Fulfilling the Potential of Your Doctoral Experience. Pam Denicolo
of advice and experiences will help many others. We are especially grateful to the following people for their expert views, honest reflections and words of wisdom: (first and foremost) Dr Alison Yeung Yam Wah, Academic Writing Tutor, University of Surrey, for her superb contribution of Chapter 4. We thank you for your incredible patience and for allowing us to share your expertise with the doctoral audience.
Dr Carol Boulter – a science education researcher, for sharing her vivid dream and viva experience.
Dr Laura Christie – Educational Development Officer (Researcher Development) at Royal Holloway, University of London, for her experience with mentoring.
Dr Steve Clowes – Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Surrey, for sharing his experience with impactful research and for general all-round support.
Dr Zoe Harris – Postdoctoral Research Associate, for contributing her experience of, and the concept of, ‘Productive Distractions’.
Dr Elaine Hickmott – Development Director, EH Enterprises, for sharing her thoughts and top tips on career trajectory after the doctorate.
Dr Andrew Scott – Consultant, for providing an insight into the skills obtained and what employers want.
Catherine Stephen – Library Client Services and Academic Engagement Manager, for her advice on the incredible resources libraries hold.
Last, but not least – the amazing, sadly late, Maya Angelou, for inspiring us!
Prologue: Who Will Benefit from the Book and Why
Who is this book for?
This book has been produced in response to the profound changes that have taken place in the research community in recent years. The three main authors and our guest chapter author share a passion for supporting the work of researchers, especially doctoral and early career researchers. We have all worked for many years in various capacities to further that ambition, and in so doing have learnt much from researchers about what they find helpful and what they find challenging. We have also witnessed tumultuous change in doctoral education over the last fifteen years or so, including increasing diversity of doctoral candidates, types and titles of doctoral degrees, and the nature and scope of the doctoral research process. Thus, we recognised a need not only to provide an up-to-date resource for our newer researcher community but also to acknowledge that the community itself has transformed and requires a different kind of guidance to that traditionally provided.
The doctoral research community no longer mainly consists of full-time, funded, quite young PhD students but spans a range of ages and experience, including many undertaking a professionally based research degree, and those who study on a part-time and self-funded basis. What has so far remained consistent is that the community includes people from a range of national backgrounds, in whichever country their study is based and whichever geographical context provides the venue for data collection. Given that our audience is diverse in multiple respects, we have attempted here to provide useful general guidance and stimulating ideas for all but with some special advice for specific groups or circumstances, such as part-time researchers, whenever a significant difference emerges. To illustrate ideas and points, we have included the voice of researcher experience both from guest contributors and as generalised and anonymised comments from researchers whom we have engaged with over the years. This book is not, though, a substitute for all the available books on specific aspects of the doctoral process, such as reviewing the literature, writing a thesis or developing transferable skills, nor does it intend to make redundant other books about the general doctoral process. Indeed, we will recommend many of them, or at least some sections of them, for further reading of specified topic areas.
Instead, this book takes a distinctive stance which we think is more appropriate for doctoral researchers of today and tomorrow. Before we explore that stance, please note that we will continue to address our main readership as doctoral researchers in recognition both of the diversity of named degrees on which they may be enrolled and of the special status which we think they deserve in the academy. Others may also find this book informative, especially those professionals who support researchers such as supervisors/advisors and trainers, administrators and specialist providers like those involved in careers guidance and psychological/social support services. They will forgive us, we hope, for addressing the text to the main intended audience. Please note that from here onwards, we will use the term ‘supervisor’ rather than the term ‘advisor’, which is used in North America and elsewhere.
What is unique about this book?
We have acknowledged that there is much wisdom to be found in other books produced as guides for doctoral students. However, many of them start from the premise that they are ‘survival guides’ for those struggling in an alien context, while some address only the problems that may force themselves on the unsuspecting, rather passive student. We wish to dispel several myths in this book, one of them being this notion that doctoral researchers will necessarily ‘suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ while engaged in their project, with relief coming only with its completion.
While, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we seek to ensure that you are armed ‘against a sea of troubles’, we nevertheless go further and more positively: we want to highlight for you the huge potential inherent in a doctoral programme, including the enjoyment to be had as it progresses as well as future benefits to be gained. Undertaking a doctorate or any project that spans several years will mean dealing with uncertainty and becoming comfortable with it; whilst, over time, the research itself will be subject to change, we want to reassure you that this is normal and that if things do not turn out as you originally planned, this may prove to be a benefit and not a disaster. We want to dispel any paralysing fear of change. Instead, we want you to choose ways to manage your doctorate proactively to take advantage of the wealth of opportunities available to delight you along the way and enhance your prospects beyond the doctorate. In other words, we want you to get the most out of the doctoral experience by, among other things:
Preparing for study at the doctoral level and recognising the step change required from your previous studies
Managing the project and the people involved effectively, including managing your own expectations and reactions
Understanding the implicit assumptions of colleagues and teachers within the academy and adjusting to the ‘hidden curriculum’ of doctoral education
Gaining insight into the diverse range of successful communication and dissemination strategies so as to choose what is most appropriate for you
Developing strategic plans to maximise the potential impact of your research, paving the way to gaining further research funding or impressing potential employers
Using assessment processes as a constructive learning experience
Highlighting and demonstrating the value of your project
Elaborating your skills and personal development so that you can make innovative contributions to your chosen profession
Establishing a network of support and source of professional and intellectual stimulation to last you a lifetime
Recognising the global and interdisciplinary nature of research and the tensions that may exist between you as a researcher, the context or department/institution you are situated in, and the international setting, so that you can respond to these in productive ways
Thus, this is not a handbook that will tell you what to do in situation X because we know that you will meet situations that we and you have not yet dreamt of and for which there is no ‘quick fix’. Instead, we present a range of options which you must tailor to your circumstances and to your growing confidence and competence. By empowering you with knowledge and greater understanding of the context, we hope that you will take control of