Overview
The School of Graduate Studies (SGS) is committed to maintaining and enhancing graduate education at the University of Toronto and supporting our faculty plays a vital role in achieving this goal. Graduate supervisors can attend workshops and courses through the Centre for Graduate Mentorship and Supervision (CGMS), Centre for Graduate Professional Development (CGPD) and Graduate Centre for Academic Communication (GCAC).
Fall 2025 professional development opportunities
Facilitated by Prof John Peever, Professor, Cell & Systems Biology, and Vice-Dean, Students, School of Graduate Studies, Prof Elizabeth Page-Gould, Professor & Graduate Chair, Department of Psychology, Prof Keir Moulton, Associate Professor & Graduate Chair, Department of Linguistics, Dr Michal Kasprzak, Assistant Director, Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation/Teaching Assistants’ Training Program, and Aziza Kajan, Director, Centre for Graduate Mentorship and Supervision.
This workshop is designed for pre-tenure faculty members and others who are new to a supervisory role at the University of Toronto. In this interactive session, you will learn:
- Key milestones and policies you need to know as a graduate supervisor
- Best practices in selecting and recruiting students, and matching research interests
- How to co-create student-centered academic plans and professional experiences
- How to document student progress and tips on providing effective feedback
- How U of T can support your development and success as a supervisor
This workshop will offer practical advice, grounded in discussion of realistic case studies of supervisory practice at the University of Toronto, and includes perspectives from peer faculty recognized for their outstanding graduate supervision.
This workshop will be offered virtually on October 8, 2025 from 1–3 p.m. ET.
Facilitated by Dr. Pearl Levey, Accommodations Specialist for Practicums/Placements/Laboratories, Accessibility Services, Sezgi Ozel, Team Lead, Graduate and Professional Programs, Accessibility Services, Aziza Kajan, Director, Centre for Graduate Mentorship and Supervision, and Lauren Pais, Case-Coordinator, Centre for Graduate Mentorship and Supervision.
This workshop is designed to support graduate supervisors and graduate unit administrative faculty to understand the responsibilities for accessibility, accommodations and supporting students with disabilities in graduate research programs. In this session, you will gain insight into the accommodation process from start to finish including:
- The impact of our own biases and misunderstandings around disabilities and accommodations
- The philosophy of accommodating in graduate school
- The legal expectations, and roles, for accommodating
- What accommodations can look like in the context of graduate supervision
- Strategies for supportive communication regarding disability within the supervisory relationship
This workshop will be facilitated by experts from the University of Toronto Accessibility Services Office who will offer practical advice and answer your questions on best practices in accommodation.
This workshop will be offered virtually on October 15, 2025 from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. ET.
Register for Accessibility, Accommodations, and Graduate Supervision
Thesis writing feedback is one of the most significant points of contact between a doctoral student and their supervisor. Doctoral writers rely on various types of feedback throughout the writing process to produce high quality scholarly work. Supervisors, however, often find the feedback cycle to be laborious, inefficient, and frustrating. In this workshop, we will discuss how to build strong feedback practices, focusing on three key aspects of supervisory writing feedback: What is said; How it is said; and When it is said. Drawing on evidence-based insights from the scholarly literature as well as practical experience working with doctoral writers, this workshop will provide supervisors a foundation for feedback processes that are more manageable and effective.
Part of the Healthy Research Teams & Labs initiative, this workshop is intended for faculty who have graduate student supervision responsibilities, including status-only faculty.
This workshop will be offered virtually on October 23, 2025 from 12–1:30 p.m.
Register for How to Give More Effective Writing Feedback to Graduate Students
Facilitators:
Dr Rachael Cayley, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Graduate Centre for Academic Communication and Director of the Centre for Graduate Professional Development in the School of Graduate Studies.
Dr Fiona Coll, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for Transdisciplinary Engineering Education & Practice in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and Graduate Centre for Academic Communication in the School of Graduate Studies.
Dr Daniel Aureliano Newman, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of English and Director of Graduate Writing Support, Faculty of Arts & Science.
Facilitated by Aziza Kajan, Director, Centre for Graduate Mentorship and Supervision.
Managing boundaries and expectations is integral to a successful graduate supervisory relationship. Knowing how, and when, to communicate what we expect from someone can help mitigate future misunderstandings. Establishing professional, academic, and personal boundaries and expectations helps the supervisory relationship feel more predictable, trustworthy, and consistent.
This workshop will be comprised of case studies and reflective group discussions. We will also spend time highlighting interpersonal approaches and practical skills to help you establish boundaries and expectations within the supervisory relationship.
This workshop will be offered virtually on November 5, 2025 from 12–1:30 p.m. ET.
Register for Communicating Boundaries and Expectations in the Supervisory Relationship
Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are recommended to support trainee professional development and career planning; in some cases, they are even required by funders. As a graduate supervisor, how can you make sure an IDP is actually a useful exercise for you and your trainees?
This workshop will cover four key topics:
What is an IDP and why it is recommended?
How an IDP can support your students’ goal setting, research productivity, and career planning
How you can support to your students by talking about their IDP
How to address common issues in your students’ IDP
Part of the Healthy Research Teams & Labs initiative, this workshop is intended for faculty who have graduate student supervision responsibilities, including status-only faculty.
This workshop will be offered virtually on November 21, 2025 from 12-1 p.m. ET.
Register for How to Help Your Students Get the Most Out of Their IDP
Facilitated by Aziza Kajan, Director, Centre for Graduate Mentorship and Supervision.
Communication is an important element to developing a successful supervisory relationship, and faculty supervisors often express difficulty in understanding what is required to communicate effectively with their graduate students. The Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) offers an evidence-based curricula to address various aspects of supervision and researcher training, ranging from technical and academically oriented skill development to interpersonal capacity building.
The CGMS will be facilitating the “Maintaining Effective Communication” curriculum as part of our fall programming. In this workshop, faculty participants can expect to learn how to do the following:
“1. Provide constructive feedback
2. Communicate effectively across diverse dimensions including varied backgrounds, disciplines, generations, ethnicities, positions of power, etc.
3. Identify different communication styles
4. Engage in active listening
5. Use multiple strategies for improving communication (in person, at a distance, across multiple mentors, and within proper personal boundaries)”
This workshop is appropriate for faculty at any stage in their supervision but may be most helpful for early career faculty. We encourage participants to come prepared to engage in activities including self-reflection and group discussion. If you would like to read more about the CIMER project and the materials that will be used, you can read more here: https://cimerproject.org/
This workshop will be offered virtually on November 25, 2025 from 12–2 p.m. ET.
Additionally, live and on-demand workshops are open to all members of the U of T community through the Graduate Centre for Academic Communication (GCAC). Registration is required.