Factors affecting the selection of supervisors and its consequences for postgraduate students

Selecting supervisor is considered as the most important decision for higher education students (in particular postgraduate students). This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting the selection of supervisors and its consequences for postgraduate students. The method of research was of the descriptive-survey type. The population of research included all male and female PhD students in the academic years 91-92 and 92-93 in Humanities, Science, Technical and Engineering disciplines of state universities of Tehran who had defended their Master thesis within the last two years (N=3092). Using Cochran sampling formula, 342 individuals were selected. A researcher questionnaire was used to collect data. The validity of the questionnaire was established by experts and its reliability was measured by Cronbach’s alpha test and to which the coefficient of 0/87.2 was obtained which shows the acceptable level of the research tool. One sample t-test was used to analyze the data. According to the results, students paid more attention to academic criterion and behavioral traits in selecting supervisors than non-academic criterion. In relation to the consequences of the selection of supervisors also students were not satisfied with the assistance of their supervisors in finding suitable jobs and selected the research motivation variable as the major outcome after selecting the right supervisor. Regarding the factors affecting the selection of supervisors, considering all factors in this selection and regarding the consequences after the selection, assisting the students in finding suitable jobs and presenting incentives and motivations to students is recommended to supervisors.