An Empirical Exploration on the Supervision of PhD Students Closely Collaborating with Industry

TL;DR

This paper investigates the challenges and effective practices in supervising PhD students working closely with industry, based on interviews with students and supervisors in the embedded software sector in Sweden.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into supervision issues and opportunities for improvement in industrial PhD programs through qualitative analysis.

Findings

Identification of key supervision challenges in industry-academic collaborations

Highlighting effective supervision approaches for industrial PhD students

Recommendations for improving supervision practices in industry-related PhD studies

Abstract

With an increase of PhD students working in industry, there is a need to understand what factors are influencing supervision for industrial students. This paper aims at exploring the challenges and good approaches to supervision of industrial PhD students. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews of six PhD students and supervisors with experience in PhD studies at several organizations in the embedded software industry in Sweden. The data was anonymized and it was analyzed by means of thematic analysis. The results indicate that there are many challenges and opportunities to improve the supervision of industrial PhD students.