Selection Process of Supervisor for Doctoral Dissertation Using Analytical Network Process (ANP): An Iranian Study

One of the most critical activities that the PhD. Student maybe faced is selecting supervisor for her dissertation. Most often these decisions are in the form of a selection problem from a finite number of choices. The selection is based on a set of criteria, such as professors¡¯ reputation, knowledge, and matching of interests among others. However, the application of these criteria in selecting a supervisor is often done in an unplanned manner, which can become one of the reasons for regret, lack of motivation, and poor quality of research output. The need for having a supervisor who fits well with the students¡¯ preferences can hardly be overemphasized. The basic assumptions in this study, is that the criterions have relationships with each others. So the AHP method could not be a good way for evaluating the problem. The paper aims to demonstrate the use of analytical network process (ANP) in the selection of a thesis supervisor. A survey of doctoral students is conducted to obtain a list of criteria that are significant for selection of a research guide and then modeled as an ANP problem. A survey of junior and senior doctoral students in Tehran University is also conducted to ascertain the relative weights of the criteria elements to demonstrate the application of the proposed method.