event, she said, was designed to remind supervisors of their roles and responsibilities in ensuring high-quality research supervision and evaluation. She also emphasised the importance of cross-fertilisation of ideas to motivate students to conduct useful research for national growth.
“We appreciate faculty members for seeing it worthy to be part of this worthwhile activity. Today, we want to talk about us as supervisors or assessors and so we want to look at our roles in this journey we call research. What are our responsibilities as supervisors; what are our responsibilities as internal assessors; what are our responsibilities as external assessors? That is the focus of the workshop this morning,” she stated.
The Vice-Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, UEW, Dr. Akwasi K. Amoako Gyampah, leading the discussion on the topic “conceptualizing the research problem and designing the research enquiry: the role of the supervisor”, opened the forum for participants to express their views, reflect, as well as question their own practices to identify the key things supervisors must do with their supervisees to ensure great research outputs.
Dr. Gyampah pointed out that supervisors must direct their students to relevant sources and materials as part of their role as counsellors to their students.
Presenting on the topic “thesis assessment: expectations of the internal and external assessors”, the Vice-Dean of SCMS, Mr. Kwesi Aggrey, and the Director, Office for Institutional Advancement, Dr. Mavis Amo-Mensah, highlighted the need for supervisors to acquaint themselves with the University’s Policies for Postgraduate Students (UPPS) to ensure that students’ theses meet all the necessary university requirements. They further made participants aware of the need to encourage students to review published articles instead of unpublished theses for their research.
The last presentation which explored how supervisors could improve, maintain and sustain good relationships with students was made by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of UEW, Prof. Andy Ofori-Birikorang; a Lecturer at SCMS, Dr. Michael Yao Serwornoo, and Dr. Christiana Hammond. They emphasised the need for young lecturers to go through the rudiments of supervision to aid them to show mastery when supervising theses. They further called for the initiation of new and improved ways of supervising the thesis.
