Clutch-Starting Stalled Research Students

ABSTRACT: Many research students go through periods where their research seems to stall, their motivation drops, and they seem unable to make any progress. As supervisors,1 we attempt to remain alert to signs that our student’s progress has stalled. Drawing on cognitive strategies, this article explores a problem-solving model supervisors can use to identify the major causes of the student’s lack of progress and facilitate the student’s re-ignition. Each of the problem identification and solving phases is acknowledged by and situated within research on postgraduate supervision and supported by analyzing transcripts from a study on postgraduate supervision. KEY WORDS: academic procrastination; research students; supervisors; graduate study. Since the 1970s, university and governmental concerns about the de-clining rates of timely completions among research higher degree stu-dents (especially doctoral students) have generated many studies into the factors predicting successful and timely completions. In Australia, groups such as the Federal Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) have called for the improvement o