Purpose: This study aims to offer an original criterion of assessment for examiners of practice-based doctorates in contemporary arts practices, based upon the degree of intrigue, perceptual and conceptual, afforded by the research outputs. It is argued that intrigue is the necessary stimulus for the states of attention required for the…

This article draws on a research project about the transition from PhD student to academic (British Academy-Leverhulme research grant, 2020-2022). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 recent PhD graduates and six PhD supervisors. Transcripts were subjected to a thematic analysis. On a theoretical level, the article is informed by…

Employability is rapidly becoming a primary aim of PhD programmes. Internships have been shown to maximise students' chances of employment; however, there is limited evidence for how relevant this approach is to social science PhD students. This article reports on a mixed methods study, designed to utilise secondary and primary programme…

In the UK, all doctoral programmes are expected to include some form of periodic progression assessment, with individual institutions having autonomy to design and implement their own structures. Yet, despite the potential significance of this assessment to individual doctoral journeys, the design of progression assessment processes has previously…

This study aims to contribute to the themes expounded by Deuchar (2022; "British Educational Research Journal," 48, 504-518) concerning international students' strengths, contributions, and practices in higher education by focusing on the experiences and practices of Chinese doctoral students across four English higher education…

This paper explores the different epistemologies that define the Professional Doctorate, paying close attention to how Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) doing a Professional Doctorate reconcile academic and professional knowledge. Through a narrative exploration of the literature published since the first UK Professional Doctorates were awarded in…

The early phase of doctoral education is a critical yet under-researched period in PhD programs, when doctoral researchers must solidify their thesis projects prior to embarking on data collection. What makes this time particularly challenging is that new doctoral researchers synthesize their research thinking while they are still learning the…

This study extends the doctoral education literature by examining how social support and social identification, as they apply to peers, supervisors, and the academic community, are related to mental wellbeing and psychological distress in doctoral students by using person-centred analysis to create social profiles. Doctoral students (N = 200)…

The alternative format PhD, in which doctoral candidates produce a thesis composed of a series of peer reviewed publications, is growing in popularity internationally. However, across the HE (HE) system in the United Kingdom (UK), universities have been slower to adopt the alterative thesis format. This paper presents a systematic narrative review…

Doctoral supervision has been deemed as a site of power, knowledge production, and an effort in career progression, mediated by doctoral students and their supervisors. Extensive studies have looked at these interactions from multiple angles. Although research into doctoral supervision has been extensively documented, there lies a paucity of…

It is widely recognised that an important aspect of doctoral study is the development of a researcher identity. However, little is known about how to support this. Although previous research has highlighted the importance of discursive engagement for researcher identity development, no studies examine talk or discuss how identities are constructed…

Debate about the defining features of 'doctorateness' or what examiners look for in a PhD thesis is on-going, but hardly any attention has been paid in related literature to Postgraduate Researchers' (PGRs) perceptions of the key attributes that make a PhD thesis excellent. In this study we examine the state of play of the former to then go on to…

The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT +) individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are still understudied and, despite some improvements, are still characterised by patterns of exclusion, disadvantage, and discrimination. In this article, we explore how visibility is perceived and navigated…

This paper reflects on the delivery of Professional Doctorate programmes from a sample of educational (EdD) and sustainable built environment (DSBE) practitioners at a Welsh University in the United Kingdom (UK). The paper explores the 'learner journey' of a sample of Professional Doctorate students as they navigate their studies during COVID-19…

Purpose: This study aims to reflect on "good practices" in doctoral research supervision and transfer the author's experience to other academics. The author explains the sources of his approach to doctoral research supervision drawing on traditional practice in adult learning and some reference to phenomenology as a "meeting of…