Rate My Professor Vijay Mallan

Vijay Mallan is an Associate Professor in the Higher Education Development Centre (HEDC) at the University of Otago, where he holds the title of Honorary Professor of Doctoral Education. He earned his PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Otago in 2005, with a thesis entitled 'The Influence of Contextual Factors on Revision Strategies in the ESL Writing Classroom'. Throughout his career at Otago, Mallan has focused on enhancing doctoral supervision practices, providing professional development across all three campuses. His expertise encompasses doctoral supervision, doctoral examination, feedback mechanisms, and academic writing within tertiary education.

Mallan led the Otago Doctoral Supervision Programme (ODSP) for four years, collaborating with the Graduate Research School, researchers, and specialists to deliver over 55 research-informed workshops. These addressed relational, pedagogical, and inclusive supervision, incorporating Māori and Pacific perspectives, wellbeing, sustainability, and mediation. He developed the Feedback Expectation Tool and a co-supervision framework, now integral to Otago's practices, and transformed the Enhancing Doctoral Supervision Practices into a mandatory two-day workshop for new supervisors in 2022. The programme has engaged 1,385 participants, with 95% rating sessions highly relevant. Internationally, Mallan has built supervisor capacities at 32 universities in 14 countries, including Australia, Estonia, Slovenia, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, India, Sweden, and Norway. As a founding member of the International Doctoral Education and Research Network, he promotes global dialogue on doctoral pedagogy. His contributions earned him the distinction of being the first non-UK recipient of UK Council of Graduate Education (UKCGE) Recognised Research Supervisor status in 2020 and the Australian Council of Graduate Research (ACGR) 2025 Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Programs and Support. He mentored seven Otago colleagues to UKCGE status in 2024. Key publications include his PhD thesis (2005), 'Excellence in doctoral supervision: an examination of authoritative sources across four countries' (2016), and 'Investigating the role of convenors in the PhD viva' (2021).