Sir

When I was an MSc student in Canada, I was the president of 100 graduate students, and frequently heard about or counselled those who had suffered verbal abuse, threatening remarks, and many other abuses at the hands of their supervisors. The problem is a Pandora's box.

After hearing so many complaints, I devised a form on which graduate students could evaluate their supervisors. But it was overwhelmingly turned down by the committee of my fellow students, who were afraid that negative remarks would harm their relationships with their supervisors and subsequent letters of reference. At that point, I became known among my fellow students as the guy who wanted to expose departmental practices.

I then moved to a prominent university in England to study for a PhD. I soon learned that things can be even worse. There is rarely any undergraduate evaluation here, and the role of graduate supervisors (of which there is almost always only one) is usually minimal. The supervisor gives you a project and expects results — plain and simple. Fortunately, my supervisor cares about my development as a scientist, but he is a rare example.

I believe that further cases like that of Altom can be avoided if prospective students know the track record of the proposed supervisor and the potential for abuse. I urge the formation of an international, independent directory of graduate evaluations of supervisors.