Institute activities-3 (Supervision of students)

Last two weeks at N1 have been crazy.  Our new students have recently joined and being involved in many administrative procedures related to students, I have had very little peace of mind and time to blog!  At some point in the future, I should write about this experience too, but today's entry is about something that I had not immediately anticipated on joining, namely supervision of students.
When I joined N1, I was very excited about teaching courses that I had never before taught, but had wanted to teach for a long time.  With respect to supervision of students, I did not feel that I was ready to take PhD students straightaway.  I was more inclined to start with supervising Masters theses in my first few years.

But, there were some unexpected surprises waiting for me!

On my very first day, I came to know that one member of the department, who works in a field with a little bit of an overlap with mine, was moving to another institute.  This ex-colleague had a PhD student  at N1 and although all arrangements were made for the student to move with the advisor, the student expressed his unwillingness to move.  I was asked on joining if I would be willing to supervise this student.  It seems that neither of my other department members were willing to take this responsibility. I too refused.  Firstly, I was not ready to advise a PhD student so early in my career.  Secondly, he had already started work on his dissertation topic and I have no expertise in this area.  This student, indirectly tried to bully me into supervising him by asking his PhD grandfather, a very big shot in my STEM field in India, to talk to me.  When this did not work, he even expressed a willingness to change topics, but by now, I had lost whatever little sympathy I had for him [1].  He has now moved to a local university for his PhD.  So, this problem was diffused.
There was some pressure from the administration to our department to increase its intake of PhD students.  This might be true for all N1-type institutes.  Although our flagship program is our undergraduate program, these institutes do not want to lag behind in terms of research productivity.
Towards the end of my first semester, we interviewed potential PhD students [2].  I was on the interview panel.  We ended up shortlisting 3 students based on their performance in the interview.  The research interests of the second and third candidates matched those of faculty members who wanted to take students.  The first student, however, indicated that he wants to work with me! This created a difficult situation for the department because on on the one hand, we could not offer admission to second and third students without also offering admission to the first and on the other hand, I was not ready to supervise him.  The chairperson asked me to rethink.
I thought about the whole situation carefully.  I had no doubts about the ability of the candidate: he had a good academic record, had done well in the interview and had strong letters.  He came across as a positive and sincere person.   My primary concern was if I was the right supervisor for him.  I consulted my academic mentors.  To my surprise, they all encouraged me to supervise this student and were positive that I would be able to do it!  Largely motivated by their positive feedback and also impressed with the student's ability and sincerity, I decided to step up to the challenge!
In his first semester here, he took some core courses, while I was away on a sabbatical.  His course requirements are technically over, but he is taking some more courses in the coming semester which would be useful to him.
Meanwhile, we have started meeting regularly.  I have started with giving him some simple problems, hoping to gradually build up to the main theme of investigation.
One quality that I appreciate very much in him is that if he doesn't understand something, he says it up front[3].
My personal interaction with him has been interesting and hilarious at times.  He is extremely polite and chivalrous!  Whenever he sees me carrying heavy bags or taking my bicycle down the steps, he rushes to help me.  I have told him in no uncertain terms not to do that, but to no avail[4].
Also, like most grad students, he is a late night person.  I, on the other hand, am an early morning person.  I am in the department by 8 am[5].  Last month, after I rejoined N1, I noticed that he too would be here at 8 am working diligently in his cubicle.  After some time, however, I started noticing that he would be fast asleep.  I had a frank conversation with him one day and assured him that I do not expect him to match my timings.  He can come in later if he likes, since we meet in the afternoon.
He also seems to have become popular among the undergrad students in my department.  Much to my amusement, my summer students were also taking his help in doing the assignments I gave them.
I do hope very sincerely that he will get a strong academic training at N1!


[1] It is interesting to note that while all this was going on, the student did not make any effort to talk to me directly.  Leave alone talking to me, he would look the other way if we ran into each other in the hallway! He would only convey messages to me through the chairperson.

[2] N1 admits new PhD students twice a year.
[3] I, unfortunately, did not practice this policy as a student.  I was very scared of asking questions because I did not want to look stupid.  If I was not sure about something my supervisor said, I would note it down and look at it in my office.  I now realize that this is not the best policy! When in doubt, speak out!!  I certainly don't think that he is stupid when he asks questions.

[4] My Indian readers might recall some episodes in Jaspal Bhatti's satirical TV show called "Flop Show" from the 1990s, in which PhD students would be shown to do grocery shopping for their supervisors and even clean up their houses! Given the reputation that some old universities in India have,  this might not have been an exaggeration!  I certainly do not want to turn into that kind of supervisor.

[5] Normal office life at N1 starts at 10 am.