The College of Public Health and Informatics in Umm Al-Qura University held a seminar under the banner of "Effective Supervision of Student Dissertation" on Monday 14/6/1438 Hijri which corresponds to 13/3/2017 as part of the College's efforts to improve the capabilities of faculty members in the area of supervision of student dissertation. It was given by Professor of Epidemiology Hamed Adetunji.

The lecture was attended by the Dean of the College of Public Health and Informatics, Dr. Waheeb bin Dukhaillah Alharbi, the College's undersecretary, Dr. Hamed Gholam, supervisors of the departments, and many of the faculty members at the college.

 In the beginning, Professor Adetunji reviewed the story of the emergence of the idea of dissertation, which appeared in the 15th century and explained the definition of dissertation and its importance in terms of guiding the university student to achieve the objectives of the research through follow-up and transfer of experience. He also delivered a presentation on the importance of reference review and the identification of research area, objectives, methods and tools to help the student write his thesis in line with the rules prescribed by the institution he studies at. Professor Adetunji made clear that dissertation is not an easy job and requires a lot of patience and endurance in order to achieve the target in time.

The lecturer also displayed examples of students' comments and opinions concerning their expectations about dissertation, and many of them focused on the necessity to deal with them as genuine partners in the research process, rather than considering them as subordinate participators, in order to build their confidence and improve their capabilities. He also displayed examples of their opinions about their interests in scientific research, which were topped by field work and data gathering, and in the bottom came the writing of the research report or the thesis and abiding by the timeframe for carrying out tasks and submitting the thesis.

Professor Adetunji pointed out to the types of supervisors' roles and their importance to the success of the processes of research and thesis writing. He mentioned some of these times, like the "invisible advisor, the perfectionist, the lenient, the tough one, the shallow, the underachiever and the bossy."

The lecturer also gave examples of the requirements needed for the success of the research process and dissertation, like offering training to students on scientific research, guiding them on information sources and helping them find the proper place for activities and coordination.

Professor Adetunji emphasized the necessity of documenting the dissertation process in terms of the timeline of task execution, distribution of tasks and assignments and correspondence in order to make sure that all members of the research team are doing their part of the job.

Finally, the lecturer and attendees held a constructive discussion on some aspects of the issue, including the importance of giving this important lecture in an earlier time to benefit from it in planning for dissertation, and the necessity to demonstrate patience and tolerance by both the supervisor and students until the research objective are achieved. They also underscored the importance of students' independence, especially in the postgraduate studies, so that the research process can be an opportunities for them to be trained on how to conduct scientific research, rather than only to reach scientific results or for just publishing purposes. The attendees also asserted that supervisors should demonstrate efficiency, integrity and patience while performing dissertation-related tasks. In addition, they pointed out to obstacles facing supervisors as they seek to assess the performance of student groups working on one research and the possibility of using an assessment tool so that students can evaluate their counterparts on a regular basis.