Doctoral Student Networking: Motivations, Trends, and Barriers

• In Event: 67.067 - MTCC Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 67.067-11 - Recruitment, Admissions, and Networking in Graduate School

Abstract

The context of higher education has become increasingly internationalized and interconnected. As such, it is reasonable to expect doctoral students to develop connections outside of their own institution. There is an increasing level of interest by institutions and associations in facilitating mentoring and networking opportunities for graduate students, however, little is known about how these students draw on networking opportunities both within and outside their immediate academic community. This funded collaborative research project provides insight into doctoral students’ participation in and perception of networking in national and international conferences. The two-stage, mixed method, multi-country, exploratory study compares the experiences of doctoral students from four institutions in three regions around the world; Northeast United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Authors

• Blair Izard, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Omolabake Fakunle, University of Edinburgh

• Mollie Dollinger, University of Melbourne

• Joyceline Alla-Mensah