Articulating Research Students' Relational and Social Expectations

Student attrition is a persisting challenge that scholars have identified for years. The problem affects higher education institutions worldwide, regardless of structure (full-time, part-time), levels (doctoral, master, and bachelor degrees), and resources. Although many issues contribute to the problem, the student's social isolation is among the leading causes.

Higher education is a multicultural learning environment with an increased student population with diverging relational and social needs and anticipations. In most cases, supervision of research students is individual teaching and guidance, allowing students and supervisors to decide the learning style to apply to fulfill the requirements. Therefore, students depend on supervisors in different areas of their learning, and their relationships catalyze successful cooperation. Even though some resourceful universities provide students with other learning agencies, the heavy load remains on the supervisors' shoulders.

Unfortunately, many people join higher education without the knowledge and skills to work with their supervisors. Most do not know what information to share or the social-relational aspects required to obtain appropriate support. As a result, supervisors do not comprehend their expectations and do not support them in fulfilling what they do not know. Likewise, lacking conversation about expectations may result from the weak social relationship between supervision partners (students and supervisors).

In most cases, students find more comfortable sharing their academic expectations with their supervisors over social relationships. Thus, the student's responses can benefit those with challenges communicating social relationships they expect from their supervisors. I believe the supervisors and students who review and grasp the message in this book and work toward communicating the expectations while strategizing to suit their context will fulfilling them. Nevertheless, they should create shared social relational expectations that are realistic based on the nature of the contextual culture and resource availability, without forgetting the nature of students' projects. Other determinants to consider when communicating expectations are partners' language capability, readiness to learn from each other, and willingness to cooperate.

Therefore, the first chapter of this book reminds readers of higher education learning structure and practice and how student attrition has affected the purpose of higher education. In addition, statistical information about student attrition from different countries is provided to indicate the seriousness of the problem. In the second chapter, I explain student learning goals and the support they need from their supervisors. Moreover, chapters three and four discuss supervisors' social behavior and repercussions in supervision, expecting them to adjust and communicate accordingly.

Finally, in chapter five, I discuss the kin...