Departmental academic support for doctoral students in Russia: Categorisation and effects

Higher Education Quarterly. 2023. Vol. 77. No. 2. P. 215–231.

Zhuchkova S., Terentev E., Saniyazova A., Bekova S.

Departmental academic support plays an important role in a doctoral journey. However, different types of support may be related to different outcomes. This paper aims to provide a categorisation of types of departmental academic support and analyse the relationship between these different categories of support and doctoral students' confidence that they will complete their dissertations. The empirical base for the research is data from a cross-institutional survey of doctoral students at six Russian universities. Based on the results of latent class analysis (LCA), we distinguished six types of departmental academic support depending on the functions performed by supervisors, other faculty members and department heads. Consistent with previous research, we found that departmental academic support plays a crucial role in doctoral students' experiences and outcomes, while lack of support is related to a lower level of confidence about completing a dissertation. At the same time, our results provide evidence that excessive collective engagement in doctoral students' work from departmental staff may be less effective than the strong engagement of a supervisor, assisted by informational support from other staff members.

Keywords: аспирантура, latent class analysis, латентно-классовый анализ, categorical principal component analysis, категориальный метод главных компонент, реформы аспирантуры, doctoral students, departmental academic support, reforms of doctoral education, академическая поддержка

Publication based on the results of: Educational environment and student experience in higher education (2022)