This qualitative study explores the sources of the self-efficacy development of five Chinese doctoral students' use of English as a second language in a southeastern university in the United Sates. Although individual differences were reported, common themes were also recognized. Consistent with the self-efficacy theory and previous studies in…

English as foreign language (EFL) writers are often found to have weaker control of their academic writing, among which presenting an effective authorial stance has been reported as particularly challenging (Hyland, 1998a; Schleppegrell, 2004). In particular, student writers tended to deploy a stronger stance and be less effective with tentative…

The 2016 Application Trends Survey--the 17th since 2000--includes analysis of data submitted by 872 graduate management programs representing 335 business schools and faculties located in 49 countries worldwide, including 42 US states and the District of Columbia. Survey topics featured in the report include: application volume trends for 2016…

In the present era, education has emerged as a countrywide mission in developed and developing countries. Countries are utilizing their energies to deal with the transformations forthcoming in higher education. The research under investigation, reviews the global developments in the area of higher education (HE) all over the world and surveys the…

This study aimed to investigate some challenges female doctoral students experience in their doctoral journey. The study used a qualitative design and structured interviews. The theoretical framework that guided the study was that of Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecosystemic theory. A purposely selected sample of five female doctoral students from the…

As we were aware of the confusing and wide-ranging disciplinary and individual positions on the importance of theory in research, this study sought to determine how thesis examiners emphasised theory in their reports in order to inform candidate learning. While references to theory were not prominent in reports, examiner comment coalesced into six…

The last decade has seen intensification in moves to professionalise the practice of university teaching, including graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). It has also seen significant growth in terms of the internationalisation of the postgraduate student body and changing expectations around doctoral training. These transformations have…

This article tries to "put a face" on the complex and abstract process of program change in relation to key principles from the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). We examine the principles of the "scholarship of practice," "laboratory of practice," and "signature pedagogy" within a…

Effectively grouping learners in an online environment is a highly useful task. However, datasets used in this task often have large numbers of attributes of disparate types and different scales, which traditional clustering approaches cannot handle effectively. Here, a unique dissimilarity measure based on the random forest, which handles the…

The authors used grounded theory to explore professional identity transitions for 23 counselor education doctoral students in a cross-section sample based on nodal points in their programs. The transformational tasks that doctoral students face involve integration of multiple identities, evolution of confidence and legitimacy, and acceptance of…

Postgraduate research education is multi-faceted, incorporating the teaching of a range of skills and study behaviours. A key skill for doctoral students is that of scholarly writing, a skill that Aitchison (2009) argues is often difficult to teach, with students unclear about the standards required for doctoral work. One benchmark of standards of…

As higher education changes to reach larger numbers of students via online modalities, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, the issue of student attrition and other measures of student success become increasingly important. While research has focused largely on undergraduate online students, less has been done in the area of online…

Approximately 50% of doctoral students in social science, humanities, and educational doctoral programs fail to earn the Ph.D. This number is 10% to 15% higher for students enrolled in online or limited-residency programs. Using in-depth interviewing and qualitative data analysis techniques, this study examined participants' recollections of…

The American Psychological Association (APA), which is the advocating body for the field of psychology, emphasizes the importance of multicultural competencies for researchers and clinicians (APA, 2003; 2010). Graduate students are the field's future professionals. The multicultural training of doctoral level clinical and counseling…

The U.S. has experienced a large surge of foreign talent, as evidenced by the large number of international students enrolling each year in science and engineering fields (IIE, 2010). Among the foreign countries and economies, China ranks top in the number of doctorate degree recipients from U.S. institutions in science and engineering fields…