Open research questions in Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions

What the literature leaves open

• https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2026/21930 3 Volume 122| Number 7/8 July/August 2026 Cohort-based approach to PhD education in SA development opportunities, aligned with their PhD journey (e.g. proposal writing, data collection and analysis methods, thesis writing, dissemination and professional networking). The BRIDGES programme was funded to offer additional pedagogical courses, group support activities and professional development opportunities and may not be fully feasible in every department. Having suitable faculty to supervise students and to offer additional theory and methodological courses contributed to the success of the BRIDGES programme. Expanding standard PhD programmes to provide these additional offerings would likely require building on the current academic infrastructure of the university, with additional financial and human resource investments at the start. This initial investment would build the platform that would then benefit future cohorts of students. The cost is primarily in added person time and added meeting time costs can be kept modest. To conclude, the cohort and peer support approach, the paired supervision, mentorship, academic and professional development opportunities, allied partnerships and community engagement are mechanisms of the BRIDGES programme worth exploring for strengthening the responsiveness of PhD training in South Africa. This approach requires experienced faculty and leadership, strong partnership collaborations, selecting strong PhD candidates, scholarship funding and active facilitation of enriching academic programming and peer support opportunities. Beyond our nuanced description of our specific cohort-based doctoral programme, our case study builds on previous literature by showcasing the potential value of incorporating cohort-based models to the standard PhD training programmes in South African universities as a means of ‘bridging the gap’ in doctoral education. While specific approaches will necessarily differ across institutional contexts, as demonstrated in the different cohort-based doctoral programmes featured in this paper, this should not call into question the potential significant value and benefit of cohort-based doctoral programmes in enhancing the quality of training and experiences of doctoral students in South Africa.

  Bridging the gap: A cohort-based approach to doctoral education in South Africa · 2026 · DOI

• https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2026/21930 2 Volume 122| Number 7/8 July/August 2026 Cohort-based approach to PhD education in SA and Social Justice (MCSJ), a collaborating partner of BRIDGES that facilitated community–researcher engagements. The symposium theme and activities were usually aligned to support and consolidate work at different stages across the continuum of the PhD journey. We suggest that these experiential learning and professional networking opportunities are examples of pedagogical responsiveness aligned with the PhD learning journey. Distinct supervisor–mentor roles and cascading supervision In the BRIDGES’ model, supervision and mentorship were kept distinct in terms of roles, purpose and personnel. Each fellow worked under the guidance of two supervisors whose main focus was on their academic journey, as per the standard supervision model in South Africa. In addition to the traditional one-to-one supervision model, BRIDGES used a cascading, paired supervision model, where experienced supervisors were teamed with less experienced colleagues. While having two or more supervisors is not uncommon in South Africa, in the BRIDGES model, the pairing of less and more experienced supervisors was explicit to create a pipeline for new PhD supervisors, as part of strengthening institutional capacity. As part of their professional development, some BRIDGES’ fellows also gained supervision skills through co-supervision of master’s students. One fellow had the privilege of graduating in the same ceremony with the master’s student whom she co-supervised. Separate from the supervision team, each fellow also had at least one mentor from the BRIDGES team, or from a broader pool of academics, including from our project partner, Brown University in the USA. The goal of the mentorship was professional and personal support throughout their PhD journey. The mentorship model was dynamic, with fellows choosing their own mentors and having the freedom to change mentors and/or bring in additional mentors based on their changing needs over time. Most fellows chose to have regular monthly meetings with their mentors. Fellows commented on the added and distinct value of mentors in building their personal, academic and professional confidence, including feeling nurtured through tough times and feeling encouraged to take up new professional challenges, for example, seeking out teaching opportunities or collaborations with established researchers. We suggest that the interpersonal support and professional links provided through our mentorship model may have provided connectedness with lived social realities of PhD researchers, while simultaneously enhancing confidence and providing opportunities for professional development.

  Bridging the gap: A cohort-based approach to doctoral education in South Africa · 2026 · DOI

• https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2026/21930 1 Volume 122| Number 7/8 July/August 2026 Page 2 of 4 in the sense that it was a dedicated funded programme for strengthening PhD training through a range of innovative pedagogical and organisational strengthening mechanisms. Even so, it was integrated with existing PhD training infrastructure at UCT and demonstrates potentially feasible elements for strengthening responsiveness of doctoral programmes at UCT and elsewhere in South Africa. Fellows were recruited into the BRIDGES Programme through a rigorous process that entailed putting out a call for applications with specified eligibility criteria, reviewing the applications and interviewing potential applicants, culminating in selection of a small core cohort of four doctoral and two postdoctoral fellows. All BRIDGES fellows were funded for their academic programme, similar to scholarships provided by the South African National Research Foundation. In addition to funding annual tuition fees, supplementary funding was provided for fieldwork and attending conferences and courses. BRIDGES Programme activities revolved around three specific aims. First, to train a new cohort of PhD and postdoctoral fellows with a specific focus on gender and HIV. Second, to fill critical gaps in the PhD and postdoctoral curriculum by offering several new courses, where none existed at the time. Third, to host an annual BRIDGES Symposium that would allow PhD and postdoctoral fellows access to a wide range of training, networking and professional development opportunities by leveraging extensive local, national and international research networks. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, which were built into the BRIDGES Programme, were helpful in keeping abreast of ongoing processes and adjustments. These included monitoring of individual fellows’ progress via annual individual development plans and a signed memorandum of understanding reviewed twice per year. Further, regular monitoring and evaluation of BRIDGES programme activities was done through biweekly meetings with key programme faculty; quarterly meetings were held with co-investigators and annual meetings with the BRIDGES technical advisory committee. The four distinctive features of the BRIDGES structured cohort approach that we describe here are (1) a continuum of services aligned with dynamic academic and professional development needs, (2) distinct roles and cascading supervision, (3) allied supervisor–mentor partnerships with various stakeholders and (4) cohort-based support mechanisms (Figure 1). These distinctive features were crucial in leveraging the impact of the cohort model.

  Bridging the gap: A cohort-based approach to doctoral education in South Africa · 2026 · DOI

• Theme 5: Barriers to Full Research Commitment Some faculty members engage only in limited research activities, such as presenting conference papers or conducting small-scale studies. This withdrawal is often driven by excessive workload, lack of incentives, or insufficient research confidence. Research is often deprioritized when institutional support and incentives are insufficient.

  Research Engagement of Faculty in Higher Education Institutions · 2026 · DOI

• It has been well documented that factors that influence doctoral students’ academic success and degree completion have been strongly aligned with supportive doctoral advising (Heath, 2002; Sverdlik et al., 2018). Importantly though, the issue of quality advising remains unaddressed. While this study showed the average number of dissertations chaired and the related workload, it is unclear whether this average corresponds to quality advising, or as the data suggests, whether the average may reflect an overworked faculty trying their best to keep up to the unrealistic demands placed on them by their institutions. Further research could examine the varying levels of doctoral advisement required for doctoral student Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice Vol. 11 No. 1 (2026) impactinged.pitt.edu DOI 10.5195/ie.2026.522 17 Long & Adams success, taking into consideration the variance of student need for minimal supervision to needing more substantial time and support. Broader investigation into the factors that contribute to the range of diversity of advising support needs could help develop more tailored advising strategies, ultimately improving student outcomes, as well as clarify advisor expectations. efficiency and quality, struggle with the ramifications of this variability, unsure whether gains in productivity offset potential losses in the quality of doctoral outcomes. Addressing these discrepancies necessitates a reevaluation of institutional practices, fostering clearer expectations and prioritizing both the well-being of faculty members and the academic success of doctoral candidates. The preparation and training of dissertation committee chairs and members are additional critical areas for investigation. Previous research found that doctoral advisors often “learned about advising by relying on their own student experiences and observations of colleagues” (Barnes & Austin, 2009, p. 312). Future research should explore whether faculty receive formal training before assuming the role of a doctoral advisor and how such training—or lack thereof— affects the advising experience. Beyond the impact of previous training of doctoral advising, another aspect to include in investigation could delve into the skills needed to not only lead students, but better understand doctoral committee dynamics and developing teamwork practices towards collaboratively supporting overall student success. Future research should explore quality in dissertation advising, as the role relates to workloads, and address strategies that can be used to improve quality.

  Invisible Labor in Doctoral Advising · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could consider advisers from multiple institutions. At the same time, the study underscores areas that remain under-explored, such as how institutional structures, disciplinary traditions, and cultural norms influence the practice of digital research advising. By foregrounding the voices of faculty, this study addresses a gap in the literature that often privileges student perspectives and general forms of academic advising.

  A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INQUIRY OF DIGITAL RESEARCH ADVISING · 2026 · DOI

• the power dynamics and dependence in this relationship, as well as potential methods for improvement, are discussed. The Power-Dependence theory is ap- plied here for the first time in an academic advisory setting or a laboratory su- pervisory relationship. The developed model provides a basis for dependence- based power analysis in empirical field studies. The analytic model derived and the insights gained are valuable for improving the doctoral advisor-advisee relationship in laboratory sciences, enhancing their productivity, supporting advisee well-being, and catalyzing scientific advance- ment. Applying the model developed in this study, analytical research drawing on Power-Dependence theory can be extended to empirical field studies to under- stand the power dynamics in this relationship. Analytical studies can also be conducted on different variables, including the stages of the doctoral degree, the circumstances of the advisor and advisee, and the demographic and socio-eco- nomic categories of the actors.

  Understanding and Improving the Doctoral Advisor-Advisee Relationship in Laboratory Sciences Using the Power-Dependence Theory · 2026 · DOI

• Yet, little is known about how female academics experience accessing ACD while simultaneously trying to cope with the demands of academic work intensification.

  Female lecturers’ academic career development: A case of speech-language pathology and audiology · 2026 · DOI

• Future Research: Future research should examine Executive DBA experiences longitudinally, compare programs across national and institutional contexts, and explore how alumni support and labor-market conditions shape post-graduation legitimacy and perceived value.

  Constructing Value at the Boundary: Executive DBA Graduates’ Narratives of Legitimacy and Identity · 2026 · DOI

• Despite trying to optimize the tools and methods used for data collection during our evaluation process, certain shortcomings and areas for improvement remain. First, our assessment was limited to the student participants alone; due to time and resource limitations we were unable to collect similar data from members of the research team or from our collaborators at UMP. Such assessments could have provided important information from the organizers’ perspective about working with students and any challenges encountered during the research process, as well as potentially providing insights into possible improvements for future research efforts. Second, response rates were low from students who were less engaged in the project activities for both study completion questionnaires and exit interviews.

  Evaluating the experiences of Vietnamese university students enrolled in a longitudinal research cohort: a journey mapping approach · 2026 · DOI

• While this study offers valuable insights into biology PhD graduates’ career outcomes and decision-making processes, we acknowledge several limitations of using secondary data. First, as a secondary data source, the interview questions and structure were not designed specifically to answer the research questions guiding this study. As such, certain dimensions of participants’ experiences may not have been explored in sufficient depth or with the theoretical lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) in mind. For example, our use of SCCT in this study focuses primarily on the contextual factors at the level most visible in the interviews: advisor relationships, lab and departmental cultures, funding structures, and access to professional-development opportunities. We do not model contextual factors at the level of institutional category or specific program design, in part because the qualitative dataset does not include systematic indicators of those features for all participants. It is possible that some of the gaps graduates describe are concentrated in particular institutional contexts, while others are more widespread. Our contribution is to show how graduates make sense of the environments they personally experienced, not to adjudicate which types of programs or universities are most or least effective. Moreover, the sample includes students from 53 researchintensive universities, approximately 80% of which are classified as R1 institutions. This emphasis may limit the transferability of the findings to PhD students in other institutional contexts (e.g., R2 institutions, teaching-focused universities). The overrepresentation of R1 environments may reflect a training experience more heavily oriented toward academic research careers (Bennion et al., 2022). Additionally, we do not have systematic program-level information for each department. It is possible that some departments or institutions offer more extensive career preparation and broader skill training than others, and that some of the gaps graduates describe are concentrated in particular institutional contexts (Tomlinson-Clarke et al., 2019; Soler, 2025). Nevertheless, our goal is to identify patterns in how biology PhD graduates from research-intensive settings describe their training and early career decisions and make sense of the environments they personally experienced, using their interpretations of supports, barriers, and preparedness as theoretically meaningful outcomes. Therefore, our findings should be read as indicating recurring concerns and strengths across this sample, not as evidence that every biology PhD program exhibits the same limitations. Addressing this will require future studies that link graduate narratives to systematic institutional and program-level indicators to test whether specific gaps cluster by program type.

  Career Pathways and Skill Preparedness among Biology PhDs: A Social Cognitive Career Theory Perspective · 2026 · DOI

• Abstract What do literacy events look and feel like for doctoral students, and how do these events overlap intertextually, materially and relationally? The last three decades have seen a rapid diversification in doctoral education where new opportunities for study, combined with an increasingly competitive landscape, have disrupted what it means to undertake a doctorate, as well as reshaping the literacy practices that comprise doctoral experiences in new ways that have not been fully explored.

  The doctorate unbound: relationality in doctoral literacy research · 2023 · DOI

• Abstract Higher-degree research (HDR) students often struggle with the transition into independent research, the juncture in which students accustomed to the structure and predictability of coursework suddenly become project managers: narrowing research questions to address a meaningful gap in the literature, designing projects that adhere to ethical mandates, and using existing literature to not only report on a topic, but also justify it.

  Navigating the transition into higher degree research: an exploration of candidates’ experiences · 2023 · DOI

• Abstract Background While attrition from the PhD has been attributed to many high‐level causal factors, such as funding, advisor relationship, and “fit” into a department, few studies have closely examined the mechanisms of attrition or why and how graduate engineering students begin to consider attrition from their doctoral programs.

  Engineering graduate students' critical events as catalysts of attrition · 2022 · DOI

• Despite a vast body of scholarship delving into international students’ educational experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about the doctoral group's perception from a sociomaterial perspective.

  A Sociomaterial Investigation into Chinese International Students’ Navigation of a Doctoral Trajectory During COVID-19 · 2022 · DOI

• The principal purpose of the doctorate has been to allow entry to an academic career and, while statistical data are scarce until relatively recently, doctoral students were undoubtedly overwhelmingly younger white men from affluent backgrounds, with incremental – and, arguably, glacial – change only arriving since the 1950s.

  Working in the borderlands: critical perspectives on doctoral education · 2021 · DOI

• Social implications The concept of doctoral capital and well-being, amongst Australian PhD students, is under researched and requires further investigation as a precursor to developing more specific policy designs aimed at providing heightened positive learning environments/HDR programs tailored to support doctoral students.

  Doctoral capital and well-being amongst Australian PhD students: exploring capital and habitus of doctoral students · 2021 · DOI

• Future research is recommended to explore the effect of imposter syndrome on doctoral student participation, specifically in participation on research teams; to examine more thoroughly the role of faculty mentors in doctoral student development, specifically as it relates to small group dynamics; and to investigate the effect of scheduling conflicts and other challenges on the longevity of mentor driven doctoral research groups.

  Doctoral Student Research Alliance: Unexpected Challenges in Group Formation · 2020 · DOI

• In Portugal, research concerning this issue is scarce and this paper intends to discuss the meanings and implications of researching in the intersection between different languages and cultures in the context of doctoral education at the Department of Education and Psychology of the University of Aveiro, Portugal, in the perspective of both (national and international) students and supervisors.

  Researching across languages and cultures: a study with doctoral students and supervisors at a Portuguese University · 2020 · DOI

• Future Research: Future research could focus on expanding the findings of this study by exploring the perspectives of faculty based on institution type and examining how socio-emotional factors such as student-student and faculty-student relationships are intentionally established in programs with high graduation rates.

  Chair Agency, Chair Preparation, and Academic Supports in Educational Leadership Doctoral Programs in the United States · 2020 · DOI

• Future research could explore the topic in other disciplines outside STEM and examine if long-term interventions could mitigate impostor-feelings, including the nature and length of interventions that could be helpful.

  PhD Student Experiences with the Impostor Phenomenon in STEM · 2020 · DOI

• Future Research: Future research should consider how OSDPs could help to support a supervisory process encompassing the individual and performative approaches to supervision complying with institutional and economic demands with a more collective and emancipatory approach by focusing on social relations supporting doctoral candidates’ emancipation as critical beings.

  Beyond Personal Expectations: Research Supervision Framed as a Collective Endeavour in Online Structured Doctoral Programmes · 2019 · DOI

• Recommendation for Researchers: This research provides a psychometrically sound instrument that can be used to advance the research on academic-family integration, a term that has not been previously defined and a topic that has been sorely understudied despite the fact that family is central to doctoral persistence.

  Toward Understanding Factors Salient to Doctoral Students’ Persistence: The Development and Preliminary Validation of the Doctoral Academic-Family Integration Inventory · 2019 · DOI

• The topic of AF balance of doctoral students, both in distance and residential programs, is understudied despite the fact that family is a consistent factor identified in doctoral persistence and attrition.

  Toward Understanding Factors Salient to Doctoral Students’ Persistence: The Development and Preliminary Validation of the Doctoral Academic-Family Integration Inventory · 2019 · DOI

• Future Research: Future research could focus on evaluating variations of the Ewing Model© depending on the unique requirements of different types of culminating projects in doctoral programs, assessing other known predictors of doctoral program completion besides social connectedness and usefulness of the curriculum and instruction, and assessing student completion rates using this model.

  Evaluating a Model to Increase Doctorate Program Completion Rates: A Focus on Social Connectedness and Structure · 2019 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions

• RETROSPECTIVE REPORTS IN ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH: A REEXAMINATION OF RECENT EVIDENCE. · Academy of Management Journal · 1997 · 646 citations
• The PhD Experience: A Review of the Factors Influencing Doctoral Students’ Completion, Achievement, and Well-Being · International journal of doctoral studies · 2018 · 382 citations
• Should I Stay or Should I Go? Student Descriptions of the Doctoral Attrition Process · Review of higher education/˜The œreview of higher education · 2000 · 206 citations
• Developmental networks and learning: toward an interdisciplinary perspective on identity development during doctoral study · Studies in Higher Education · 2010 · 182 citations
• Contribution of the doctoral education environment to PhD candidates’ mental health problems: a scoping review · Higher Education Research & Development · 2018 · 145 citations
• Career satisfaction of postdoctoral researchers in relation to their expectations for the future · Higher Education · 2015 · 126 citations
• The expansion of doctoral education and the changing nature and purpose of the doctorate · Higher Education · 2022 · 125 citations
• Conceptualizing Success in Doctoral Education: Perspectives of Faculty in Seven Disciplines · Review of higher education/˜The œreview of higher education · 2009 · 115 citations
• ‘A doctorate in a tight compartment’: why do students choose a professional doctorate and what impact does it have on their personal and professional lives? · Studies in Higher Education · 2006 · 103 citations
• PhD experience and subsequent outcomes: a look at self-perceptions of acquired graduate attributes and supervisor support · Studies in Higher Education · 2011 · 98 citations

Most recent work

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• The Time‐Independent Project Ownership for Fellows ( <scp>TIPOFF</scp> ) Model: An Approach to Increase Learner Engagement in Research Training · AEM Education and Training · 2026
• Dynamic Demands versus Durable Skills: Career Dilemmas in Pharmaceutical R&D · Academy of Management Journal · 2026
• Identity Mediation in Doctoral Education: Extending a Situated Framework of Scholarly Identity · Journal of Education · 2026
• Academic Self‐Efficacy and Academic Identity Construction: A Qualitative Study of Doctoral Students in China · New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development · 2026
• Professionalisation and professional identity in academic development: concepts, domains, and mechanisms · The International Journal for Academic Development · 2026
• Between, beside and beyond the binary: navigating positionality dilemmas in doctoral research · International Journal of Research & Method in Education · 2026
• Qualitative Case Study Design: Recommendations for Doctoral Students in Educational Leadership Programs · Journal of Research on Leadership Education · 2026
• Crossing borders, building bridges: A reflective case of interdisciplinary PhD co-supervision in health sciences and education · Transformation in Higher Education · 2026
• Degrees of Determination: The Doctoral Journey of First-Generation College Students · Journal of First-generation Student Success · 2026

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