Traditional models of PhD supervision often assume a linear, discipline-specific journey for students. However, for an increasing number of postgraduate researchers (PGRs), especially those from marginalised backgrounds, this model is not their reality. Western conventions, the hidden curriculum and the stigma of not belonging can make their experience lonely and limit their potential.
This article offers practical strategies for supervisors who seek to support diverse, interdisciplinary and non-traditional doctoral researchers. To counter the limitations of conventional models, we need to move towards a more flexible and porous understanding of doctoral research. The following approaches have been effective in my practice.
Bring your whole self to PhD supervision
As a northern, first-in-family academic with hidden disabilities and caring responsibilities, I came from “the wrong side of the tracks”, and I bring empathy from this into my supervision. I use my platform and privilege to serve the unheard and unconventional, seeking to promote allyship, standing up rather than standing by and leveraging my expertise in creativity to advance decolonising practices. By modelling openness to innovation, embracing what we don’t know and promoting inclusive working practices, we can bring change at the individual level.
Allyship and decolonising supervision
Supervision is not just academic guidance. It involves developing a holistic approach for each candidate and working with them to understand what they need to thrive. This might sound woolly, but it’s the most effective way to guide them towards meeting the expectations of doctoral-level study: generating original knowledge that advances their field, demonstrating advanced research techniques and designing impactful projects that merit publication and peer recognition.
- Collection: Decolonising the curriculum
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- ‘I’ve been a research supervisor for 35 years and I’m still learning’
My secret weapon is the flexibility in how those criteria can be met. There is no prescriptive requirement for how doctoral-level outcomes must be achieved. For example, researchers from non-traditional backgrounds may need to challenge anglophone conventions, incorporate Indigenous knowledge and employ creative methodologies to articulate lived experiences. This requires supervisors to become allies: to listen deeply, validate non-traditional approaches and help students navigate institutional systems that may not yet recognise their work.
For example, Vashti Suwa Gbolagun’s PhD thesis used Pidgin and Hausa languages to examine the impact of colonial legacies on the Jos Plateau in Nigeria.
Similarly, Keren Poliah’s research on occult practices in Mauritius required adapting Western ethical frameworks to honour her cultural values. Their co-written article reflects on the benefits of a decolonising approach.
Practical tips:
- Listen carefully and respectfully. Students know more about their own contexts and strengths than you do
- Encourage students to define their own research values – don’t impose your own
- Support alternative formats and methodologies. The form in which knowledge is conveyed can itself be an original contribution
- Advocate for institutional flexibility and recognition of diverse knowledge systems. Work with equity, diversity and inclusion leads and like-minded colleagues to create communities of practice.
Creative and interdisciplinary approaches
PhDs are becoming increasingly interdisciplinary to meet the global challenges that impactful research addresses. The supervision of such projects demands openness, curiosity and a willingness to learn alongside the student. Through the “PhD Reimagined”, I collaborated with Caty Flynn to propose a model for fully integrated interdisciplinary PhDs that challenge siloed thinking.
External examiner Nikolai Duffy described Caty’s thesis as “pushing the boundaries to create something different in spaces that don’t accept difference”.
Practical tips:
- Build supervisory teams with complementary expertise – consider a skills matrix approach. Identify interest and capacity across the institution
- It may require effort to collaborate across departmental structures, so frame it as a staff development opportunity. Show it can be done and the institution will follow
- Share examples of successful interdisciplinary projects to inspire confidence.
Supervision as activism
By embracing allyship and innovation and decolonising practice, we can reimagine the PhD as a space for possibility, not elitism.
This approach requires time, emotional labour and institutional change. But the rewards are transformational: students who feel seen and empowered to make meaningful contributions to global challenges.
Ultimately, supervision is a form of activism. If we all join in, we can reshape the academy from the inside out.
Ursula Hurley is a professor of life writing at the University of Salford and was the founding director of Salford’s Doctoral School. She was shortlisted for Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2025 #THEAwards. A full list of shortlisted candidates can be found here.
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