As an emerging study destination for international students, Malaysia contributes to the changes in student mobilities from the traditional South-North to the South-South direction. However, research on doctoral students' expectancy and values for their international education in Malaysia, as well as the factors that have changed the international…

This study aims to better understand the learning experiences of doctoral examiners in relation to their assessment practices in the PhD viva, which directly impacts the PhD candidates' success in doctoral assessment. A narrative approach was employed to uncover the narratives of learning to examine in the PhD viva from twelve doctoral examiners…

Despite an emerging mobility of Chinese doctoral students to Malaysia, little is known about how this cohort perceives their study sojourn, especially in relation to a salient yet under-researched discourse widely circulating in the Chinese media that calls into question doctorates obtained from Southeast Asian universities. Utilizing a…

International student mobility has traditionally witnessed a global South-North pattern. In recent years, a shift has occurred as the appeal of alternative geographies waxes, with Malaysia being an exemplar of inbound student mobility destination. To facilitate a deep probe of the under-researched global South-South student mobility, this study…

The paper, through the lens of positioning and agency theories, examines the experiences of being stranded in the home country due to the restricted mobility caused by the COVID-19 pandemic of 10 international doctoral students of different nationalities (Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Indian), majoring in different disciplines (Education,…

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate doctoral examiners' narratives on their expectations of the candidate's oral performance in the PhD viva. Both the PhD examiners and handbooks that offer advice on the PhD viva preparation appear to share the same expectation of the candidate's oral performance in the viva. That is, candidates must answer…

Despite the importance of the PhD viva in assessing the quality of doctoral research, how examiners approach the PhD viva remains underexplored in the Global South. This study fills this gap by investigating the conceptions of doctoral examiners in Malaysia, shedding light on how they approach the PhD viva and what they believe its key purposes…

Articulating one's positionality as a researcher is crucial to social research. This is particularly important in comparative and international education research where context, culture and notions of power underpin much of the work. However, researcher positionality has multiple meanings, making it challenging for emerging researchers to navigate…

While researchers explored arising expectations and the mismatches in perceptions of doctoral students and supervisors, less attention has been placed on the causes of such mismatches. This study contributes to a broader understanding of the current issues hindering the alignment of mutual expectations in postgraduate supervision within a…

Research on academic writer development has focused exclusively on the writing output and other sources of doctoral student professional development. Nevertheless, variations in understanding ongoing development remain unclear given that academic writers involve first-year doctoral students. Hence, the study investigated the ways of understanding…

The doctoral defence is the oral examination of the doctoral thesis. While it is a major milestone for doctoral candidates, this event is often shrouded in mystery. In this article, I explore the doctoral defence from an international perspective. I have studied the format of the defence based on written testimonies as well as the literature on…

The purpose of doctoral education is not only to produce a thesis but also to develop graduates who are highly competent in research, publications and the norms and values of being a researcher. Only a handful of studies have examined early-career academics' perceptions of doing research at the doctoral level. This exploratory qualitative study…

Purpose: This study investigates the antecedents of student loyalty towards universities. This study offers new insights into postgraduate loyalty in the context of the Malaysian higher education industry. Design/methodology/approach: Partial least squares structural equation modelling is used to analyse data obtained from a survey of 231…

Discourse regarding modern doctoral studies criticises the traditional notion of doctoral education as being too narrow to facilitate knowledge creation and transfer towards the knowledge economy. This study considered the pedagogical links to supervisory practices to enable transformative learning experiences. The study, grounded in the…

The alignment of student-supervisor expectations in doctoral research builds a foundation for strong supervisory relationships. While some expectations around research practice and outputs are clearly stated and regulated, the expectations concerning personal aspects of supervisory relationships are seldom voiced. To address this gap, this article…