The decline in doctoral program completion has become one of the main challenges in doctoral education worldwide. As concern about this issue grows, the number of studies examining the topic has also increased. Many of these studies, which aim to identify the factors that contribute to high attrition rates, rely on cross-sectional data and often…

University students are known to be at heightened risk among their peers for experiencing psychological distress and mental health difficulties. To date, there have been few interventions designed to reduce stressors in the educational environment. This may be due to limited research investigating course-related correlates of students' distress.…

Studies of Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) have highlighted that the population may be at risk of developing symptoms of common mental health problems. Early intervention and preventative measures may reduce this risk, such as improving mental health literacy (MHL). However, it is unclear what the relationship is between MHL and outcomes such as…

Using longitudinal data from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California, Los Angeles, this study examined how race, gender and experiences with faculty interact and influence students' academic self-concept. Findings demonstrated a positive relationship between interactions with faculty and academic self-concept…

This study, using a time-lagged design, investigated whether or not a relationship between the dimensions of resilience and engagement, and the academic performance of first-year university students, existed. Moreover, we investigated whether or not the dimensions of resilience and engagement were different in students who dropped out of their…

Researchers interested in psychological factors affecting writers in higher-education institutions, or academic writers, are concerned with internal variables affecting writing productivity; however few empirical studies explore these factors with samples of students who are in the process of earning master's or doctoral degrees (i.e., graduate…

This article reports on a case study of one New Zealand university faculty involved in the second phase of a three-phase study investigating the experiences of talented undergraduate students. Talented undergraduate students are a largely forgotten group in research. The current study sought to investigate who the talented students were, and then…

This preliminary study examines the utility of the Community Engagement Commitment Scale and reports on factors that predict student-teachers' commitment to community engagement in their second year of study at a South African university. Independent variables included Dalbert's personal belief in a just world, an adaptation of Rusbult et al.'s…

The main goals of course evaluations are to obtain student feedback regarding courses and teaching for improvement purposes and to provide a defined and practical process to ensure that actions are taken to improve courses and teaching. Of the items on course evaluation forms, the one that receives the most attention and consequently the most…

Learning outcomes in higher education are of considerable interest to students, teaching staff, researchers, tertiary education institutions and funding authorities. To improve the quality of learning outcomes may require a better understanding of what happens in the learning process from the perspective of the learner. This study makes use of a…