Byrnes (2001) has suggested that the disconnection between language and literature instruction within many foreign language departments has consequences on the professionalization of graduate students. These structural issues lead to questions about graduate students' development. How do teaching assistants (TAs) perceive their competency as…

This article reports on a recent small-scale phenomenological study into the student experience of the doctoral "viva voce". It was prompted by strong concerns about "viva voce" processes on the part of a Director of Graduate Studies in an English university. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 20 respondents…

In this paper, we situate the findings from the studies in this thematic issue within the current policy environment that influences the status, rankings, and funding contexts for doctoral programs in Physical Education Teacher Education within and across institutions. We identify common challenges that these doctoral programs are confronted with…

What are the relational dimensions of politics? Does the way that people and organizations are connected to each other matter? Are our opinions affected by the people with whom we talk? Are legislators affected by lobbyists? Is the capacity of social movements to mobilize affected by the structure of societal networks? Powerful evidence in the…

The majority of Ph.D. programs in political science in the United States provide some kind of teaching training for graduate students, which ranges from assisting other instructors to designing and teaching new courses. In most cases, departments make an effort to guide these students in their new role as instructors; however, first-time teachers…

A diverse sample of doctoral students completed an on-line questionnaire assessing their supervisors' academic, personal and autonomy support and their research self-efficacy. The more task-related help and personal support students received, the more positively they evaluated their supervision. The degree to which supervisors encouraged students…

This article explores pleasure in terms of the values of independent judgement, writerly authority, originality and singularity associated with doctoral study. It also considers how pleasure can be understood as a mode of experience that acts as a force for change. Here, the article takes a broad Deleuzian approach that is concerned with our…

This study investigated the relationship of formal academic support systems and stage of doctoral study on persistence, satisfaction, and knowledge of resources, expectations, and customs in doctoral education. Doctoral students (N = 141) enrolled in four public institutions in a southeastern state were surveyed. An online questionnaire, adapted…

The nontraditional doctorate is a relatively recent development in the long history of the doctoral degree. Understanding what makes a doctoral degree "nontraditional" requires describing its key features in relation to those of the traditional doctorate and embedding this analysis in a historical context. In this article, the author provides a…

The road to a new degree program is rarely smooth. The author describes the lengthy and bumpy path to the successful creation of and approval for the first nontraditional doctorate offered at Georgetown University, the Doctor of Liberal Studies Degree (DLS). The new Doctor in Liberal Studies (DLS) required applicants to have a master's degree or…

This paper focuses on the ways in which mothering, work and dyslexia intersect in lived experience. The theoretical framework used to interpret these experiences draws on competing discourses variously imposed on and internalised by the individual; however, it also stresses the ability (however limited) of the individual to reframe and therefore…

Saudi student enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities has nearly tripled since 2009-2010, in large part due to the King Abdullah Scholarship Program. The representation of Saudi females is also increasing due to the loosening of Saudi Arabia's long-standing restrictions on women's travel and acceptable fields of study and careers. This…

Against the background of vast changes in doctoral education and the emergence of non-traditional doctoral programmes, this paper investigates the habitus of non-traditional PhD students at a South African university. Bourdieu's conceptual tool of habitus informed the study. In-depth and open-ended interviews were conducted with 10 non-traditional…

A quantitative analysis of the admissions and graduation requirements guidelines of the special education doctoral programs at 20 top American universities was conducted. Admission requirements typically include an application fee, previous coursework GPA, previous field experience, GRE scores, TOEFL scores, professional writing sample(s), and…

This paper examines the key issues at stake for national economies in increasing the number of PhDs to meet expected needs for human capital in science, technology and innovation using illustrations mainly from the European Commission's "Careers of Doctorate Holders" surveys on PhD labour market outcomes; it has been shown that PhD…