While it would be great if all of our grad students could finish within the “regular” timeframe, it is completely normal to have some students who take longer. The pandemic has had a huge impact on many students’ personal and professional lives and I think we need to approach this with compassion while also helping these students move forward.
Students who are struggling may need to take a leave from the program to deal with other things that are happening in their life. In my experience, students rarely want to do this, even if you have a heart to heart with them and reassure them that you and their thesis will still be there when they get back, Ultimately, taking a leave (or not) is their decision so your role is to make sure it is an informed one and that they know it is an option.
Setting and maintaining appropriate boundaries with students is also very important. As a professor who is also a nurse, I am perhaps hyper aware of these boundaries and making sure that students have access to the supports they need. I am not their nurse or mental health counselor, but I do care about them and have direct conversations to make sure that they know about the academic and mental health services they have access to on campus and in the community. If they are also working (many of mine are) they often also have access to an Employee Assistance Program. As their thesis supervisor you can provide them with information about resources available to them and keep your role focused on the task at hand: finishing their thesis as soon as possible.
So how do you actually help them finish their thesis?
1. Provide them with a thesis completion roadmap.
Sometimes the steps required to finish are not entirely clear to students (or faculty!). Create a 1-pager that shows all the steps involved in completing a thesis in your faculty/department. Then you can print it out for the student and show them where they are now and what they have left to do to get to the finish line. This map can be a helpful tool for planning and for breaking up the steps left to complete
2. Help them establish a daily writing habit.
Some students love doing research but hate writing. They need to get over this aversion real fast if they want to finish their thesis and have an academic career.
Mindset is a huge part of this! Ask your student to brainstorm ways that they can reward themselves for writing and make it something that they look forward to. For me, writing is one of the only times that I get to be alone and think. As an introvert, I love that! Rewards could be things like having a good coffee during writing time, freedom from doing anything else (like answering emails, etc.), or even putting a sticker on a tracking chart, with a bigger reward after so many stickers. Of course, the biggest reward is finishing their thesis which is a huge freaking deal and graduating with their degree!
In addition to working on liking writing (or at least appreciating it as a means to an end), a daily writing habit needs to be scheduled in their calendar. Your student needs to schedule blocks of time every single day to work on writing their thesis. These need to be treated like appointments that they cannot miss! Then they need to show up and do the work.
3. Encourage them to let go of “perfection”.
This can be a doozy! Some students are reluctant to send you what they have done because they are worried it isn’t good enough yet. They want it to be absolutely “perfect” before you see it. Honest to goodness, perfection is a lie! I have yet to see a thesis submitted where the committee did not have suggestions or minor revisions for the student before they were completely done. Getting feedback is a key part of the process and the sooner you can get a draft from your student, the sooner they can get your input. Your expertise and guidance will help make sure they are on the right track.
One of the reasons I was able to finish my PhD under 4 years is that I knew my committee would have feedback no matter what I sent to them! There was no point in me spending an extra week or two on a part of my proposal or thesis to make it “perfect” when it could be in my committee’s hands instead and I could move on to working on the next chapter while I waited. This being said, I am a strong writer and did not send them unorganized garbage to fix. I’m definitely not encouraging that! If their writing skills are absolutely horrible that is another issue entirely.
4. Put the ball in their court.
While you may feel personally responsible for them finishing their thesis (on time or otherwise), ultimately, it is up to them to do the work to finish it and earn their degree. You can and should support them to do this but you cannot do it for them. Grad school isn’t for everyone and achieving this degree is a big deal!
I know the pandemic has been a tough go for a lot of us and some of our students. I hope that the strategies and ideas I shared in this post are useful to you in helping your graduate students move forward with compassion and an actionable plan to get their darn thesis done!
See you next Sunday! Emily
Emily Read, PhD, RN 