Doctoral study remains the most popular form of research degree globally. The student and supervisor relationship is an integral part of the postgraduate researcher (PGR) experience. Supervisory relationships can be complex and multi-faceted, with differing expectations from both supervisor and PGR. However, comparing different perspectives of the…

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 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.…

Doctoral supervision has been deemed as a site of power, knowledge production, and an effort in career progression, mediated by doctoral students and their supervisors. Extensive studies have looked at these interactions from multiple angles. Although research into doctoral supervision has been extensively documented, there lies a paucity of…

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…

The expansionist nature of the higher education sector has led to an increase in the provision of online Masters programmes. Many of these programmes are offered part-time attracting working professionals. The dissertation component that can be the culmination of many of these degrees is largely unexplored. A constructivist grounded theory…

While supervision is often characterised as a relatively private relationship, we would argue it is strongly influenced by departmental, institutional, national and global factors. It is also intertwined with other academic work and life experiences -- with time playing an important role, not just as regards lifecourse but also changing…

Purpose: The paper posits that the enforced work from home (WFH) arrangement due to COVID-19 provides a unique setting for the study of trust in changing contexts. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine to what extent COVID-19 WFH changed trust relationships among remote employees, their managers and organisations and how this has…

Purpose: This paper aims to show how an Academic Literacies lens can contribute to a deeper understanding of writing for a professional doctorate (PD) by focusing both on the language of supervisors' written feedback and on student and supervisor perspectives on feedback throughout Year 1 (Y1). Design/methodology/approach: Firstly, written…

The notion of borderlands implies a boundary demarcating a crossing to/from an unfamiliar territory. It is a productive metaphor for dual-status academics -- those employed in academic roles in universities who concurrently undertake doctoral studies. We argue that dual-status academics dwell in an extended form of boundary crossing, potentially…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is proliferating in university courses across many countries. Like many educational practices, students' experience of it is shaped by the assessment processes adopted. Does assessment support or inhibit what WIL seeks to foster? To explore how students experience assessment in WIL, a small-scale investigation was…

International doctoral students are an indispensable part of the increasingly globalized Higher Education Institutions and play a vital role in continually refreshing the host country's research base and fostering cross-national research collaborations. Despite their contributions, most international student employability experiences have been…

Much research around student mental health focuses on undergraduate students. However, recent research suggests that depression and anxiety are just as prevalent among postgraduate researchers (PGRs). This study explores the experience of PGRs in the UK (N = 50), their wellbeing and resilience. The results of the survey indicated that the…

An action research project involving 25 master's supervisors, from health and education disciplines, sought to enhance their understanding of dissertation supervision. Recognising that they were sometimes slightly unsure about their role, they sought to identify issues that contributed to this circumstance, and to develop supervisor preparation…

This paper examines the PhD by publication in the humanities and social sciences in US, UK, Canadian and Australian universities. A set of PhDs by publication from each of these countries were collected for the study. The theses were analysed to see to what extent they fitted, or not, with discussions of thesis types described in previous research…