I think 'Giving advice' is when you give an advice to somebody who may or may not follow that advice.

However supervision goes beyond that in that you make sure that the advice given is followed and any breach would have consequences. Supervision is much more because it provides opportunities for delegation of responsibility, setting clear goals, take personal interest in progress and evaluate and recognize performance.

http://www.faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/supervision/principles_underpinning_effective_supervison.pdf

Dear Nageswara,

but then advice is imposed and there is no liberty of choice for those that received the 'imposed advice'.... Students become not more than followers in these conditions

Dear Marcel

I think advice is voluntary. When a student is given advice it would depend upon the context. If it is given to student about the curriculum or courses, is purely advisory in nature and the student may or may not follow that advice. However if that is related to the research or project work it will then become mandatory for student to follow and in such cases it becomes as you say 'imposed advice'. So in such cases we prefer to use 'Supervisor' rather than simply adviser as the nomenclature. A research adviser in reality is actually a research supervisor.

Advice - A proposal for an appropriate course of action

Supervision- The act of managing something. For example, the management by overseeing the performance or operation of a person or group.

Supervision has more authority and more responsibility than giving an advice. You give an advice and that's the end of your responsibility, you supervise , you make sure advice is carried out.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary the definition of “supervise” is “To manage and direct”, so I can see where giving advice (i.e. giving direction) fits into supervision; therefore, the difference might simply be related to when the supervisor is doing what, and the goal of the action at any given time. Based on the definition, there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between managing and giving advice in the context of supervision and any real differences might be guided by policy such as what kinds of advice a supervisor gives when an employee is being managed.

For example, if an employee’s work performance is being monitored or assessed by a supervisor and there are areas for improvement, the supervisor might give targeted advice on how to improve; in this case there is no difference between supervision and giving advice because the advice is related to the management aspect of supervision. However, if in that process of assessing or monitoring an employee’s work the supervisor gives the employee advice not connected to the job improvement or performance, then there is a difference between supervision and giving advice because the advice given does not fall under the management purview of the supervisory function.

Thank you for all your constructive remarks.

Herewith some more points for discussion in the context of education:

1) If students have to learn to think independently or have to learn to make choices among different options (e.g. Supervisor A proposes solution A versus Co-supervisor B proposes solution B versus referee C proposes solution C) can advice always be imposed? 

2) Perhaps there exist different supervision strategies taking f. i. personality profiles of students or collaborators into account giving people more or less liberty to make choices among different options. A supervision strategy might be to give the student or collaborator the liberty to make a choice. Supervisors might allow students or collaborators to make errors as a learning strategy.

Dear @Marcel, good discussion is ongoing. In your last contribution, you do speak about multiple supervisors case. The is about managing joint supervisors. Some good issues are given by following link, and also include Different styles of supervising,...,etc.

I do think that  MUST BE liberty of choice for those that received the 'imposed advice'!

http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/studyadvice/postgraduates/sta-working.aspx#styles

Hi Ljubomir,

Excellent link! Perhaps supervision strategies are not only individual-specific, but also culture dependent, e.g. differing between countries?

Yes dear @Marcel, the supervision strategies differs from country to country and they are , as You have mentioned, culture dependent!

Students may get advice from anyone even the specialists outside the university but the advice given by supervisor is different.

Guiding and advising the student on the selection and development of a research topic is only one of many responsibilities of a supervisor.

In normal circumstances, the student is supposed to give serious consideration to the advice, criticism and feedback offered by the supervisor.

Most universities have guidelines/handbooks on graduate supervision. Dear Ljubomir attached a good one. Here are two others from Queen's and UBC!

https://www.grad.ubc.ca/faculty-staff/information-supervisors/supervisor-responsibilities

http://clswww.wp.queensu.ca/grad/graduatesupervision/130360GraduateSupervisionHandbook.pdf

To stimulate more discussion:

The key of successful supervision is 'scientific competence'

Examples in a research framework:

'Advice' can be very focused and provided by an expert A, for instance limited to a well-defined topic A. If students cover topic A, advice from expert A obviously becomes supervision when faculty members other than the expert are less competent in topic A, or not? Are researchers that focus on specific research topics, called specialists, better positioned for supervision of well defined topics than professors covering a much wider range of topics, called generalists (e.g. pointing out recent relevant publications, indicating when publications are wrongly cited, indicating biased literature searches, indicating what is novel or not, indicating competent referees for additional discussions, favouring integration in a scientific community, etc.)?

If competence is a deterministic factors in adequate supervision, referees of manuscripts from Master or PhD students should be considered as supervisors, or not?

Example:

Referees do not only have an impact on which manuscripts will be listed in a PhD thesis, but also will have an impact on how the study has been conducted or how the data were reanalyzed, or how the manuscripts are structured.

Dear @Marcel, are You talking about Supervisor (1) and Co-supervisors (>1) ? 

Dear Ljubomir,

To stimulate more discussion:

In daily life, each person gets advice from 'many' people influencing individual life-histories. This is also the case for students. I personally think that a Master or PhD thesis is supervised visibly or invisibly by more than 2 people. To me, indicating supervisors on the front page of a thesis report is old-fashioned and does not (always) reflect reality.

Dear @Marcel , quote :"indicating supervisors on the front page of a thesis report is old-fashioned and does not (always) reflect reality." is very true and I do very much agree. 

In my country, there is no obligation for mentioning of supervisor on the front page!

Dear Ljubomir,

Great opinion!

Supervision includes many factors, such as giving advice, follow-up, managing, and directing.

Dear Mahfuz,

This can be the case for referees judging and rejudging manuscripts from PhD students (giving advice, follow-up, managing, directing). And with referees there can be imposed advice; e.g. if the advice is not included in the manuscript it will not be published. Imposed advice on manuscripts therefore will leave (significant) traces in the PhD manuscript.

supervision is mentoring the vision of some one or couching some one completely to a certain direction

Giving advice is a informal form of supervision , where intentions may or may not complete towards mentoring      

Dear Marcel,

I am not so sure that advises given by referees can be regarded as supervision.

We sent a good article 6 years ago to a national journal and after about 8 or 9 months. We received a rejection decision.The reasoning was described in 4 words only: it is not a novel idea

If we search the literature, we will find at least 7 articles in high IF journals  with the same quality as our rejected article . Should we call this supervision?.

Dear Behrouz,

You have as for referees 'stronger' and 'weaker' supervisors. In your case, I would have asked the referee why he/she was thinking the idea was not novel. Arguments to support the statement. 

Cultural differences can certainly be a factor. In general, I see supervision as a formal relationship. Each person has expectations of what both people will do. It is an extension of the therapeutic relationship. On the other hand, I might give advice to some of my former doctoral students (who are now colleagues), or ask them for advice. Quite a few still take what I say in the same way they did when I was supervising them. As one person told me, "you will always be my mentor." While we want our students to become more and more independent, we all need a mentor; what they tell us is much more than advice.

Yes, there is an academic and clinical difference, but when we find "our mentor" what they tell us can go between advice and supervision at any given time. That is one way I know I have been effective.

Advice can be given freely but supervision needs personal time, thorough inputs and monitoring, advice need not be followed but supervisions need to be followed mostly by the followers. 

Dear Kuldeep,

thank you very much for your opinion. What is your opinion when following aspects are considered:

1) If students have to learn to think independently or have to learn to make choices among different options (e.g. Supervisor A proposes solution A versus Co-supervisor B proposes solution B versus referee C proposes solution C) can advice always be imposed?

2) Non-imposed supervisor strategies might be to allow students or collaborators to make errors as a learning strategy.

Dear Marcel

1) If students have to learn to think independently or have to learn to make choices among different options (e.g. Supervisor A proposes solution A versus Co-supervisor B proposes solution B versus referee C proposes solution C) can advice always be imposed?..................advice should never be imposed, and to the best advice reolving to solution or some novelty / utility need to be followed.

2) Non-imposed supervisor strategies might be to allow students or collaborators to make errors as a learning strategy.....Yes, it is the responsibility of supervisors to monitor always the progress and achievements, and impose some checks and barriers to correct any error / or its multiplication............ imposing also can be made in collaborative / cooperative efforts and directions with good understanding

I mean to say that supervisors can have cordial relations with their students --- and results would be ultimate 

Thanks Dear Roland, I do also admire your answers and of other good colleagues, I am thankful to RG that I got opportunity to meet good researchers and colleagues like you and many others, now many together we of us are becoming much familiar and known like as friend.

regards

Supervision serves an educative and supportive function. It is an opportunity to raise professional issues and gain further expertise. Supervision allows an individual to learn from their own experiences in working with consumers, review and debrief approaches to recovery-oriented support practices, and ensure that service delivery is following best practice standards. The supervisor must have skills to facilitate regular and systematic supervision. Supervision can be facilitated by an individual, in a group setting or in a triad, with an additional facilitator, to suit the size and culture of the organisation. Group supervision may be a more feasible option for smaller

or rural organisations.

However as advice does not include follow up it is included in supervision.

Supervision, Mentoring & Coaching is fine chapter about.

http://mhcc.org.au/media/10589/wfdg-pathway-8-supervision-mentoring-coaching.pdf

Supervision involves a Learning process also of/for those that supervise whereas advice does not involve a Learning process of/for those that give advice?

Super'vision' includes 'vision' and therefore 'observation' and therefore also Learning?

Supervision is a observation for the areas connected with the supervisor he sees  observes , understands & with his movement in the areas he finds the working action of his connected members & subsequently he come in contact in person & on the basic of the observation he guides & helps so that the member connected with may carry out his action with the understanding & confidence.

Supervisor should add & also behavior under the friendly gesture so that his associated group may work in harmony with successive result.

This is my personal opinion 

Thus, supervision is adjusted advice according to an observation/Learning process?

Dear colleague

Supervising is a specific job function whereby you monitor and provide feedback and direction on the performance of subordinate employees. This typically comes with a management title.

Giving advice in English might seem tricky at first. There are several ways to do it and each uses a slightly sentence structure. So, how do we choose which one to use? Find out with these five simple ways to give advice in English.

Regards 

Excellent advice!

Cheers

Dear @Saed, you were speaking about five simple ways to give advice in English, but there is no link. I do bring it.

The other link was also omitted. You should attach this links for your own sake in order to avoid plagiarism. This is my very friendly advice, as I did many times in past.

http://englishlive.ef.com/blog/5-simple-ways-give-advice-english/

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/differences-between-leadership-supervising-42168.html

I think supervision is more complicated and detailed than just advice giving or consulting. It have wider responsibilities with more continuity and sharing of results and outputs.

Regards

SM Najim

Hi, Dear Marcel M. Lambrechts 

Thanks, for sharing the question, I agree with Roland Iosif Moraru

Regards,

 'supervision' vs  'giving advice':

I supervise my students for a project, I give advices to them. I check with them for their project progress. I have a responsible for their success in their projects.

Other students from other labs may also come to my office seeking advices. I give them advices as well. But, I don't supervise them for their projects, their advisors should supervise them.

By supervision, it usually involves giving advices. On the other hand, when giving advices to other people, you are not necessarily supervising them. This is what I think.

Supervision includes the word 'vision'. Why?

Supervision comes along with lots of taking care , advice giving, guiding etc. But giving advice can be based on temporary observation.

@ Marcel,

"Supervision includes the word 'vision'. Why?"

1. because it is a noun form, the verb form is '-vise'. I think that the suffix (-sion) of the noun form of 'supervise' is just coincidently make into a word 'vision'.

2. But, I guess we can make it into a pun and 'play on words'. So, word 'supervision' can sound like 'super-vision'. 'Vision' = being able to see.

It literally means "critical watching and directing". "Watching" means much more than "looking", as it entails having a critical, as well as a supporting, eye on the work process and progress. "Directing" means to not just give advise but to also guide the direction of the work in a profitable direction towards the goal of the project.

How then can 'supervision' finally result in an ability to learn/work in an independent way in future activities?

It's not as complicated as it sounds, Marcel: As a supervisor you direct and support a lot in the beginning, but after a while - as progress is made in the skills that the PhD student develops - you may direct less and less (when you start to feel comfortable), and allow more and more the student to take more control over the different parts of the research process.

Eventually, as we all know, the student is to be able to defend her/his PhD thesis in front of an opponent and a thesis committee, and also learn how to take care of referee reports on manuscripts, so before then the supervisor needs to enable the student to gain the confidence and skills that are needed to stand on her/his own feet.

It takes many, many hours of conversations, illustrations, debates, home work assignments, written and oral presentations followed by discussions, and allowing the student to test her/his abilities to deal with these upcoming challenges. Ideally the student submits one or more manuscripts for publication before the defense, and giving oral presentations at scientific conferences, thus enabling (some of) these skills to be tested well before the ultimate test - the PhD defense. 

I believe that this path tests SOME parts of the ability of the student to work independently, but not all of course. Experience of several types of collaborations, of the PhD student supervising master students, for example, are other profitable ways for the PhD student to gain experience. 

In my opinion supervision is a tight  monitoring a whole process in contrast to cooperation accompanying by advice

Great. So many interesting answers...

@ Marcel,

Origin of the word 'supervise':

"1580-90; < Medieval Latin supervīsus (past participle of supervidēre to oversee), equivalent to super- super- + vid-, stem of vidēre to see + -tus past participle suffix, with dt > s; see vision, wit."

from: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/supervise

Education is transmitting existing knowledge to others, right?

It is optional for you to take someone`s advice or not. As for supervision, it relates to the act of managing and overseeing. 

@ Marcel,

"Education is transmitting existing knowledge to others, right?"

It depends:

1. If you educate other people, then yes.

2. If you get education from other people (ex. learn a martial art from a Master), then it is transmitting knowledge from others to ourselves.

3. Sometimes, education can go both directions.

I think, "supervision" is long time term (for tow years for example), meanwhile "giving advice" is for short one.

Regards,Emad

Supervision is like an umbrella activity where you are nurturing the talent. Shaping him or her under your perfect vision. Where as Giving Advice is subjective to nature where the receiver may or may not incorporate / follow.

Supervisors typically have an authoritative position over employees who are obligated by their job status to follow directions. Good leaders can inspire people to follow their vision and direction without formal title leadership. Supervisors have title authority over their employees but their ability to get cooperation and peak performance depends on their leadership qualities. Good supervising leaders are more likely to motivate followers to give their best.

Either giving advice, it mean an opinion or recommendation offered as a guide to action, conduct, etc.: I shall act on your advice.

Dear @Ahmed, when are you going to start making proper answers and stop doing plagiarism!?

Your answer comes from the following web pages. Just, put the links in order to avoid plagiarism.

"Supervisors typically have an authoritative position over employees who are obligated by their job status to follow directions. Good leaders can inspire people to follow their vision and direction without formal title leadership. Supervisors have title authority over their employees but their ability to get cooperation and peak performance depends on their leadership qualities. Good supervising leaders are more likely to motivate followers to give their best..."

"an opinion or recommendation offered as a guide to action, conduct, etc.:

I shall act on your advice..."

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/differences-between-leadership-supervising-42168.html

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/advice

1. Supervision is an act or instance of directing, managing, or oversight. 

2. Advice is an opinion or recommendation offered as a guide to action, conduct.

What is the difference between 'supervision' and 'giving advice'?

i think following are the differences:

Paid advicers are called consultants?

At my workplace a PhD student has a main supervisor. She/he is the main guide, and in particular is responsible for guiding and assessing the research work. The main supervisor is complemented by another expert, with a responsibility to make sure that - for example - the right PhD courses are taken and examined; hence, she/he is referred to as the examiner. Then there often is an additional co-supervisor, or even more than one, particularly if industry is involved. Many years ago it was however common that all of the above was done by just one person. Experience however clearly showed that there often is a need for a more rigid system, where the student and supervisor has support, in order to be able to avoid problems before they get too difficult to handle. For reasons like this there are nowadays enforced meetings with all involved, to assess whether things are going well, or some additional support is needed.

Supervision is given advice and following up till the final goal is achieved.

At my workplace a PhD student has a main supervisor. She/he is the main guide, and in particular is responsible for guiding and assessing the research work. The main supervisor is complemented by another expert, with a responsibility to make sure that - for example - the right PhD courses are taken and examined; hence, she/he is referred to as the examiner. Then there often is an additional co-supervisor, or even more than one, particularly if industry is involved. Many years ago it was however common that all of the above was done by just one person. Experience however clearly showed that there often is a need for a more rigid system, where the student and supervisor has support, in order to be able to avoid problems before they get too difficult to handle. For reasons like this there are nowadays enforced meetings with all involved, to assess whether things are going well, or some additional support is needed.

Hello there,

Supervision is the act of making sure that the given advice is taken up in its true essence and applied in an effective manner to ensure that the same is carried out for an expected outcome.

Hope this helps

Regards