Journal Encyclopedia - Peer-Reviewed Content
More  >>
Encyclopedia 2023, 3(4), 1474-1488; https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3040105

The management of expectations in doctoral education relates to the negotiation and agreement of a learning contract denoting actions and initiatives between a student and a supervisor. A learning contract is a set of understandings of what things, actions and initiatives might reasonably be expected from whom, in the course of learning, where there is a natural power imbalance. This is important so that both scholarly and material progress can be made along all points of the doctoral learning experience, i.e., that learning is personalised, professional and productive towards an original contribution of knowledge. It is the evidencing of this continual learning process through research that is deemed to be doctoral at the final examination stage. A doctoral student is a learner on the highest degree pathway that is available at all UK universities. This typically results in a thesis, marking the end point of being supervised whereupon an assessment or examination takes place, which, in UK universities, is called a viva voce (Latin: the living voice). This is a verbal account or defence of the thesis document by the student, made to two or three examiners who comprise the examination team. In the UK, the viva examination is a private event, while elsewhere, for example, across Europe and North America, the examination can be a public event. A student on a doctoral programme usually has a period of registration that is 3 years full-time or 6 years part-time. Other terms that can be used interchangeably around doctoral supervision are candidate (for the student) and candidature, which is their period of registration. Supervisors also have roles denoted as the Director of Studies (DoS) or Principal Investigator (PI). The supervision team is led by a Director of Studies (or PI) who is often the most experienced scholar who teaches, guides and mentors their student’s learning through the research they conduct. There are usually at least two supervisors in a supervision team in the UK, but there can be more as required depending upon the specialisms and topics being researched. Expectations formed by either the student or the supervisor(s) can be about physical resources to embark upon a passage of learning through a doctoral programme, or more typically, the discussion of expectations relates to managing the behaviours of students and supervisors in their respective roles. Managed expectations help to achieve a balance between the intellectual sharing of expertise by the supervisor with the self-directed initiatives for learning, which are taken by the student. The aim of managing expectations is to help a student move from dependence in their learning at the start of their programme to becoming an independent doctoral-level scholar who, once graduated as doctor, can act autonomously to conduct their own research, or even embark upon supervising others’ research in the future.

See what people are saying about us
Hicham Wahnou
I've found your platform to be an ideal space for sharing knowledge and illustrations within the scientific community. Encyclopedia MDPI has been overwhelmingly positive, primarily because of its user-friendly interface, the wide array of subjects it covers, and the engaging events.
Hassan II University
Patricia Jovičević-Klug
I am really impressed by the final video (produced by Sciplayer). I was a little bit worried about what the final video would be like, because of the topic, but you made the magic come true again with this video.
Department of Interface Chemistry and Surface Engineering, Max-Planck-Institute for Iron Research, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Bjørn Grinde
I believe research should be brought to the public and that videos are important for getting there. A warm thanks to Encyclopedia for making it happen and to the video crew for doing an excellent job.
Division of Physical and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
Patricia Takako Endo
I have followed up the Encyclopedia initiative and I think it is a good alternative where researchers can share their works and results with the community.
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia da Computação Pernambuco, Universidade de Pernambuco, Brazil
Sandro Serpa
With the precious and indispensable active participation of scholars from all over the world, in articulation with the Editorial Office Team, will certainly continue to give a positive response to the new challenges emerging.
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of the Azores, Portugal
Hsiang-Ning Luk
I received a feedback from a particular reader and now we intend to collaborate on a paper together. I appreciate the MDPI provides such a good platform to make it happen.
Department of Anesthesia, Hualien Tzu-Chi Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan
Melvin R. Pete Hayden
Thank the video production crew for making such a wonderful video. The narrations have been significantly added to the video! Congratulations on such an outstanding job of SCIPLAYER TEAM.
University of Missouri School of Medicine, United States