The purpose of this study was to determine how resilience factors impact doctoral degree completion after a significant delay of one year or more. The non-completion of doctoral degrees has been a concern due to its economic, social, and personal consequences. The research questions being examined were: (1) What were the various reasons shared by…

For an individual doctoral student, doctoral education happens in multiple spaces across a considerable amount of time. However, the existing literature and conceptualisations of doctoral education do not adequately address the spatiotemporal dimension related to it. By using the concept of "scales," this article examines how the social…

A dissertation research proposal is more than just a document that represents the foundation of a doctoral candidate's research journey. It is essential to communicate the study's intent to be undertaken and to gain approval from an academic committee. The present analysis provides a systematic approach to writing a dissertation proposal, offering…

A sense of community is central to student engagement and satisfaction. However, many students struggle with developing connections in online programs. Drawing on interviews with 13 instructors, this paper explores the strategies that they use to help students develop a sense of community in synchronous virtual classrooms. Four strategies for…

The article examines the experiences of Chinese PhD students doing research in China Studies as well as the experiences of their supervisors who supervise their research in Australian universities. By conducting semi-structured interviews with both PhD students and their supervisors, we aim to understand the expectations, concerns and challenges…

The aim of the study was to investigate the reasons why adult learners took longer than required to complete their Master's and Doctoral degrees. A questionnaire and focus group interviews were used to collect data. Twenty adult learners who registered for the Master's and Doctoral degrees at one township campus of a university were targeted, and…

This article presents and discusses the results of a national survey of social work PhD students, faculty, and administrators (n = 416), conducted by the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE), in December 2012. The survey was undertaken to inform the updating of GADE's 2003 "Guidelines for Quality in Social…

The purpose of this study was to explore and to understand the daily life experiences of 8 women doctoral students who were in pursuit of their doctorates. A partially mixed concurrent dominant status design was utilized in this study embedded within a mixed methods phenomenological research lens and driven by a critical dialectical pluralistic…

Research was conducted to determine the current status of doctoral study in adult education programs in U.S. colleges and universities. Data were collected using a researcher-designed mail survey based on the Commission of Professors of Adult Education (CPAE) Standards for Graduate Programs in Adult Education. The survey sought information about…

Background: Online learning community based education is still new. As institutions implement new programs they can encounter learner satisfaction issues. Purpose: To investigate learner unhappiness during the second semester of a new online doctoral program and develop a substantive grounded theory concerning its cause(s). Setting: The Doctorado…

A survey instrument was sent to all doctorate-granting institutions and all institutions identified as offering doctorates in plant biology. Doctorate-granting institutions were identified using the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education General Information Surveys (HEGIS) listings. Responses were received from plant biology program…

The completion rate and median time to degree of three doctoral cohorts at the University of Manitoba were analyzed by gender and by field of study and the results were compared to studies elsewhere. To evaluate factors affecting students' progress, a mail questionnaire was sent in the fall of 1993 to all students (N=105) first admitted to the…