Despite continued growth in enrollments, graduate program attrition rates are of great concern to academic program coordinators. It is estimated that only 40 to 50 percent of students who begin Ph.D. programs complete their degrees. This book describes programs, initiatives, and interventions that lead to overall student retention and success.…

Chinese international students constitute the largest proportion of overseas students in several English-speaking countries such as the UK and New Zealand. Little research has been done concerning those undertaking doctoral study. This qualitative study explores how Chinese overseas doctoral students become involved in church communities and how…

Our study examines the relationships of six dyads of women advisors and advisees in one doctoral program to understand power, context, and personal transformation. We found that mentoring is context specific and power dynamics range from equitable to hierarchical. This article explores the connection between relational cultural theory and…

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,…

During a summer cruise to Mexico and Central America, students earned academic credit for doctoral-level coursework in qualitative research approaches and data collection and analysis. This study explored how participants, 16 doctoral students at a midwestern university, perceived experiential education and its effect upon their understanding of…

It is long evident that college campuses have been evolving considerably. Adult learners play a key and welcome role, challenging assumptions about formal learning and its delivery, with institutions themselves re-assessing long-held beliefs and procedures, protocols and hierarchies, participation and roles of both student and faculty alike, and…

This paper explores disciplinary approaches to knowledge production and the supervision of doctoral students in the context of New Zealand's current Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF). In the last decade New Zealand has experienced significant changes to the way doctoral students are funded by central government. Funding has moved away from a…

In this article, the author describes a study that provides a theoretical lens for examining the doctoral student experience that accounts for the multiple relationships that facilitate or stifle doctoral student development. One important outcome of students' relationships is the development of a professional identity as integrated scholar or…

The concept of community in higher education is broadly defined yet often exclusively linked with the undergraduate student population. Based on a two-year qualitative study at Oregon State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this article explores the notion of doctoral student community. Community as experienced by science…

This study explores how graduate students enrolled in M.A./M.S. and Ph.D. geography programs perceive the social and academic climate of their departments. A second objective is to understand how these students self-assess their own professional abilities, values, and goals, and whether these self-assessments differ across demographic and…

Examines the underlying nature of Latina/o doctoral student experiences as well as the context that engenders these experiences. The nature of the students' experiences was found to be fragile and vulnerable. The context that produced these experiences included: lack of family understanding; entering a new and unfamiliar world; lack of adequate…

As educational leaders, the authors are and will be continually challenged to overcome new obstacles, address issues, take risks, and improve their organizations beyond the point at which they entered them. Educational leadership preparation programs are implored to enable graduate students to become the leaders who will face these difficult…

A serious problem exists in the academic world, namely doctoral education attrition rates that approach 50% in some disciplines. Yet, calls for action have generally been "ad hoc" rather than theory driven. Further, research has not been conceived and implemented with sufficient breadth to integrate factors influencing the outcomes across the…

This article presents an exploratory case study that sought to gain insight into the development of both cognitive and affective understandings of place that resulted from the UTK (University of Tennessee in Knoxville) cohort visits to the Cincinnati schools. Ten reflections were collected from the cohort members upon their return from these…