How do project supervisors address the "freeloading" problem in group projects?
From your experience, what is commonly done for a supervisor to spot freeloaders in a group project and how are penalties handed down? How can I work with my supervisor now (who maybe completely unaware of the situation) to effectively put these people back to work?


As somebody who taught many courses with a similar structure to what you described: the common approach for supervisors to handle this situation is to do nothing (at least not on their own initiative). You are likely not aware of it, but you are in the middle of learning something that will presumably be more valuable to you than the hard technical skills of the project. You are learning how to handle team work that isn't going smoothly.

There is a good chance your supervisor is already aware that things are not working out in your project (your team mates have been reporting that things are "under research" for half a year while you have been delivering results - any half-decent supervisor knows what that means). He does not step in because one of the main learning outcomes of such a project is that he expects you to learn how to handle such issues.

So far, you are not handling it well. You are clearly very annoyed by the situation, but you do not mention any clear steps to resolve the issue. You cover their asses by taking over their work, and have as far as I can tell not formally escalated the problem. Instead, you are hoping that the "higher-ups" will figure it out on their own, and step in without you having to take responsibility. This is exactly how you should also not handle this situation in the real world.

And, I should add, do not hope that this situation will not come up when you work in industry. Replace "we don't have time for this because of other courses" with "we don't have time for this because of other projects", and you will have the exact same problem in the real world. Only in industry, the stakes for failing will be higher. As usual, university gives you a comparatively low-risk environment to train working on the same kinds of problems that you will also routinely face later on.

To end this with a practical remark: stop focusing so much on what they do, and what your supervisor should do. Start thinking of your environment as a context that you can't (directly) change, at least not without effort. Your task is to figure out what you can do to work in the environment you are given. This may include taking more responsibility for managing the group, or getting into a big, potentially productive fight with your team. This may also include formally escalating the problem.