{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "content": "---\ntitle: \"Making the most of meetings with research students\"\ndescription: \"Four standard questions I use to keep one-on-one research supervision\n  meetings focused and useful.\"\ntags:\n  - teaching\n  - research\n---\n\n<div class=\"hl-para\" markdown=\"1\">\n\n**tl;dr** here are my standard questions for one-to-one meetings with research\nstudents\n\n1. what's your research question in one sentence?\n2. can you show me the _thing_ that you're currently working on?\n3. are there any upcoming dates I should be aware of?\n4. what's your next step? What's getting in the way?\n\n</div>\n\nBeing a good research supervisor takes time, but it's really very rewarding.\nFrom PhD & MPhil students through to undergraduate research project\nstudents[^project-students], there are lots of meetings to be had. And everyone\nknows that meetings suck, or at least that _bad_ meetings suck.\n\n[^project-students]:\n    You've probably heard that CS enrolments are through the roof---it's a great\n    (if a bit hectic) time to be a CS academic (even an interdisciplinary one\n    😉). The enrolment thing isn't just a first-year problem, either---the\n    pipeline is full all the way through to the \"capstone\" research projects\n    that many students take at the end of their degree.\n\nSo, here are some thoughts in my brain for conducting effective one-on-one\nmeetings with research students. As research student numbers grow, I wanna have\na good \"template\" for each meeting, and then vary as necessary.\n\n## (Default) meeting agenda\n\n### What's your research question in one sentence?\n\nLook, I still find this hard sometimes---but it's an important skill to be able\nto clearly articulate what your research question is in any particular project.\nSince it's only once sentence, it doesn't take long, and having this weekly\npractice at articulating it (with feedback) means that when it comes time to\nwrite things up, much of the hard thinking in articulating things is already\ndone.\n\n### Can you show me the _thing_ that you're currently working on?\n\nIn every meeting, I want my student to show me a thing they're working on. It\nmight be a piece of software, it might be a piece of writing (e.g. a paper draft\nor thesis chapter), it might be a piece of hardware/music/art. _I wanna see\nsomething that you're working on_.\n\nI'm a livecoder, so I love live demos, and being able to give a short demo of\none's work-in-progress is a good skill to develop (you never know when you'll\nget an impromptu chance to show off what you're working on).\n\n[Philip Guo also emphasises how helpful it is to have a thing to talk about in a research supervisory meeting](https://pgbovine.net/advice-for-first-year-PhD-students.htm)\n(see the \"Intermission\" video in the linked blog post).\n\n### Are there any upcoming dates I should be aware of?\n\nIt's hard to remember all the admin dates for different courses/programs/paper\ndeadlines, and I can't remember all that stuff for _every_ student. Instead,\ntell me if there are any dates coming up which I/we should be aware of.\n\n### What's your next step? What's getting in the way?\n\nStudents don't get _that_ much face-to-face time with their supervisor---even\nwith an attentive one. So it's important to make sure that after each meeting\nthere's a clear next step, and in particular that if there are any \"blockers\" we\ncan discuss them there and then, and brainstorm strategies to deal with them.\n\n## This is a work-in-progress\n\nThere are\n[lots](https://hbr.org/2015/03/how-to-design-an-agenda-for-an-effective-meeting)\n[of](https://blog.asana.com/2017/12/run-effective-meetings-agenda-tips/)\n[general](https://getlighthouse.com/blog/one-on-one-meeting-questions-great-managers-ask/)\n[tips](https://www.dummies.com/careers/project-management/ten-tips-for-running-an-effective-meeting/)\non how to run an effective meeting, and while there's some useful stuff there\nI'm keen to develop a strategy which is tailored to the _supervisor_-_research\nstudent_ scenario.\n\nThe other things which the above questions don't capture is the need to build\nrapport; this includes stuff like finding out how students are coping with life\nmore generally, and pastoral care is an important part of being a supervisor as\nwell.\n\nObviously sometimes there are specific things to discuss relevant to a\nparticular student/project, and in those situations I'll tweak the agenda as\nnecessary. This \"template\" is hopefully simple and helpful, though, and I'll let\nyou know how it goes 😊 If you have any comments/suggestions, then I'd love to\nhear them; [let me know](mailto:ben.swift@anu.edu.au).\n",
  "createdAt": "2026-05-13T23:14:58.912Z",
  "description": "Four standard questions I use to keep one-on-one research supervision meetings focused and useful.",
  "path": "/blog/2019/08/06/making-the-most-of-meetings-with-research-students",
  "publishedAt": "2019-08-06T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:tevykrhi4kibtsipzci76d76/site.standard.publication/self",
  "tags": [
    "teaching",
    "research"
  ],
  "textContent": "Four standard questions I use to keep one-on-one research supervision meetings focused and useful.",
  "title": "Making the most of meetings with research students"
}