“The majority of the responding doctoral students are satisfied with their doctoral education and the support they receive. And there has been an increase in this level of satisfaction over time”, said Hanna Kantola, Research Education Coordinator at the University of Borås.

Feel included

The report shows that a majority of the doctoral students are fairly or very satisfied with the supervision they receive from the supervisors. They also feel like included members at their departments and as part of the research environment and the research groups that are established at the university. But at the same time, 45 percent experience so much stress that it had a high or very high negative impact on their own well-being.

The follow-up of the doctoral students' individual study plans works well, however, the purpose of the associated learning objective matrix is ​​not as clear. Likewise, the doctoral students' opportunities to evaluate their courses are good. However, when it comes to the feedback of the course evaluation results via course reports, less than a quarter of the doctoral students answer that they always or often get access to these.

Areas for quality development identified

Some prominent areas of importance for quality development within the university's doctoral education programmes have been identified. These are: career development, psychosocial work and study environment in the form of workload and negative stress, introduction to postgraduate education and feedback on the course evaluation results in the form of course reports.

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Read the PhD barometer 2023 (in Swedish)