This paper focuses on Vietnamese PhD students' imaginative geographies of their destination countries. Using the data collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 Vietnamese PhD students, the study examines the participants' preparation for their sojourn before their departure, as well as their first multi-sensory experiences of the…

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,…

This article reports a study that investigated Vietnamese doctoral students' motivations to pursue their doctoral study outside their home country. Analyses of in-depth interviews with 19 participants revealed what made a PhD abroad imaginable to them, thus revealing the motivational factors for Vietnamese doctoral students to sojourn for their…

Many scholars from developing countries receive financial incentives to go to Western countries to study and are then expected to return to develop their home country's research capacity. Given the common assumption that diasporic study will be beneficial for local research, the repatriation of these academics is an issue worthy of exploration. In…

The purpose of this paper is to unpack the meanings and implications of mobility through the experiences of a group of Vietnamese women who decided to do doctorates in Australia. Drawing on the Deleuzian concepts of rhizome and becoming, our analysis of interview data suggests that mobility is made of multiple connections and is in constant…

This article responds to scholarly calls to engage with diaspora in the context of transnational educational mobilities in global higher education. It maintains that transnational academic mobilities produce a particular kind of academic diaspora, that is often valued by both home and host countries but in ways that vary and serve different…

PhD (non-)completion rates have been considered important criteria with which to evaluate the effectiveness of doctoral programmes and of universities' performance. To date, there has been a lack of qualitative studies on the voices and experiences of funded international students who discontinue doctoral research degrees. This paper uses…

Opting for academic sojourns has become increasingly popular for students worldwide at various levels of education. While there have been a number of research studies into the college and country choice of university students at the undergraduate level, the opinions of international doctoral students are less presented, and if presented, they are…

This study challenges the long-standing deficit discourse of international students. Applying agency theories, it explores six Vietnamese doctoral students' narratives of their candidature in an Australian research-intensive university using data drawn from semi-structured interviews. The findings confirm the high level of agency that…

This article retells the story of a researcher from the time she prepared for the data-gathering in her home country, to the time she was in the field. The story, in her own words, are reflections on how she utilised the advantages of being an insider to the studied context. The lessons illustrated by the researcher in this article may help other…

Living in transition while studying teacher education leads to multiple challenges for doctoral students as they situate themselves in the intersections with new sociocultural environments. The navigation process affects their personal and professional self-formation in constructing and reconstructing their multiple identities-making. In this…

This study focuses on investigating impact of supervisor -- PhD student relationship on PhD students' satisfaction with their supervisors' supervisory styles and their skill development. A survey was conducted among 430 respondents who both finished or were doing their doctoral study at universities in Northern, Central and Southern cities in…

This paper features the emotional experiences of a Vietnamese doctoral student mother in New Zealand named Hoa who was stranded when COVID-19 hit the globe. As a temporary migrant and a mother who was separated from her children, she experienced displacement, nostalgia, mother guilt, and a diasporic feeling. When she managed to return to Vietnam,…

Since the early 21st century the number of doctoral students leaving their own country to study abroad has risen significantly adding to swelling numbers of domestic students. The process of doctoral studies has been acknowledged as identity transformation, a process of "becoming" for domestic students and international students. What…

Writing for publication in English-medium refereed academic journals can be a challenging task for doctoral students who use English as an Additional Language (EAL). Limited research, however, has been conducted in the Australian context to explore this practice among EAL doctoral students. Adopting a qualitative research approach with…