The Principal Supervisor is an ACU staff member who is accredited as a supervisor (Full or Provisional) and has been appointed to lead a team of two or more supervisors in the provision of guidance and assistance to a candidate in the undertaking of the relevant degree requirements. The Principal Supervisor is the academic leader of the supervisory team and has official responsibility for the overall management of the candidate's candidature from enrolment to final thesis examination.

The Co-Supervisor is an ACU staff member who is accredited as a supervisor (Full or Provisional) and is appointed to the graduate research candidate’s supervisory team to support the Principal Supervisor in the provision of guidance and assistance to the candidate.

The Research Advisor is an ACU staff member who is accredited as a supervisor (Full or Provisional) and is appointed to a graduate research candidate who is enrolled in the Doctor of Education or Master of Education (Research) for the duration of the candidate’s coursework component. The Research Advisor is responsible for fulfilling the duties required by the particular degree of enrolment.

An Associate Supervisor is a specialist in the discipline from outside ACU who can provide expertise to the supervision of the graduate research candidate. The Associate Supervisor is appointed to the candidate’s supervisory team to supplement the supervision provided by the Principal Supervisor and Co-Supervisor.

An Associate Supervisor (End-user) is a specialist from an end-user (organisation) external to ACU who can provide expertise to the supervision of a graduate research candidate and who will directly use or directly benefit from the research. An Associate Supervisor (End-user) supplements the supervision provided by the ACU Principal Supervisor and Co-Supervisor.

Principal Supervisors are encouraged to consider the value of including an Associate Supervisor (End-user) on a panel. Many of the graduate research projects carried out at ACU are conducive to, and would benefit from, end-user associate supervision.

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To be eligible for accreditation as a supervisor (Full or Provisional), an ACU staff member must:

• Have an appointment of at least 0.4 FTE; and
• Meet the ACU criteria for being classified as research active as assessed by the University’s Research Active Definition Policy; and
• Have completed the ACU HDR Supervisor Training Course, or a similar program at another higher education institution, or provide evidence of relevant professional experience; and
• Have an appropriate qualification
  • Supervisors of a Masters or Doctoral student will normally hold a PhD;
  • Supervisors of a professional doctorate will normally hold a PhD, or an equivalent research degree;
  • Holding a professional doctorate would not normally enable a staff member to be a supervisor of a PhD student, unless it was the accepted practice of the discipline.

Before submitting an accreditation request, staff should:

• review the Higher Degree Research Supervision Policy; and
• review the Research Active Definition; and
• contact their Faculty Associate Dean Research to discuss.

Requests for accreditation should be submitted via the Supervisor Accreditation Request ‘SupReq’ e-form in Orion.

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