CIHE Speaker Series: Insights Into the Diversity of ‘Distance’ Doctoral Cohorts

Insights Into the Diversity Of ‘Distance’ Doctoral Cohorts With Dr. Katrina McChesney, Emma Jones, Dr. James Burford, & Professor Liezel Frick

The experiences of doctoral researchers studying by distance have received comparatively limited research or institutional attention. Distance doctoral researchers are at risk of having reduced access to supervisory input, support services, training and development, networking opportunities, physical and material resources or infrastructure, opportunities to inhabit and perform new scholarly identities, and the wider institutional climate. This pathway therefore, continues to be positioned – implicitly or explicitly – as ‘second best’ compared with on-campus doctoral education. We argue that this positioning is inequitable and outdated, requiring disruption and fresh ways of working, particularly given the impact of the COVID pandemic on mobility and hybrid ways of working in a range of contexts.

This presentation will draw on our 2022 international survey of over 500 students who are currently undertaking, or who have recently completed, doctoral research via ‘distance’. Our study conceptualised distance broadly, including a range of scenarios in which students work away from campus either by choice or by necessity and for either some or all of their enrolment. In this presentation we will share insights from the data to illustrate the diverse nature of this cohort in terms of a range of dimensions, including their backgrounds, motivations for studying via distance, life circumstances during their enrolment, experiences of distance supervision, researcher development experiences, and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their doctoral journey. Through the richness of these student accounts, our research provides other scholars, supervisors, policymakers, and institutional stakeholders valuable opportunities to learn about and understand the experiences of ‘distance’ doctoral cohorts in the 21st century. The participants’ lived experiences offer productive insights that can help improve both quality and equity within doctoral education for current and future ‘distance’ doctoral students