The Power and Responsibility of Graduate Supervisors under High Quality Development

In the context of high-quality development in higher education, the balance between power and responsibility of graduate supervisors has become crucial for enhancing the quality of talent cultivation. This paper systematically analyzes the normative deviations and risks in practice from both perspectives of supervisor's authority and responsibility. The study finds that supervisors often neglect students' autonomy, authorship rights, and psychological well-being when assigning research tasks and reviewing thesis papers; while in terms of fulfilling responsibilities, issues such as unfair salary distribution and lack of academic ethics supervision exist. The root causes of this imbalance lie not only in external factors, such as the closed governance system of universities and the utilitarian social climate, but also in internal factors, including flaws in the “strict entry, lenient exit” system for selecting supervisors and weak awareness of authority and responsibility. To address these issues, the study proposes a “people-oriented” regulatory approach: universities need to reconstruct the supervisor evaluation mechanism, strengthen the assessment of implicit capabilities, and establish a dynamic supervision system involving student participation; at the same time, improve mechanisms for external information disclosure and public participation, forming an integrated governance pattern both inside and outside the university. This paper emphasizes that regulating the power and responsibility of supervisors is not only a core measure to protect students' rights but also a necessary choice to shift graduate education from efficiency-first to quality-first, providing theoretical and practical references for optimizing mentor-student relationships and achieving sustainable development in higher education institutions.