The research supervision of PhD students (particularly in the fields of economics and business management) in Bulgaria is a process which is not taken care of sufficiently. There are serious loopholes in it that need to be overcome methodically in tertiary education. The purpose of the present article is to summarize the place and the role of the research supervisor in the doctoral level studies of economics and business management, and to outline the opportunities for the improvement of this process. The object of the article is the doctoral study, and its subject are the basic axioms, characteristics and expert assessment of the personality of the academic advisor, the criteria for his or her assignment, the objective focuses of the activity and the contemporary orientation of the academic supervision. These points are organized into two parts: (1) the inventory of the portrait of the research supervisor and (2) the necessary and feasible changes to the academic supervision in the conditions of a knowledge-based economy.
JEL: А13; А20; I20