The Quest for Sustainable Graduate Education Development: Narrative Inquiry of Early Doctoral Students in China’s World-Class Disciplines

Jian Li and Eryong Xue ()
Additional contact information
Jian Li: China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Eryong Xue: China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-10

Abstract: Early doctoral student sustainable development plays a pivotal role in promoting doctoral education quality contextually. However, there are few studies analyzing the challenges and strategies of early doctoral student sustainable development. Thus, this study explores how various elements might have affected early doctoral students’ academic adaptation in a specific higher education institution context. The multiple data, including a narrative inquiry and a semi-structured interview, were examined to uncover 44 early doctoral students’ academic and living experiences on campus. It was found that some early doctoral students are facing great pressure from social relations, daily life, study groups, and academic requirements. Due to a lack of understanding of the doctoral education system, early doctoral students are often isolated after entering the new environment. Their current situation does not meet their initial expectations, and it is difficult to balance academia, work, and life. As a result, they lack social contact and cannot integrate into the team, the community, and learning community. Along with findings, we suggested that students should also actively participate in various academic exchange activities and research projects to continuously learn interdisciplinary knowledge and improve interdisciplinary ability. In addition, the supervisor should create a healthy learning environment and to guide, and supervise doctoral students to participate in exchanges and scientific research; doctoral students should pay attention to the quality of learning and academic communication to stimulate their self-development. Lastly, we present the discussion and conclusion.

Keywords: doctoral student; early doctoral student; graduate education; higher education in China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11564/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11564/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:18:p:11564-:d:915514

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().