Supervising International Students’ Theses and Dissertations

We explore supervision of international students’ theses and dissertations relative to existing literature and Kanter’s (1977) theory of tokenism. This topic is underresearched despite the huge growth in nonnative English speaking students seeking research degrees and scholarly careers in English language business schools. We draw on our experience of supervising students and administering research degree programs, using critical reflexivity as a method to surface assumptions and stereotypes underlying supervision of international students. We find tensions that influence supervision quality, a generally overlooked outcome in management education. A model summarizes the influence of tensions on supervision quality and quality’s effect, in turn, on success of research degree offerings. The model also hypothesizes supervisors’ awareness of tensions as a moderator of the tensions–quality relationship. Prescriptions are suggested as points of reflection colleagues could use to explore their own practice of supervision. Implications for theory and management education are discussed, as well as implications for business schools wishing to globalize research-based degree programs and contribute to the ongoing creation of management knowledge.