Successful postgraduate learning: more than just fulfilling the academic requirements

Christine Lee
Monash University

Keywords: postgraduate; research; learning

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree is the highest qualification that is awarded by a university. Therefore, for many scholars or postgraduate students who desire an academic career, this would be the last discipline related qualification that they would pursue. At most universities, the PhD requires the production and submission of a thesis in a bound document usually about 200 pages or longer depending on the culture of the discipline. Sometimes, there is the requirement for the candidate to present their work in a seminar or conference and participate in an oral examination after the thesis has been examined by the examiners. Since there is little formal assessment performed on postgraduate students during their PhD studies, there is a high reliance on supervisors to informally monitor the progress of their students towards a successful completion of the degree.

This paper analyses and discusses the learning experiences of postgraduate students. In the absence of regular tangible assessment during the research process, the student is still required to learn to navigate through a range of other experiences that can contribute or hinder the successful completion of the degree. These include an evaluation of their internal and external study environments for postgraduate students, and the learning and emotional support during their degree. For international students, there is even much more to learn especially if the student has recently arrived into a new country to pursue their studies. With the emphasis on supervision to address some of this learning, the introduction of formal supervisors' training workshops has emerged in some universities over the past few years. Following the range of intangible learning and study experiences that are covered in this paper, the conclusion is reached that non-assessed learning should be recognised as counting significantly towards the completion of the thesis.