BACKGROUND PhD supervision is mostly individual and disagreement between supervisors and PhD students is a seldom-discussed topic at universities. The present study aimed to describe the experience of disagreement between PhD students and supervisors. METHODS Nine supervisors and seven PhD students from Sweden and England were interviewed using a video recorder. The recorded material was anal...

Abstract Impostor syndrome (IS) refers to the inner speech of self-doubt and belief that you are not as competent others perceive be. The university can be considered a work environment prone IS, especially because requirements present higher education science policy, which emphasizes continuous evaluation, competitive spirit, focus on performance excellence. It is therefore understandable many...

1 Composition • Project Leader – Olivier Beaumont, assistant professor (delegation INRIA) • Staff members – Nicolas Bonichon, assistant professor, Univ. Bordeaux 1 – Nicolas Hanusse, CR CNRS, LaBRI – Cyril Gavoille, Professor, Univ. Bordeaux 1 – Ralf Klasing, CR CNRS, LaBRI • External Collaborator – Philippe Duchon, assistant professor (delegation CNRS) ENSEIRB • Postdoctoral Students – Alfredo...

Nowadays, studying in higher education is not as uncomplicated as it seems to be, particularly in PhD programs. Given the complex interplay of multiple variables affecting one’s experience in such programs, there is a mounting need for probing more into the ways in which PhD students’ lives are affected by these factors, and how their transition trajectories emerge. The present study explored t...

There is increasing evidence that science & engineering PhD students lose interest in an academic career over the course of graduate training. It is not clear, however, whether this decline reflects students being discouraged from pursuing an academic career by the challenges of obtaining a faculty job or whether it reflects more fundamental changes in students' career goals for reasons other t...

PURPOSE This study aims at a first evaluation of the outcome of the Swiss national MD-PhD program during the last 16 years. METHOD One hundred and twenty six former and current students in the Swiss national MD-PhD program were surveyed via a Web-based questionnaire in September 2007. Twenty-four questions assessed information regarding participant demographics, information on the PhD thesis ...