Built around one stubborn principle

Why SuperDiss exists

Most students do not struggle with their dissertation because they are not clever enough. They struggle because supervision is scarce, feedback arrives weeks late, and nobody ever shows them how the pieces fit together — how a curiosity becomes a question, how a question constrains a method, how a method limits what you are allowed to claim.

SuperDiss was built to make that supervisory conversation available whenever a student needs it: at 11pm the night before a meeting, or in the fortnight where the whole thing feels impossible. It asks the questions a good supervisor asks, explains the confusing parts, and pushes back when an argument is thin.

What it deliberately will not do

It will not write your literature review, invent your findings, or produce references you have not read. Those shortcuts do not just risk academic misconduct — they leave you standing in a viva defending work you do not understand. The whole product is designed around the fact that you are the one who has to defend it.

The platform grew out of a specific observation: students were struggling not because they lacked ability, but because there was nothing structured happening between supervision meetings. The questioning that unlocks a dissertation was only available in a half-hour slot every few weeks.

About the author: Chris McGarrigle

SuperDiss was founded by Chris McGarrigle, who built it after watching capable students lose months to problems that fifteen minutes of the right questioning would have solved. The teaching approach behind the platform — write it down, write it out, write it up — comes directly from supervising students through that process.

• Teaching: teaches and supervises undergraduate and master's dissertation students in UK higher education.
• Supervision: has guided students through every stage of the dissertation, from first idea and research question to methodology, analysis and viva.
• Writing: writes and reviews every guide in the SuperDiss learning centre.
• Purpose: to make structured supervisory questioning available to students continuously, not only in scheduled meetings.

SuperDiss is an independent platform. It is not endorsed by, affiliated with, or operated on behalf of any university or professional body, and nothing on this site should be read as the position of any employer.

Get in touch at hello@superdiss.com.