A doctoral advisor (also dissertation director, dissertation advisor; or doctoral supervisor) is a member of a

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

faculty whose role is to guide

graduate student Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

s who are candidates for a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

, helping them select coursework, as well as shaping, refining and directing the students' choice of sub-

discipline Discipline refers to rule following behavior, to regulate, order, control and authority. It may also refer to punishment. Discipline is used to create habits, routines, and automatic mechanisms such as blind obedience. It may be inflicted on ot ...

in which they will be examined or on which they will write a dissertation. Students generally choose advisors based on their areas of interest within their discipline, their desire to work closely with particular graduate faculty, and the willingness and availability of those faculty to work with them. In some countries, the student's advisor serves as the chair of the dissertation committee or the examination committee. In some cases, though, the person who serves those roles may be different from the faculty member who has most closely advised the student. For instance, in the Dutch academic system, only full professors (''hoogleraren'') and associate professors (since 2017) may chair doctoral examinations, so students who have been advised by lower-ranked faculty members will have a full or associate professor as their official advisor (or ''promotor'') and their actual advisor as ''co-promotor''.VSNY Guidelines
(.pdf file). Retrieved 13 December 2019. In other countries, such as Spain, the doctoral advisor has the role of a mentor, but is not allowed to form part of the examination committee. This is a body of five experts independently selected by the rectorate among ten candidates proposed by the university's department. An

academic genealogy An academic, or scientific genealogy organizes a family tree of scientists and scholars according to mentoring relationships, often in the form of dissertation supervision relationships, and not according to genetic relationships as in conventio ...

may be traced based on student's doctoral advisors, going up and down the lines of academic "descent" in a manner analogous to a traditional

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

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Supervision of PhD students
(with some focus on disagreements)
Cambridge example
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doctoral Advisor Academic terminology Academia