A doctoral student is one undertaking the highest level of university study, leading to a doctoral qualification (of which the traditional and most common form is the PhD), that typically requires they demonstrate a significant contribution to knowle...
The doctoral defense is an important step in the doctoral journey and an essential requirement for obtaining a doctoral degree. Past research on the doctoral defense has focused solely on national practices. In this work, I investigate the potential...
The key to doctoral student persistence lies in the relationship between the student and their advisor. This study aimed to investigate doctoral students’ perceptions of mattering to their advisors within the context of their college and to det...
Doctoral students, graduate students, or postgraduate researchers (PGRs) are those students who undertake a research degree culminating in a thesis of original work. In this entry-level paper, they will generally be referred to as PGRs, as this demon...
Socio-emotional intelligence is the capacity to consider emotions, intuition, and cognition to identify, manage and express emotions and to respond to social situations with authenticity, openness and fairness. By doing so, individuals will achieve a...
The anxiety of doctoral students in school has consistently been a major concern in society and the medical community, stemming from pressures, such as the pursuit of identity within highly professional and fiercely competitive academic communities,...
A doctoral student is someone studying for a doctoral degree, which is generally considered to be the highest academic qualification a university can award. The student develops research experience, while making an in-depth and original contribution...
This paper provides a reflection on the way changes taking place in doctoral education are being perceived and internalized by doctoral students. The Doctoral perceptions are analyzed through Ph.D. candidates’ motivations to enroll in the progr...
This study aims to explore the factors that influence the well-being situation of doctoral students in education from a qualitative perspective and draws on the ecological systems theory as an overarching framework. A total of 18 doctoral students in...
(1) Background: There are increasing numbers of doctoral students globally. Poor mental health and well-being among university students, including doctoral students, is a growing concern globally, not least in this post-pandemic era. Engaging in a ra...
The management of expectations in doctoral education relates to the negotiation and agreement of a learning contract denoting actions and initiatives between a student and a supervisor. A learning contract is a set of understandings of what things, a...
This entry explores the different ways in which students are accepted onto doctoral degrees such as PhDs and professional doctorates. The processes involved are referred to in this entry, and in much of the policy-related and research-informed litera...
As anti-DEI legislation reshapes belonging in American higher education, today’s Black doctoral students may one day become the educators and administrators who shape the experiences of young adults, which creates an indirect but significant co...
Effective mentoring is an integral component of the doctoral dissertation process. This study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of two questionnaires developed to assess research self-efficacy and the mentoring/supervision process. The s...
“Publish or perish” is a term used for the culture adopted in universities, whereby academic members of staff, typically although not exclusively on research and teaching contracts, are required to publish research. Minimum levels of quan...
Early doctoral student sustainable development plays a pivotal role in promoting doctoral education quality contextually. However, there are few studies analyzing the challenges and strategies of early doctoral student sustainable development. Thus,...
The process of doctoral students transitioning from being knowledge learners to being knowledge researchers is beneficial for personal growth and career development. This study explores how doctoral students at Chinese research universities understan...
The mental health of doctoral students is a critical concern in higher education. Despite growing research attention, Chinese-language scholarship remains underrepresented in international academic discourse because of language barriers. This study s...
One of the most important developmental relationships in the doctoral student experience is that of the faculty advisor, and yet we know little about whether and how advisor relationships vary between first-generation and continuing-generation doctor...
1 December 2022
The aim of this phenomenological inquiry is to explore the academic acculturation experiences of international kinesiology professionals during their doctoral programs in higher education institutions in the U.S. Purposive sampling technique was used...
Although career choice is a kind of individual behavior, as the gatekeeper of the discipline, doctoral students’ academic career intention reflects the attractiveness of the academic labor market and determines the sustainable development of ac...
As doctoral education evolves globally, the focus intensifies on doctoral candidates’ academic performance and psychological well-being. Previous research has studied the effects of individual, societal, and environmental factors on students&rs...
3 March 2023
Student academic performance is an important indicator of doctoral education quality, but limited research has focused on how multiple influential factors of doctoral students’ academic performance work together. This study aims to explore the...
PhD students report a higher prevalence of mental illness symptoms than highly educated individuals in the general population. This situation presents a serious problem for universities. Thus, the knowledge about this phenomenon is of great importanc...
The present investigation focuses on understanding the experiences of professional training and identities that face-to-face and virtual doctoral students construct in a training program as educational researchers in Mexico. The relationship between...
17 August 2025
Background: Mental health issues among PhD students are rising, a trend believed to be driven by academic and social challenges. Method: A total of 1265 doctorate students from a large university in Barcelona, Spain (739 women; 414 men; 112 marked ot...
Objective: This study aims to explore the impact of research pressure on depression tendency among Chinese doctoral students and analyze the mediating effect of familial financial support in this relationship. Methods: Based on the ecological systems...
Regardless of the quality of national doctoral support initiatives, sustained improvement in doctoral education depends on institutions’ ability to translate these models into contextually appropriate, locally meaningful practices. This study i...
8 September 2021
Objectives: This study aims to investigate the employment preferences of doctoral students majoring in social medicine and health care management (SMHCM), to inform policymakers and future employers on how to address recruitment and retention require...
Learning sciences competence refers to a necessary professional competence for educators, which is manifested in their deep understanding of learning sciences knowledge, positive attitudes, and scientific thinking and skills in conducting teaching pr...
Despite the growing recognition of the value of interdisciplinary learning in doctoral education, there is still a gap in the literature supporting the relationship between it and doctoral students’ scientific creativity in China. Based on a qu...
16 December 2022
Over the last few years, various studies have reported decreasing well-being levels among doctoral students, who show a higher risk of suffering from psychological distress than the general population. Accordingly, European policies in higher educati...
As diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in higher education face increasing scrutiny and political backlash, institutions across the United States are reexamining, reframing, and in many cases, dismantling long-standing commitments to equit...
Doctoral student wellbeing refers to the perceived state of psychological, physical, and social health experienced by a person during the process of completing a doctoral thesis. From a eudaimonic and salutogenic perspective, this construct goes beyo...
Research self-efficacy (RSE) is significantly associated with research interest, scholarly productivity, and professional development. It is particularly critical in counselor education, a field centered on improving human well-being and advancing ev...
Doctoral student agency is increasingly regarded as a key construct in doctoral education. Yet, existing research on this topic focuses on qualitative approaches, and there remains a lack of psychometrically validated instruments, particularly in the...
This research considers the perceptions of doctoral supervisors relating to their experience of supervising students within a single case study university in the United Kingdom (UK). A survey of supervisors was undertaken that elicited quantitative a...
Doctoral degrees include Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and other professional doctorates such as Engineering Doctorate (EngD), Doctor of Education (EdD) or Doctor of Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy). Unlike undergraduate or postgraduate taught students, d...
An increasing number of studies incorporate doctoral students’ perspectives to enhance programs. However, research specifically addressing these perspectives in hybrid doctoral education remains limited. The objective of this study was to analy...
Although a large body of literature has suggested that doctoral supervisors play an important role in their students’ attempts at scholarly publishing, few studies have focused specifically on what roles they play. This study sought to address this g...
In this essay, I discuss ethical risks of pursuing participatory research as an industrial doctoral student. I particularly focus on two facets. First, ethical questions that may arise as a consequence of the dual character of the work format, i.e.,...
Research communities refer to the learning and social environments within which members engage in scholarly activities. Consisting of diverse actors involved in research processes, research communities provide opportunities for doctoral students to b...
Personal development refers to the process of increasing one’s self-awareness, associated increases of self-esteem, increasing skills, and fulfilling one’s aspirations. The current paper reflects on these elements within the doctoral jour...
The doctoral defense is considered to have three dimensions: the scholarly dimension, the emotional (affective) dimension, and the cultural dimension. In this work, I explore the link between sociodemographic factors and students’ perception of the d...
Background/Objectives: Medical students experience significant mental stress during clinical internships. This study aimed to assess the levels of uncertainty stress among medical interns, evaluate its temporal changes and associations with doctor&nd...
Doctoral degrees include Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and other professional doctorates such as Engineering Doctorate (EngD), Doctor of Education (EdD), or Doctor of Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy). Unlike undergraduate- or postgraduate-taught students,...
Hauntings are often misconstrued as strange and often scary supernatural experiences that blur the lines between what is real and what is not. Yet, Indigenous hauntings can not only be confronting, but they can also be comforting and support place be...
9 August 2023
This study investigated the attitude of Romanian medical students and doctors toward business ethics by measuring the preference for a particular ethical philosophy, namely, the preference for Machiavellianism, moral objectivism, social Darwinism, et...
Doctoral students need guidance from both language teachers and academic supervisors for academic publication. However, previous studies have predominantly focused on corrective feedback from language teachers. The small number of studies on supervis...
Despite the fact that there are several researchers reporting the risks of doctoral students in terms of mental health, there is still a lack of studies exploring their well-being at an organizational level, looking at the difference between male and...
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