ABSTRACT
Prior to making formal applications, potential doctoral applicants in the UK often send academics and professional staff informal approaches to seek information, find a potential supervisor, or to seek feedback on a draft research proposal. Staff can make a variety of judgements about these inquiries, but in deciding how to respond, they effectively become gatekeepers to the academic profession. At the same time, the pre-application process is often challenging to navigate, particularly for those from minoritised social groups and international students. Applicants may draw on tacit knowledge to negotiate unfamiliar genres (e.g. inquiry emails to supervisors) or call on the support of others, which can disadvantage communities that are underserved by higher education.
Opening up the Black Box of Pre-Application Doctoral Communications (PADC) and Searching for a Supervisor (S4S) are two university-wide projects based at the University of Warwick (UK) that investigate the informal communications between potential doctoral applicants and university staff from an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion perspective. This research comprises two distinct yet connected projects:
- Phase 1 - Feb-July 2022: Opening up the Black Box of Pre-application Doctoral Communications (PADC) focuses on the institutional context of a Russel Group UK institution, investigating how staff engage with pre-application doctoral communication and the meanings they make about this communication.
- Phase 2 - Dec 2022-July 2023: Searching for a Supervisor (S4S) focuses on minoritised doctoral students’ experiences of navigating the pre-application process in one UK institution, and also analyses publicly available ‘how to find a supervisor’ videos on Youtube.
Project Lead
James Burford
University of Warwick
Project Lead
Emily Henderson
University of Warwick
GOALS & RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- To undertake empirical research to understand how:
- Supervisors, academic Postgraduate Research Directors and professional staff Programme Officers make decisions about responding to potential doctoral applicants at the pre-application stage, and to explore how these decisions may impact the recruitment of diverse talent.
- Current doctoral students who are members of minoritised social groups navigated locating a doctoral supervisor, identifying potential obstacles in the process as well as enabling factors.
- To review the guidance and inclusivity considerations of online materials including:
- Warwick Doctoral College and departmental webpages on postgraduate admissions.
- YouTube video resources about how to approach a supervisor.
- To produce a suite of development opportunities and resources and to identify changes at institutional and department levels to create a more transparent and inclusive doctoral admissions process for currently underrepresented applicants.
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Intersectional feminist perspective; postcolonial orientation
METHODS
The projects employ a multi-method, qualitative approach:
Phase 1, Opening up the Black Box of Pre-application Doctoral Communications, comprised a literature review of existing scholarship and grey literature on doctoral admissions and a webpage analysis of public-facing admissions material on Warwick Doctoral College and departmental webpages. The team then commenced semi-structured interviews with academic Postgraduate Research Directors (12) and professional staff Programme Officers (8) and ran a solicited diary study with doctoral supervisors (19) about pre-application, which was followed by focus group discussions with selected participants.
Phase 2, Searching for a Supervisor, involves interviews with current Warwick doctoral students (15) from minoritised backgrounds who had to seek out a supervisor. It also involves an analysis of YouTube advice videos about finding a doctoral supervisor to learn more about the advice landscape.
FOCUS AREA WITHIN GRADUATE EDUCATION
Transition into graduate school, mentoring, advising, and graduate school selection processes
INVESTIGATORS
James Burford, University of Warwick
Emily Henderson, University of Warwick
Sophia Kier-Byfield, University of Warwick
Dr Dangeni, University of Newcastle
Ahmad Akkad, Oxford University