What do people exactly mean when they say "PhD supervisors guide their PhD students in their research"
I'm in mathematics, in the U.S.
For me, &quot;advisors guide their students&quot; means giving advice on reasonable projects, to say the least. And advice on what may work, or fail. And weekly feedback on what has happened so far.
Although I do encourage my students to think about whatever comes into their minds, &quot;good (naive) ideas&quot; is/are not the same thing as &quot;good PhD project&quot;. So we (collectively) negotiate a middle ground.
I do understand that there are some models of &quot;advisor&quot; in which the &quot;advisor&quot; does essentially nothing, apart from eventually signing... I do not understand this. And I do not believe anyone who claims that PhD students are somehow supposed to do something, unaided, which more serious people have cared enough to try to understand/resolve, but have failed.