This handbook brings together contributors from the United States, Australasia and Europe who use theoretical insights and empirical data to examine current practices as well as possible future directions of postgraduate education. A full range of postgraduate study options are explored, including PhD and professional doctorates, masters awards,…

Post-PhD researchers working at universities are contributors to a country's productivity and competitiveness mostly through writing, which becomes a means to establish their scholarly identity as they contribute to knowledge. However, little is known about researchers' writing perceptions, and their interrelations with engagement in research,…

The number of postdoctoral researchers has increased dramatically in the past decade. Because of the limited number of academic staff openings and the general levels of salary, the role and value of the postdoctoral appointment are changing. Using a sample of respondents with continuous data in the 1999 through 2008 "Survey of Doctoral…

There is a crisis of valuation practices in the current academic life sciences, triggered by unsustainable growth and "hyper-competition." Quantitative metrics in evaluating researchers are seen as replacing deeper considerations of the quality and novelty of work, as well as substantive care for the societal implications of research.…

Universities increasingly value the contribution of postdoctoral fellows (postdocs) toward organizational success, yet this group is often the most overlooked and underserved compared to others in higher education (namely, students, faculty, and staff). Despite the stressful and challenging nature of the profession, it is critical for postdocs to…

There is still much to learn about the support required by postgraduate research students, across academic disciplines, to facilitate successful completion of a research degree. The primary aim of this study was to explore postgraduate medical science research students' perceptions of academic and mentoring support at different stages during their…

Published evaluations of career preparation of alumni from long-standing postdoctoral fellowship programs in the biomedical sciences are limited and often focus on quantitative analysis of data from extant publicly available sources. Qualitative methods provide the opportunity to gather robust information about specific program elements from…

In teacher education programmes, written portfolios or text-based self-evaluations are generally used to document the development of student teachers' competence. However, such approaches do no justice to the complex nature of teaching as they tend to lead to evidence in which teacher competencies are disconnected and removed from the actual…

What are the motivations, needs and interests of academics entering mid-career? To answer this question, we drew on data from our longitudinal research program to examine the career trajectories of thirteen social scientists and scientists, five or more years post-PhD, in research-teaching positions. We used an identity framework to understand how…

The aims of this study are to probe into the motivational factors toward the usage of e-learning and social media among educational technology postgraduate students in the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. This study had involved 70 respondents via the means of a questionnaire. Four factors have been studied, named, the factor…

Despite increased research into team science and collaboration, little is known about postdoctoral scholars' pathways to becoming independent researchers, particularly as it relates to the mentoring relationship. The purpose of our study was to explore if and how the team science framework promotes collaboration and the development of independent…

Dissatisfaction with postdoctoral appointments is associated with demographics, career goals, types of research, postdoc-advisor interaction, and program quality. Rather than a simple inverse relationship to dissatisfaction, the effect of program quality depends on the postdoc's autonomy to shape a research project, interaction with an advisor,…

By the time people earn physics PhDs, they have learned a great deal about physics and how research is conducted. However, physics PhDs also develop skills and knowledge in a number of related areas, such as advanced mathematics, programming, modeling, and technical writing. New physics PhDs draw upon an arsenal of skills and knowledge in their…

Mathematical engagement is a complex process of interaction between the person and the world. This interaction is strongly influenced by the concepts and structure of the mathematical field, by the practical and symbolic tools of mathematics and by the focus of investigation in the world. This paper reports on research that involves a detailed…

This article examines the postdoctoral unionization movement at the University of California (UC) using case study methodology. More specifically, we examine postdoctoral union organizers involved in the United Automobile Workers of America (UAW) Local 5810, focusing on their efforts to unionize postdoctoral employees at the UC. The study is…