Although high PhD attrition rates are a matter of international concern, the factors that lead doctoral researchers to leave their programmes are not well understood. The present study addresses that issue by exploring factors that prompted thoughts of discontinuing among 1017 PhD researchers (PhDRs) at a public, research-intensive Australian…

Completing a doctoral degree is a challenging process which requires patience, persistence, and hard work. Some advice books have been written for faculty and there is an abundance of self-help books for students. However, little empirical research regarding the relationship between doctoral students and their supervisors has been done across…

Digital storytelling as part of study creates an opening for reworking ideas. It marks an instance of recognition to access alternative ways of knowing, thinking, and doing. Guided by radical black studies and decolonizing methodologies, the authors draw on insights from digital storytelling to extend current understandings of educational…

Discourse regarding modern doctoral studies criticises the traditional notion of doctoral education as being too narrow to facilitate knowledge creation and transfer towards the knowledge economy. This study considered the pedagogical links to supervisory practices to enable transformative learning experiences. The study, grounded in the…

The relationship between PhD candidate and supervisor influences successful candidate completion and helps maintain candidate satisfaction and mental health. We quantified potential mismatches between the PhD candidates' and supervisors' expectations as a potential mechanism that facilitates poor candidate experiences and research training…

This research article challenges the normative construction of RPPs as an inherently equitable, post-racial and ungendered methodological framework. By utilizing critical race theory broadly, and whiteness as property in particular, we highlight how without explicit consideration for the racialization of research identities, RPPs are incapable of…

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the documented effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on early career researcher (ECR) activity, development, career prospects and well-being. Design/methodology/approach: This is a systematic literature review of English language peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2021, which provided empirical…

Background: While attrition from the PhD has been attributed to many high-level causal factors, such as funding, advisor relationship, and "fit" into a department, few studies have closely examined the mechanisms of attrition or why and how graduate engineering students begin to consider attrition from their doctoral programs.…

While there is no lack of research on student engagement with feedback obtained from teachers, peers, or computers in higher education, scholars have conducted much less research on novice researchers' engagement with reviewers' feedback on the manuscripts submitted for publication purposes. This study examines how two PhD students engaged with…

In this article, we reflect on and examine the experiences of three doctoral students, and their thesis advisor, in discussing how we adjusted our research methods and assumptions to the new conditions of life and society that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss how our understandings of the embodied presence of the researcher, the…

The professional development of doctoral supervisors is a relatively new area of academic development that is still non-existent in many higher education institutions worldwide. This is particularly relevant to explore as several other studies indicate that the quality of doctoral supervision has a direct impact on the doctoral student progression…

Despite continued growth in enrollments, graduate program attrition rates are of great concern to academic program coordinators. It is estimated that only 40 to 50 percent of students who begin Ph.D. programs complete their degrees. This book describes programs, initiatives, and interventions that lead to overall student retention and success.…

Whether students feel like they belong at their chosen higher education institution is a key topic in both the academic literature and the policymaking landscape. While student loneliness has been a more long-standing feature of research to date, belonging is increasingly taking centre-stage. This Policy Note explores students' thoughts about…

This qualitative interview study seeks to examine the unique perspectives of mothers in counselor education programs through a feminist lens. In this stage of research, the study inspects the lived experiences of three female graduate students who have become biological mothers during their doctoral journeys and who are now actively enrolled in…

An inaugural Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) learning community (LC) curriculum developed out of a perceived need for intentional faculty-student interactions to address personal and professional development and contemporary practice issues. As cohort size almost doubled over the past decade without commensurate growth in faculty, fewer…