The doctoral experience: a bit of a curate's egg (original) (raw)

Established models of doctoral education in Australia are generally based on an apprenticeship model, where doctoral students learn from their advisors. However, these are slowly being reconsidered in light of low completion rates. This study investigated doctoral students' perceptions of their candidature by way of focus group interviews. The participants represented 17.9% of the doctoral students enrolled at a university. Three research questions constituted the interview schedule protocol: • What are some of the positives of your experience since you enrolled in the doctoral program? • What are some of the negatives of your experience since you enrolled in the doctoral program? • What are some of your recommendations for the future? Content analysis was employed to analyse interview transcripts and generate themes arising from each research question. The frequency with which such themes were cited were categorised by their incidence across the 18 schools represented in the st...