Abstract
This paper intends to present a preliminary study focusing doctoral education in NOVA Lisbon University. This University is less than fifty years old and it is growing, but a slight decrease in the doctoral population was observed in the last years, the completion times are not the ideal and attrition exists. So it is important to know the characteristics of the doctoral population of the University, in terms of profile and main difficulties, envisaging what can be done to promote lower attrition and shorter completion time. Using a national database (RAIDES) and public institutional documents, it was possible to initiate a research that aims at characterizing not only the student population, but also the supervision practices, monitorization and evaluation.
Highlights
At the beginning of the 21st century, higher education (Bologna, 1999) and the research area (Lisbon Strategy, 2000; Berlin 2003) emerged as two pillars of the knowledge based society
The following definition was used: The Nova Lisbon University is constituted by nine schools: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT); Escola Nacional de Saúde Publica (ENSP) (Health school), Faculdade de EconomiaNova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE) (Economics and management school); Instituto de Química e Bioquímica António Xavier (ITQB) (Science and health school); Instituto Superior de Economia e gestão - Nova Information Management School (Nova IMS); Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (FCSH) (Social sciences and humanities school); Faculdade de Ciências Médicas- Nova Medical School (NMS) (Health and medicine school); Faculdade de Direito (FD) (Law school); Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT) (Health and research on tropical diseases school)
The number of students enrolled in the PhD is irregular over the years in every Nova Lisbon University schools between 2010 and 2015
Summary
At the beginning of the 21st century, higher education (Bologna, 1999) and the research area (Lisbon Strategy, 2000; Berlin 2003) emerged as two pillars of the knowledge based society. It is within this context that the interest about doctoral education emerges, being considered one of the keys for innovation and development in higher education. As Zuber-Skerritt and Ryan (1994) refer “Research postgraduate training is unique (...) in providing a direct linkage between teaching and learning activities and research”, cited in Latona and Browne, 2001 [4] It can be divided in two different periods: the schooling and integration process in the beginning (first year) and the research process. Students can experience lack of support ( by the supervisor and by peers and institution), isolation, uncomfortable with the research environment (institutional climate) and personal difficulties (mistaken expectations, mismatch perceptions, frustration) [5, 6]
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