Content area
Full Text
Learning Experiences of Doctoral Students in UK Universities*
Abstract:
This paper compares the learning experiences of full-time PhD students in 28 Education Departments and 31 Chemistry Departments in British universities. A questionnaire composed of two major dimensions of the learning experiences, supervision and research environment for doctoral students, was distributed to about 2,200 students. It is found that Chemistry departments are seen as offering better doctoral education as perceived by students than Education departments on most counts, especially regarding academic culture of facilitation, intercultural facilitation of research for foreign students and research facilities in research environment for doctoral students. Supervision is perceived to be more satisfactory in Chemistry than in Education especially in aspects of supervisor's knowledge, supervisor's research workload, supervisor's student-load and supervisor's helpfulness in finding funding. A theoretical framework of the Teamwork and Individualist research training structures to discuss the possible causes of these findings is offered. It is proposed that disciplinary diversity in effectiveness of doctoral education is engendered by the two distinct research training structures.
Learning Experiences of Doctoral Students in UK Universities
Doctoral education although it has not attracted much attention in the past has long been a distinct sector in higher education. In the past few decades doctoral education has undergone major changes in many aspects. One of the main motives underlying these changes is to find a better way to support doctoral students. Unfortunately, very few empirical studies on the quality of doctoral education were driven from students' perspective. To satisfy this need, this paper investigates doctoral students' learning experiences in Education and Chemistry and attempts to answer the question: how do doctoral students in Education and Chemistry perceive their learning experiences?
Transformation of Current Doctoral Education
The European tradition of doctoral education emphasises the contribution to knowledge rather than personal development and specialised research training. (Blume, 1995) According to Blume, "further scientific work, leading to the title of 'doctor', was not conceived as a training in research, but as research itself." (ibid.: 11) However, the traditional European model faced a number of difficulties in the UK during the 1980s. The questions raised concerns not only about "why it took some people so long to complete their doctorate" but also "whether the doctorate in its...