An institution’s support of higher degree research (HDR) candidates engages the supervisor/s and the candidate in a professional learning and teaching relationship, described as the pedagogy of supervision (Grant, 2005; Nulty, Kiley, & Meyer, 2009). Universities develop programs to support academic and research staff to supervise postgraduate candidates while also facilitating the learning of novice researchers and HDR candidates (Carton & Kelly, 2014; Carton, O’Farrell, & Kelly, 2013; Luca et al., 2013). In this mixed methods research project questionnaires and interviews were used to determine what is valued by current and past HDR candidates of Avondale and which areas of our HDR programs need further development. This is the first of two papers that report the findings of this project.