Abstract
Postgraduate research candidature support, support of supervisory teams, and assistance with examination and assessment requirements are some of the crucial elements in a successful postgraduate student's study experience. While there is a large body of research on Doctoral supervision, less is available on Master's level supervision and support. Benchmarking studies that gauge the quality of higher education processes and practices, are gaining momentum as a research tool, and reflective mechanism for enhancing student experiences at higher education institutions. This paper reports on a small-scale study that used a holistic benchmarking framework at a research-intensive New Zealand university, in an effort to gauge the quality of the level of postgraduate Master's research student support and supervision. Twenty-three academics and 17 students completed the survey, which assessed key performance indicators (KPIs): student support; postgraduate candidature development; student supervision; and assessment and examination support. Both students and academics were happy with orientation and induction, but students felt more information was needed regarding possible changes to research. Overall academics and students had confidence in the level of academic research guidance. Although academics felt assessment policies and procedures were explicit, students were not always in agreement. Moreover, students thought that evaluative feedback on their experience should be gathered more frequently. The findings suggest that, in broad terms, the university in question is tracking well and meeting most of the benchmarking principles and their associated KPIs. However, both academics and students highlighted areas where the University can improve practices to better support the experience of Master's research students.