As they retire from their positions as Pro-Vice-Chancellors at the University, Professors George Benwell and Keith Hunter took the time to reflect on their long history of both being a postgraduate and supervising postgraduate students.
Professor George Benwell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Otago Business School
Hello, it's me
I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet
To go over everything
With apologies to Adele, these words (before she sings off into the grief), remind me so much of the life-long relationships I have built as a graduate student and as a supervisor of graduate students. These relationships endure to this day. Some come and go, some are strong and vibrant, some are silent and passive, but all are alive. I feel I could ring and say , Hello, …., and I do sometime!. I can say of the fifty to one hundred or so people involved with me directly in the bilateral activities of research and research supervision, we have all remained colleagues over the nearly 40 years I have been engaged in academia. I could parachute out of a plane onto just about any big city in the world and a graduate might well be there to welcome me. Conversely, I still randomly welcome them into my life and academic home.
Research and supervision create life-long friends. I am forever grateful for the opportunities we jointly created for each other.
George
Professor Keith Hunter, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Division of Science
It is now over 40 years since I was a postgraduate student. However, I still remember vividly those experiences, and the overseas travel some of it entailed. And I still remain in contact with several of the people I encountered during that time. This is reinforced by the over 100 postgraduate students I have supervised myself in my career. Each of them was different in many ways, and most went on from their studies to exciting careers all around the world. One of them has even become my equivalent at another university, the National University of Samoa. I can definitely recommend to you the value of pursuing postgraduate studies, not only for the enhancement to your career, but many other life-changing benefits.
Keith