The aim of this study was to analyse the study processes, supervision and mentoring relationships in postgraduate education from the point of view of students. The study comprised three research tasks. The first was to describe the nature of postgraduate studies in different disciplines and to map the situation of postgraduate students at their departments. The second task was to investigate the processes of supervision in different phases of postgraduate research. The third task was to analyse the functions of mentoring and the relationships between mentors and their students. The data of the study were collected in 1988 by a comprehensive questionnaire posted to 700 postgraduate students representing a variety of disciplines (education, social policy, history, economics, medicine, physics and engineering) at different universities in Finland. The questionnaire was returned by 326 students. The results show that different disciplinary norms and organizational structures influence research processes in postgraduate education. The nature of postgraduate studies varied greatly between the social and the natural sciences. However, the way in which research projects were supervised varied not only across disciplines but also according to the degree (licentiate/PhD) and the stage of research. The main problems the students faced in their research were connected with research methods. The process of writing up the thesis was assessed as highly demanding. Furthermore, in some cases supervision failed to support students' research projects. Analyses of mentoring relationships need to be based on a developmental perspective. The main functions of mentoring were academic, psychosocial and career-related functions. Ideally, mentor-student relationships developed from professor-student relationships into colleague-colleague relationships or even into friendships. The results imply the need for a more clearly defined conception of the postgraduate programme as research training. This would require a deeper understanding of the nature of research in different disciplines, a clarification of supervisory responsibilities, and a redefinition of the intellectual and developmental tasks of mentoring in postgraduate education.