scholarly journals Varied starting points and pathways

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Burford ◽  
Catherine Mitchell

This article argues that the language of ‘diversity’ does multidirectional work – highlighting issues of social justice, as well as obscuring the varied experiences of those gathered underneath its umbrella (Ahmed, 2012). It builds on existing debates about widening participation in higher education, arguing that nuanced accounts of ‘diversity’ and doctoral aspiration are required. We present a duoethnographic text about two doctoral students’ pathways to study. While both students may be positioned as ‘diverse’ within their institution’s equity policy – as a sexuality minority student, and a working-class woman of Māori and European heritage – they reveal dissimilar expectations of what university study was, or could be. These histories of imagining the university shaped their trajectories into and through doctoral study. Drawing on Appadurai’s (2004) work, we argue that aspiration can be a transformative force for ‘diverse’ doctoral students, even if the map that informs aspiration is unevenly distributed. We then investigate why the idea of the ‘academic good life’ might have such aspirational pull for politically-engaged practitioners of minority discourse (Chuh, 2013). The article makes two primary contributions. First, we call for more multifaceted understandings of doctoral ‘diversity’, and for further reflection about the ways that social difference continues to shape academic aspiration. And second, we demonstrate the potential for duothenography to provide insights into the experiences of ourselves and an-Other through a shared examination of university imaginings.

10.28945/3397 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 001-014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M Phelps

This article draws on findings from a broad study on the influences of globalization on the experiences of international doctoral students at a large, research intensive Canadian university. It focuses specifically on these students’ lived experiences of change in their national identities and senses of belonging in a globalizing world. Using a qualitative, multiple case narrative approach, students’ experiences were collected via in-depth interview and analyzed through a theoretical lens of transnational social fields. The study found that international doctoral students experienced multiplicity, ambiguity, and flux in their senses of self, belonging, and educational purposes as they engaged in the transnational academic and social spaces of the university. Their narratives are revealing of the ways that international doctoral students consciously construct identities that traverse national affiliations as they engage in higher levels of mobility and interact with highly internationalized environments and networks. The study contributes insight into the transformative nature of international doctoral study and identifies specific ways in which processes of globalization influence the international doctoral student experience.


Author(s):  
David John Harwood

Year zero courses, as part of extended degree programmes, offer a robust and efficacious means of increasing participation in science and other areas of the university curriculum where graduate shortages have been identified, STEM subjects for example. This 23-year longitudinal study investigates the efficacy of this approach at one university and identifies the features which contribute to its success and may be transferable to other institutions and models. Quantitative and qualitative data are analysed and discussed. A particular feature of this approach is success in attracting, retaining and graduating mature returners as well as those with no prior familial history of participation in higher education. The critical importance of establishing a higher education learning culture also emerges.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-31
Author(s):  
Karen MacFarlane

Inequality of participation in higher education persists despite a wealth of research and interventions. This has led to calls to rethink what it means to be university ready , especially for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, many of whom are first-generation students. This paper explores the efficacy of a unique widening participation model based on immersing learners in the university environment prior to entry to HE in Scotland. Data from interviews with 30 students who participated in the programme are mapped to Wilson-Equitable Transitions to University (2016) which is based on the Capability Approach. Capability theorists contend that an appropriate approach to widening participation would address what students need to be able to do and to be (their capabilities) to successfully make the transition to HE. Evidence from this study suggests that the experience of studying HE level qualifications within a university setting whilst still at school provides learners from disadvantaged backgrounds with the capabilities for an equitable transition to university. A key finding is that when capabilities for equitable transitions are fostered prior to entry, learners identify as university students. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge at the nexus of widening participation, transition and capabilities.


Pedagogika ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 125 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
Giedrė Tamoliūnė ◽  
Margarita Teresevičienė

Doctoral education is one of the primary resources for the development and implementation of new knowledge and innovation across the Europe. Therefore, the implementation of doctoral studies and preparation and training of junior academics and researchers are seen as one of  the main aims and missions of the University. Doctoral studies differ from other study levels in principle as they accentuate students’ distinguished autonomy and independency when the scientific supervisor is mentor and assistant more than a knowledge provider and student is taking more responsibility to become an independent researcher. This article presents short theoretical overview of different roles of scientific supervisor and results of in-depth interviews with doctoral students that reveal experiences of collaboration with supervisors as well as their roles that appear during the doctoral study process. Research results revealed that when collaborating with doctoral students, supervisors get involved mainly in activities that are directly related to preparation of doctoral thesis, i.e. provide consultations on research topic development, encourage students to be critical about their own work and search for new insights or perspectives, and generate new ideas together with doctoral student. However, according to the research results, supervisor’s roles in other organisational issues are less relevant, especially when talking about enculturation, where supervisor is expected to help doctoral student to integrate into local and public academic society, join international associations or research groups or have consultations with experts from the research field.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1552-1563
Author(s):  
Denise A. Tucker ◽  
Mary V. Compton ◽  
Sarah J. Allen ◽  
Robert Mayo ◽  
Celia Hooper ◽  
...  

Purpose The intended purpose of this research note is to share the findings of a needs assessment online survey of speech and hearing professionals practicing in North Carolina to explore their interest in pursuing a research-focused PhD in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) and to document their perceptions of barriers to pursing a PhD in CSD. In view of the well-documented shortage of doctor of philosophy (PhD) faculty to attract, retain, and mentor doctoral students to advance research and to prepare future speech and hearing professionals, CSD faculty must assess the needs, perceptions, and barriers prospective students encounter when considering pursuing a doctoral research degree in CSD. Method The article describes the results of a survey of 242 speech and hearing professionals to investigate their interest in obtaining an academic research-focused PhD in CSD and to solicit their perceived barriers to pursuing a research doctoral degree in CSD. Results Two thirds of the respondents (63.6%) reported that they had considered pursuing a PhD in CSD. Desire for knowledge, desire to teach, and work advancement were the top reasons given for pursuing a PhD in CSD. Eighty-two percent of respondents had no interest in traditional full-time study. Forty-two percent of respondents indicated that they would be interested in part-time and distance doctoral study. The barriers of time, distance, and money emerged as those most frequently identified barriers by respondents. Conclusion The implications inform higher education faculty on how they can best address the needs of an untapped pool of prospective doctoral students in CSD.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fedja Netjasov

"Introduction to Risk and Safety of Air Navigation" is an authorized script compiled on the basis of the curriculum of the course "Introduction to Risk and Safety of Air Navigation" which is taught in undergraduate studies at the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering. The scripts are primarily intended for students of undergraduate (bachelor) studies at the Department of Air Transport and Traffic at the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering. Scripts can be useful to both master's and doctoral students at the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, especially those who have not completed undergraduate studies at the Department of Air Transport and Traffic. They can also be useful to air transport and aeronautical engineers in order to expand and update knowledge in the field of air navigation safety. The material presented in these scripts relates mainly to civil aviation and is largely based on international standards, recommended practices, regulations and documents which deal with issues related to air navigation safety. As these standards, regulations and documents are subject to frequent changes and alterations, users of these scripts are advised to also use the original (updated) documents, which are listed in the references, in order to take into account any changes that have occurred after the release of the scripts.


Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
John R Phillips

The author, a recent graduate of the Doctor in Public Administration program, shares his thoughts about what it means to study public administration in the twenty-first century. He hopes his insights, born out of more than a forty year-long career in the field—decades of work in colleges and universities as a faculty member, dean, provost, vicepresident, and acting president, as well as his extensive experience in teaching public administration at the graduate and undergraduate levels—will help doctoral students in their academic pursuits. More specifically, he hopes that his remarks will make Ph.D. students think more deeply about the promise of their endeavors and, on the other hand, give them advance warning about perils of the process and ways to avoid them.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107780042091889
Author(s):  
Erin Leach

This autoethnographic poetry collection provides an entry into the socialization of part-time doctoral students by centering the lived experience of the author, a part-time doctoral student employed full-time at the university where she studies. In the writing of this poetry collection, the author sought to enter into conversation with the doctoral socialization literature and to uncover the various parts of her fractured identity. Through an examination of her own fractured identity, the author engages with the places where scholarly identity formation is stalled in part-time doctoral students especially in comparison with their full-time peers and considers affective dimensions of the work of scholarly identity formation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Byrom

Whilst there has been growing attention paid to the imbalance of Higher Education (HE) applications according to social class, insufficient attention has been paid to the successful minority of working-class young people who do secure places in some of the UK’s leading HE institutions. In particular, the influence and nature of pre-university interventions on such students’ choice of institution has been under-explored. Data from an ESRC-funded PhD study of 16 young people who participated in a Sutton Trust Summer School are used to illustrate how the effects of a school-based institutional habitus and directed intervention programmes can be instrumental in guiding student choices and decisions relating to participation in Higher Education.


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