This page has grown out of my long-term work on supervisor support; my involvement with a scheme recognised by the UK's Higher Education Academy and my advisory work on supervisor support at the University of Winchester.

The page is written in general terms which need to be adapted for the circumstances of individual supervisors and for the level of any associated award.

The purpose of a portfolio

Quite generally a portfolio is taken to be something tangible which can be shown to people (including, eventually, any examiners / assessors) to demonstrate competence.

The significance of portfolio-development for research degree supervisors

Developing a portfolio on supervisory practice is not something which all supervisors will want to do. Nevertheless there are good reasons for you to consider it, even if you then decide against it. For example:

The process of developing a portfolio enhances practice, so making it more effective, efficient and enjoyable, as explained on the page about auditing and monitoring one's own practice as a research degree supervisor.
A portfolio of professional practice is a positive addition to a cv.
You may be able to use your portfolio to earn a qualification of some sort. That depends of course on whether you are attached to an institution which runs a suitable programme. I argue for such a programme, which can be participated in on an optional basis, in the page on supervisor accreditation and you may like to bring it to the attention of training personnel in your institution.

The framework described below for the development of a portfolio on supervisory practice is based on the concepts introduced on the page about auditing and monitoring one's own practice as a research degree supervisor. So please read or re-read that before reading on.

The contents of a portfolio to claim competence in research supervision

The portfolio works well if it is in several sections. I suggest those shown in Figure 1 which will mean more as you read further down the page.

Figure 1. Recommended structure for a portfolio to claim competence as a research degree supervisor

Part 1: A contents list in the form of grids (adapted for the situation and subject area of the supervisor, and annotated to show where to find each rationale for each area of activity/skill and each value)

Part 2: A list of the skills / areas of activity and values on which the portfolio claims competence (with a justification for amendments to the framework provided)

Part 3: The claims for competence

Part 4: Appendix: The itemised evidence in support of the claim.

Part 5: References.

The sections are best explained out of order, starting with Part 4.

Part 4: Examples of your work – the documentary evidence

There is a whole variety of documentation that could be used to show what you have done in your research supervision. Figure 2 gives some examples, but these are by no means comprehensive, and you may find alternatives that suit your claim better. Your creativity about what to use and why will form a major part of how others view your competence. Make sure to keep every piece of documentation associated with your supervision because it can almost certainly be used in some way. Even the most mundane email may be useable at some stage to support a claim for competence in a particular area.

The documentary evidence will necessarily include personal communications to and from your student(s) as well as documentation about them and their progress. So there are ethical implications, and you will need to get the approval of your student(s), anyone else involved and whatever committee handles ethics within your institution.

If you feel that you genuinely are competent in a particular area and that someone else could confirm it, there is nothing to stop you asking them to write a reference for you to that effect – but do use this sparingly.

Each item of the evidence needs to be collated according to a reference of some sort so that it can readily be located by anyone who reads it. One way of referencing is by date; another is by number with each item numbered as you get it; and yet another is according to a category system of your own choosing. The reference is best written at the top right-hand corner of each item, so it can be spotted easily on flipping through.

Figure 2. Some suggestions for evidence for the portfolio (not comprehensive and in no particular order)

Forms and record sheets
Email correspondence (NB ethics)
Documents confirming attendance at conferences
Documents confirming committee work
Solicited references
….
….

If institutions want to use the portfolio route to prepare academic staff for supervision, even though the staff concerned do not yet have research students of their own, the evidence could include:

Documented observations from shadowing experienced supervisors
Quotations from interviews with staff and students
Extracts from literature
...
...

Possibilities are considerable and choosing appropriate ones will involve reflection and develop enhanced professional practice.

Part 2: Refining the statement of your skills and professional

The skills of research supervision are introduced on the page about auditing and monitoring supervisory practice. However, because research is different in different disciplines and because different students have different needs, you will need to tailor the framework for your own situation. The same page also introduces a framework for the professional values that should be held by research supervisors, and that too may also need some minor amendment for your situation.

The portfolio needs a clear list of the skills and values on which you wish any assessment to be based and an explanation and justification of how and why you have made amendments from the list supplied on the page about auditing and monitoring supervisory practice.

Part 3: The claims for competence

The claim for competence in each skill / area of activity needs to be justified under its own heading, and the claim must refer to the relevant documentary evidence using the reference code referred to above in Examples of your work – the documentary evidence. The case must be made clearly and convincingly – perhaps through an explanation or a review of the context or a short case study – and should reflect a level of thinking appropriate for an academic supervising at research degree level. It is not realistic to show all the values in each area of activity/skill, but a useful guideline is that every value must be justified at least twice somewhere. As a rough indication of length, each rationale could be between a few sentences and a few paragraphs in length. Length and depth though must depend on whether the portfolio is to be submitted for an award, and if so, at what level.

Part 1: The orientation for readers – an adapted form of a contents list

The orientation at the beginning of the portfolio needs to be rather different from a regular contents list. It needs to be able to lead the reader to specific claims, show how they are related to knowledge or skills or values and where the evidence is. The best way of achieving this seems to be through two grids. Their form will be familiar to you from the page on auditing and monitoring supervisory practice but now the grids need additional annotations to show where to find what. Figures 3 and 4 show the idea. They replace a regular contents list.

Figure 4
CONTENTS
SKILL / ACTIVITY	CLAIMS for COMPETENCE	value 1	value 2	value 3	value 4	...	...	...
<skill /activity>		x		x
"					x	x
"							x
"					x
"							x
"		x
"				x
"						x

How to develop a portfolio to claim competence as a supervisor