What are the benefits for the supervisor from accompanying his/ her students in conferences?
If you are a good mentor, you take your students with you and have them present. This is what I do with my students. The past three years, allowed my students to travel to Australia and Spain. I ma taking two of them to Egypt later this November.
Supervisors should try to attend the first conferences of their students. This way, supervisors can get some personal, firsthand, up-to-date knowledge on the state of the art in the field and get international feedback on the research of their students. It builds up camaraderie in the research group. Students appreciate being introduced as “the colleague” of the supervisor. It is an opportunity for students to network and for the supervisor to keep a look out for potential external examiners for the theses. To encourage independent research, supervisors need not attend subsequent conferences, (partially because of constraints of funding and time) but will appreciate trip reports to the research group.
The presence of the supervisor gives them more confidence, especially during their first meetings, .... Some students feel like orphans in their first communications. They are afraid to defend themselves in case questions are asked!
If you are a good mentor, you take your students with you and have them present. This is what I do with my students. The past three years, allowed my students to travel to Australia and Spain. I ma taking two of them to Egypt later this November.
It is better for the student if his supervisor attend with him so that they discuss new ideas presented in the conference.
For a start it is good that the supervisor does so. However, with time the student should be allowed to attend alone, for the sake of maturity.
I agree with Kofi Agyekum , as part of the mentoring, is good for the start but with time students should be allowed to go alone and feel some level of independence.
Thanks
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