What happens to doctoral supervision when university departments have high levels of precarious academic employment?: An Australian case study

Attention to precarious employment in higher education settings been growing in the last two decades. Discussion of this form of employment in higher education has focused on impacts on the quality of teaching and student experience, particularly in undergraduate courses where the majority of casual staff are employed. However, little has been written about the impact of precarity on doctoral supervision. This article reports on a case study into supervision of doctoral studies in Australia. The study highlights the effects of precarious employment on doctoral supervision in a research-only department of a large Australian university. Working from grounded theory, in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from different levels of responsibility within the department (n = 4). Findings indicate that precarious employment presents challenges to the provision of quality supervision. The policy for team supervision mitigates the impact for students, but has career development impacts for short-term contract and postdoctoral researchers.