Challenging supervision and guidance situations

When supervising and providing guidance to students, you will inevitably come across situations where, for one reason or another, your interaction with a student or a group of students just does not work.  Many factors related to the supervisor, the student or the overall supervision context can contribute to challenging situations. Both supervisors and students enter the supervisory setting with their own backgrounds, life circumstances, expectations, and perceptions, which may conflict with one another. At times, difficulties arise from problems in communication or misunderstandings; at other times, there may be challenges related to interpersonal compatibility.

Challenging situations typically evoke emotions such as concern, fear, frustration and irritation. For this reason, when confronted with a challenging situation — or, at the latest, after such a situation has occurred — it is important for the supervisor to pause and reflect on the factors that made it challenging. What are your own thoughts and feelings about meeting a student or group of students as a supervisor? What happened in the challenging situation and what can you do to overcome the challenges?

Taking a moment to calm the situation down is also important because it allows you to stay focused on the issue and keep a cool head as a supervisor. Strong, spontaneous reactions from a supervisor should not be part of supervision and are likely to aggravate any situation.

Challenging situations are particularly stressful when they are prolonged. Moreover, there are no simple solutions or universal remedies. It is important that you monitor your wellbeing, talk to your colleagues and, if necessary, seek help from within the University or from an external occupational healthcare provider. The University of Helsinki also organises annual staff training sessions on how to handle challenging supervision and guidance situations. Materials from the staff training and further information are available on Flamma (login required).

Reflecting on one’s role as a supervisor is an important starting point for supervisory duties and specifically for addressing challenging situations. What is the essence of your role? Where are your boundaries? What is not included in your duties? When a situation encroaches the limits of your role as a supervisor, it is important to determine the type of discussion you can and cannot engage in as a supervisor. Should you politely interrupt and refer to the student to seek help elsewhere? Sometimes, students share personal information about their lives and need guidance that you cannot provide. For example, they may discuss incidents of discrimination or harassment, express anger and frustration and cry. 

It is a good idea to assess such situations in advance from the perspective of your boundaries and even prepare a course of action for such scenarios. It is important to respect the limits of your job description. Supervisors are not psychologists, harassment liaisons or heads of security. The  University employs other professionals for those roles. Supervisors must always treat students with respect and behave properly.

It is useful to discuss the limits of supervision work with one’s colleagues. Shared rules can make everyone’s supervision work easier. 

Teachers are in charge of managing the time reserved for supervision and setting a clear objective for the supervision process. Sometimes, if you just stop and think for moment, you can change the course of a challenging supervision situation. For example, if you realise that you and the student have different expectations regarding the supervision process, you can elaborate on the objectives or talk about them. 

If you agree on your objectives and schedule in advance, it easier to backtrack if the process starts to take a different course. Sometimes, you have to backtrack several times during one session. You can also have students take responsibility by asking them how they feel the conflict or gridlock should be resolved.

As a rule, supervisors must listen and stick to the facts instead of imposing interpretations. Very challenging supervision situations may give rise to interpretations of the situation or of the personality of the student. It is important that you keep these interpretations to yourself and focus on discussing concrete observations or your own experiences and feelings. For example, a student who does not return  their assignments may seem lazy and unmotivated. However, supervision discussions must focus on the fact that the student has not returned an assignment. It is best to work out a solution instead of looking for an explanation or assigning blame. You may also need to restrict the student’s urge to provide explanations and politely get back to the agenda.

Sometimes, supervision situations give rise to extensive concern about the student’s wellbeing. Such concerns typically arise in situations where a student acts strangely or reacts unexpectedly and seems to be unwell. If you are concerned about a student, you can approach the topic by explaining your thoughts: “I have been wondering how you are doing…”. In matters that raise concern, you can consult a study psychologist.

Students can feel mistreated, bullied or discriminated against. You should always take such claims seriously, for example by explaining that the University has a zero tolerance policy against bullying/discrimination and related matters can be discussed with one of the University’s harassment contact persons or equality advisers. The University also has a lawyer who can be consulted about legal issues related to supervision.

Students can act in a disorderly or inappropriate manner in a supervision situation. For example, they may shout, make false accusations or send inappropriate emails. In a group of students, one student may target others. The supervisor can ask the student to stop this inappropriate behaviour and, if the situation persists, request they leave. If you receive an inappropriate email, you can let the student know that you will not respond to such messages. For more information, please see the University’s instructions for responsible interaction in the University community.

Situations sometimes escalate and become critical. Students may exhibit aggressive or even threatening behaviour that gives rise to concerns about whether you can cope with their frustrations and remain safe. If this happens, it is important that the supervisor keeps calm and does not respond in an equally threatening way. If you are aware beforehand that the situation might become critical, request that another person is present. Safety officers are in charge of offering more information about and coordinating safety matters at the University. You can also ask one of the porters to be present. In an emergency, dial 112.

In challenging or demanding situations, it is important to take care of your own well-being. In such situations, it is not advisable to be left alone; rather, it is important to consult a colleague, a supervisor, and/or a study psychologist. If the situation continues to trouble you, you can contact your occupational health services.

The attached chart (PDF) presents the steps to take in an alarming situation. Follow the arrows in the chart to see where you can find support and how to guide the student.