ABSTRACT In recent years, speech and language therapists have recognised the importance of clinical supervision. Rose (1991) suggested that ‘the type of supervision received as a student is very necessary, but our experience of it good or bad, may colour our views on receiving supervision post‐qualification’. Increasing student numbers and increased responsibilities and demands for time on clinicians in the field has made it even more essential that the period of clinical placement should provide a quality learning experience for the student and a postive experience for the clinician. Students involved in clinical practice often carry with them a high level of anxiety related to their expectations about the experience they are about to undergo. Clinicians, too, have expectations of students in the clinic. Knowledge of what will happen and what will be expected of one leads to a feeling of control and thus a reduce of the anxiety (Stengelhofen, 1993). A clearer understanding of what is expected and what can realistically be provided in the clinical setting will enable tutors in educational establishments to plan clinical placements and make relevant curriculum changes. Final‐year students and their potential supervising clinicians were asked to provide an anonymous unstructured description of their expectations regarding the placement. Clinicians were asked to consider what they might expect from the student in relation to the students' personal qualities, the ability to relate to others and clinical management issues. Similarly, students were asked to put down what they might expect of themselves, their clinician and their placement. These descriptions were then examined, leading to an identification of constructs and a measure of the frequency of their occurrence. Comparison of the information from students and from clinicians was made. Based on these findings, post‐experience questionnaires were designed to establish the degree to which the expectations had been met. A preliminary examination of the data suggests that students and clinicians have very different expectations. Specific learning goals were identified as a priority by many of the students, whereas clinicians placed a heavy emphasis on professional behaviour. The post‐experience questionnaires have been designed to compare the students' and clinicians' perceptions of the experience with the degree to which they feel their expectations have been met. The outcome of this research will be to provide a framework for students and clinicans to discuss their expectations of each other. This should enable them to negotiate appropriate aims and establish a clear contract for the period of placements (Hawkins&Shohet, 1989). It should also provide information to tutors in educational establishments which can be utilised in planning and development relevant to the reality of current speech and language therapy practice (Ea