The completion rate for graduate studies is around 50% in some programs, and several authors suggest that doctoral supervision in a key factor in explaining this. Existing research on doctoral education reveals an uneven international landscape made up of the perceptions of both doctoral students and their supervisors. In the French-speaking North…

In this case study research, we examine online supervision and engagements in a blended education doctorate (EdD) programme through a lens of relational trust. Interviews with supervisors and EdD graduates enabled us to examine practices and strategies used to cultivate relationships and learning alliances that supported doctoral candidates in…

Intellectual abilities alone are not sufficient to successfully progress through doctoral studies. Research indicates that modes of training and the context and conditions in which doctoral studies take place also have a significant impact on the process. However, few studies examine how taken-for-granted and self-evident practices in academia…

In the past two decades, Indigenous faculty and graduate students at research-intensive universities have been asserting a kind of cultural and intellectual sovereignty over their own academic production and participation. While colonization through assimilationist education suppressed -- and continues to suppress -- Indigenous community knowledge…

Studies on how students experience their PhD have been promoted in order to understand how this collective develops in their careers (research-oriented studies) and/or as an indicator to improve doctoral programmes (assessment-oriented). In the present review, 79 studies collecting data from questionnaires and scales were analyzed. Among the…

An important element of doctoral studies is identification with the academic community. Such identification is often complicated by part-time student status. In this paper, two part-time doctoral students and their supervisor employ Lave and Wenger's concept of legitimate peripheral participation to explore, through a critical socio-cultural lens,…

Interdisciplinarity is a pervasive trend in 21st-century knowledge building and innovation. It is predicated on the recognition that creative solutions to the world's increasingly complex problems require the intersection of diverse expertise. Little scholarly attention has been directed towards how the new interdisciplinary (ID) model is…

Experiential learning opportunities are powerful in shaping positive supervisor behaviours. We were interested in examining the positive experiences of supervisors-in-training during their first practice experience as supervisors. Our study was guided by two research questions: (a) what are the experiences that supervisors-in-training viewed as…

This article examines the stories of 24 social sciences doctoral students in three universities, one in Canada and two in the UK, who experienced challenging roads to completion. While their stories confirm earlier findings, they also provide insight into how students' agency and personal networks of relationships may be critical, both as…

This paper explores the experiences of new graduate supervisors, individuals who have just moved as it were from one side of "the table" to the other. We describe how their learning to "do supervision" relates to their understanding of academic work and how they make sense of the transition from doctoral student, someone…

With growing international interest in diversifying sites for pedagogical work within the doctorate, doctoral programmes of different kinds are being developed in different disciplinary, institutional and national settings. However, little is known about how the pedagogical work of these programmes is designed and enacted, and with what effects.…

Doctoral students, during the course of their training, develop an academic habitus that corresponds to their field of study. They adopt the perspective of the senior members of their discipline, among which their supervisor, and identify themselves to the academic profession. Consequently, the majority envision themselves in academic positions…

A survey of 736 graduate student supervisors in 37 Canadian universities investigated aspects of the relationship between student and supervisor, including types and quantity of assistance given in thesis development and research; assistance in preparation of publications, presentations, and grant applications; and help in developing teaching…