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…

In recent years, the pressure to publish has increasingly been filtering down into doctoral education. Under a regime of increased performativity, publishing in peer-reviewed journals during candidature has gradually become a minimum requirement for any newly minted doctoral-holder seeking to secure an academic position. In this paper, we analyse…

As doctoral enrolments have soared in many countries around the world, considerable attention has been devoted to how an increasingly diverse candidature can succeed in thesis writing. Along with supervisory guidance during the student's research project, various publications have emerged to help students with thesis writing requirements. However,…

The first time of many significant encounters is the most intense, raising awkwardness, anxiety and hope. This article presents data from doctoral students (n = 80) who described the first time that they submitted writing to their supervisor and received feedback. The first writing/feedback exchange is an initiation into the cultures of academia.…

Stress during doctoral study is common; however, its presence is of concern to students as it has a deleterious impact on well-being and performance, and to the university which has a duty of care to students and the desire to promote a supportive research environment. This article reports on the qualitative findings from an online survey that…

Numerous academics have argued that if a field is to progress, attention needs to be paid to how future generations of researchers are being prepared. To date, data generated on research training in physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) have primarily focused on students undertaking doctoral programmes with a formal coursework component,…

This article proposes that a queer reading of failure might offer opportunities to re-think the affective-political practice of doctoral writing. It examines data from one case in Aotearoa New Zealand to illustrate how a doctoral student negotiates "failure" in relation to their writing practice and identity. While higher education…

This article attends to the affective-political dimensions of doctoral aspiration. It considers why doctoral students continue to hope for an 'academic good life' in spite of the depressed and precarious features of the academic present. The article emerges from 2013 research with ten doctoral students in the Arts and Social Sciences, at a…

Supervision is generally recognised as playing a crucial role in the quality of a research student's doctoral experience and their academic outcomes and, in common with most areas of higher education, there is an oft-stated desire to pursue excellence in this important area. Excellence in research degree supervision is, however, an elusive concept…

Chinese international students constitute the largest proportion of overseas students in several English-speaking countries such as the UK and New Zealand. Little research has been done concerning those undertaking doctoral study. This qualitative study explores how Chinese overseas doctoral students become involved in church communities and how…

This paper takes up Bakhtin's dialogic perspective to explore the becoming of one Chinese international doctoral student's voices. We investigate how a single participant (from a wider study) assimilates the most transformative but "alien" voice of critical thinking in her supervision space by participating in dialogues with key speaking…

Doctoral supervisors aim for two goals. One is a strong thesis, timely in submission. The other is the fully fledged independent researcher who is able to write about research clearly within an epistemologically accepted framework. Feedback and feedforward on writing should address both goals. However, in many institutions, supervisors are under…

Doctoral supervision is a complex set of intersecting relations, personal and familial, social and institutional. History figures there: wanted or not, ghosts from the past come back to haunt supervisor, student and thesis. This article explores a particular configuration that can occur in Aotearoa/New Zealand when Pakeha academics supervise Maori…

While the experiences of international doctoral students, especially those from Asian countries, have been well researched, fewer studies have explored the experiences of African students in Southern countries like Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This article reports on doctoral writing and student and supervisor perspectives on English…

Reflecting on a New Zealand-focused research project, this article shows that cultural knowledges can empower supervision practice. Within the New Zealand context, Maori and Pasifika cultures are priority groups: the national educational agenda aims to foster equal access to success. Western and Pasifika methodologies meet here. Underpinning our…