The increasing need for innovative research driven by rapid global changes gives doctoral supervisors of early-stage researchers a significant role in facilitating the ethical conduct of qualitative research. In the context of European Commission funding, the demands of research ethics and integrity place a tremendous responsibility on the…

Higher education often acts as a bridge to society, preparing people for future social, political, and economic roles. For many academics, social justice and social inclusion are areas of research interest and teaching expertise. As such, institutions of higher education are well placed to foster reflection on social justice, through research and…

In this theoretical paper we explore the authorial voice of black African postgraduate students in their writing and scholarship experience. This includes investigating the undergirding factors that need to be interrogated when it comes to the student-supervisor relationship. Some (if not most) black African postgraduate students experience…

Although there has been considerable "post hoc" research on student views of supervisors, there is little on how candidate expectations are constituted at or close to the point of commencement. This study reads students' commentary about the 'ideal supervisor' at the point of institutional induction to examine commencing candidate…

The undergraduate honours-level dissertation is a significant component of many UK undergraduate programmes, as a key stage in the longer-term intellectual and career development of potential researchers and knowledge-workers, and also a critical contributor to immediate award outcome. This study aims to identify how dissertation supervisors…

This paper examines the function of 'expertise' in mediating the student-supervisor relationship in Higher Degree Research (HDR). Prevailing conceptualisations of expertise generally translate as "disciplinary acumen" and reference the supervisor's specialist disciplinary and methodological knowledge. Beyond establishing the disciplinary…

This interview-based study with thirty doctoral supervisors in the UK focused on the diverse goals and intentions behind their supervisory activities, from which we derived a six-dimensional model of concepts of supervision. We explored how strongly each of these concepts featured in supervisors' intentions and whether this varied by discipline.…

Past studies on doctoral education have mostly focused on the critical role of supervisors in students' research experience. However, the role of peers has been relatively neglected. It is not clear how both supervisors and peers contribute to doctoral students' research experience. One possibility is that they are additive, which means that both…

The alignment of student-supervisor expectations in doctoral research builds a foundation for strong supervisory relationships. While some expectations around research practice and outputs are clearly stated and regulated, the expectations concerning personal aspects of supervisory relationships are seldom voiced. To address this gap, this article…

Design science research (DSR) is an appropriate method for postgraduate-level (MSc) thesis work, where the students need to combine and apply theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills to solve practical problems. Students face considerable challenges, however, when applying DSR in timeboxed situations with limited competences. In this paper, I…

In the United Kingdom (U.K.), all students who are studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree need to complete a piece of independent research in order to gain their "honours" (U.S. "honors") status. As a university faculty we have very specific ideas about the purpose of this research and the positive impact that we hope that it…

To determine factors affecting successful research and publication among medical students, a cross-sectional survey study was carried out at four Thai medical schools during 2018-2022. Medical students who had previously performed research under research advisors' supervision and their research advisors were included. There were 120 participants,…

Current understandings of the expectations and educational needs of commencing PhD students are based on research focusing on the retrospective recollections of middle or late-stage candidates about the extent to which their expectations at entry were met. This article explores the prospective expectations of 199 commencing PhD students at the…

This qualitative case study investigates two early-stage doctoral students' developing conceptions of research in their situated context. Drawing on data collected from in-depth interviews and informal conversations with the participants over two years, the study showed that the participants' research conceptions were in a symbiotic relationship…

In an in-house third-year social work research placement, a duo-ethnography showed that the student--supervisor relationship had far more impact on transformative learning than the assigned placement tasks. A model for co-creating an environment of transformative learning is described, putting student learning and growth at the center. Attributes…