Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Knowing the expectations of supervisors may affect the quality of graduate students' theses. The aim of this study was to explore expectations of supervisors from Ph.D students in the process of performing Ph.D thesis as a qualitative content analysis design (conventional method).

Methods: This qualitative study was conducted on 25 supervisor of Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran in 2014 which were purposefully selected and interviewed. All interviews were recorded and then transcribed.

Results: The mean age of participants was 48.6 (SD=6.60) yr. old. After analyzing and coding of data supervisors had 3 expectations from PhD students. These expectations consists of the task of students in the process of performing thesis with 5 categories (including selection of subject, preparation and registration of proposal, data collection, writing and defense of thesis and acceptance process of the article), essential pre-requisites for performing thesis with 5 categories (included acceptance supervisor, academic pre-requisites, unrealistic expectations from supervisor, needed cognitive-psychological skills and considering the time) and finally communication with 2 categories (included method of communicate with supervisor and meet the expectations of department).

Conclusion: Informing PhD students regarding the expectations of their supervisors^, in the process of performing thesis may reduce unrealistic expectations and ultimately lead to an improved quality of thesis.