This study aims to describe and interpret the critical aspects of the development of PhD candidates' professionally relevant, practice-near research competence in the fields of health, welfare and education. To provide knowledge regarding their development, a qualitative research design and phenomenological hermeneutic approach were used. Ten PhD…

This paper responds to calls from past and present students to increase the value of postgraduate scholarships in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here we provide context for understanding the scholarship landscape in Aotearoa, including how scholarships are understood in relation to dominant neoliberal framings of higher education and persistent inequities…

More than half of PhD graduates work outside academia. Yet we know little of the nature of their post-PhD careers and the conditions influencing them. Further, research to date tends to focus on either individual factors (e.g., graduate perceptions of PhD skills used) or structural factors (e.g., organizational interest in hiring PhDs). Few…

In this Policy Note, the author uses newly extracted data from the "2019 Nature PhD Students Survey" to analyse how well-prepared PhD students feel for their future careers. From this, the author assessed to what extent any negative working cultures, including long hours and high rates of bullying and harassment, influence PhD students'…

This article presents the results of a cross-institutional survey on PhD students' supervision at Russian universities. It is aimed at answering three questions concerning (1) styles of PhD supervision and their prevalence, (2) the relation between supervision style and PhD students' satisfaction with their supervisor, and (3) the relation between…

Purpose: While known by many names, qualifying exams function as gatekeepers to graduate student advancement to PhD candidacy, yet there has been little formal study on best qualifying exam practices particularly in biomedical and related STEM PhD programs. The purpose of this study is to examine the current state of qualifying exams through an…

The purpose of this study was to examine variation in doctoral students' experiences of ethics in doctoral supervision and how these experiences are related to research engagement, burnout, satisfaction, and intending to discontinue PhD studies. Data were collected from 860 doctoral students in Finland, Estonia, and South Africa. Four distinct…

Women of color (WoC) continue to be underrepresented in engineering programs across the United States. Many scholarly reports on faculty demographic characteristics do not provide measures regarding the representation of WoC faculty due to data reporting restrictions or lack of relevant data. Using 14 years of data from the American Society for…

In the path of academic writing, authors accomplish certain interactions with their readers through the means of meta-discourse markers such as hedges and boosters. There have been many studies that dwell on the function of meta-discourse markers (Abdi, Rizi, & Tavakoli, 2010; Crismore, 1984; Hyland, 1999, 2000, 2001; Longo, 1994). However,…

A growing international literature has recently focused on the employment outcomes of Ph.D. holders, nowadays considered a strategic resource able to improve innovation and growth in contemporary knowledge economies. This article adds to previous studies by analyzing job satisfaction determinants among Ph.D. graduates in Italy. Drawing on data…

Research can be a very isolating experience for Ph.D. students. We created a forum for discussion among Ph.D. students to discuss the doctoral experience and generate ideas surrounding collaboration and dialogue using open space methodology. This paper explores isolation as an element of the social and community aspect of learning in a Ph.D.…

An analysis of 1955 physics graduate students from 19 Ph.D. programs shows that undergraduate grade point average predicts graduate grades and Ph.D. completion more effectively than GRE scores. Students' undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and GRE Physics (GRE-P) scores are small but statistically significant predictors of graduate course grades, while GRE…

The "Nature PhD Students Survey 2019" is a worldwide study on the wellbeing of PhD students and their attitudes towards academia. The Wellcome Trust's report on research culture, "What Researchers Think About the Culture They Work In" (2020), examines the attitudes of academics at all stages of their careers, including PhD…

This article presents a method to help PhD candidates in the implementation of Design-Based Research (DBR). It focuses on a process and a set of guides designed to accompany doctoral candidates in the different stages of their thesis. It also proposes a tenth principle concerning the definition of indicators used to drive the thesis. Evaluation is…

Background: Despite many initiatives to improve graduate student and faculty diversity in engineering, there has been little or no change in the percentage of people from racially minoritized backgrounds in either of these groups. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this paper is to counter the scarcity fallacy, in which institutions blame the…