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…

One of the aims of PhD students' socialisation is for them to accept the norms of the teaching culture and to be fully engaged with and accepted by the university teaching community. However, when PhD students enter universities, they do not necessarily accept all of the university teaching community's cultural norms, nor do they all experience…

Co-supervision of doctoral theses is on the rise worldwide, but we know little of the relational dynamics of the co-supervisory team and doctoral student. These teams often must work together for several years, during which supervisors may come and go. We interviewed 19 doctoral students about their experiences of co-supervision and found a…

Interactions between a graduate student and their supervisor are the backbone of a successful doctoral experience. Although the number of doctoral students is increasing, there are fewer full-time doctoral students. The emerging part-time student segment represents a unique trend in higher education, creating greater diversity than traditional…

The PhD is the ultimate indicator of academic excellence. The journey is familiar to most University academics and is a journey the majority have successfully completed. Yet, just as it is said history is written by the victors, so most accounts written about doing a PhD, are written by those who have succeeded, not by 'journeymen', such as 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)…

When Louis Pasteur remarked that chance favours the prepared mind, he was commenting on the important role played by serendipity in scientific discovery. That role is well known (most know of the story of Fleming's accidental discovery of penicillin) but much of the literature focuses on the STEM disciplines, on 'big' science, and concentrates on…

Well-being plays a crucial role in the completion of PhD studies. However, recent research suggests that the components of universities' environment affect PhD students' well-being differently, resulting in various outcomes. This research explores the well-being of PhD students, constructed as a series of latent profiles, and assesses their…

Motherhood is often positioned as incompatible with further education, and various cohort studies have revealed the many ways in which mothers are discouraged from and disadvantaged in higher education. Guided by role theory, we investigated the experiences of more than 1300 'PhD mums' from across the world as they simultaneously navigate the…

This article responds to the question, 'how do doctoral students experience writing within space and time?' Whilst existing studies have understood academic writing to be a social and embodied practice, few have considered the material and temporal assemblages that facilitate everyday experiences of academic writing. Working from a new materialist…

Current understandings of the expectations and educational needs of commencing PhD students are based on research focusing on the retrospective recollections of middle or late-stage candidates about the extent to which their expectations at entry were met. This article explores the prospective expectations of 199 commencing PhD students at the…

The supervisory relationship is widely understood as central to the experience, success and wellbeing of PhD students. However, complex issues and struggles are frequently reported as associated with it. Although an extensive literature recommends useful, practical changes to improve supervisory relationships, current approaches generally focus on…

Various models of writing groups for doctoral candidates are effective in developing research writing skills. While most groups focus on writing and providing feedback, less is written about groups that focus on empowering the research-writer through social interaction. This paper explores the impact of an ongoing fortnightly writing group as a…

Drawing loosely upon strategies associated with collaborative autoethnography we conceptualise the place of practice in the professional doctorate through four distinct moves each of which compel us towards the conclusion that research, and practice are mutually entangled. In our first move 'research informs practice'. In this space practice is a…

Social support is important for the successful completion of doctoral studies. The aim of this study was to explore how individual differences in supervisory and research community support are related to doctoral experiences (abandonment intentions, perceived engagement, interest, satisfaction, burnout and stress) and doctoral conditions (phase…