PhD Students’ Perceptions of Research Seminars in Doctoral Education: A Case Study

There is no doubt that supervision plays a significant role in doctoral education. Supervisors have a fiduciary responsibility for guiding their supervisees throughout their doctoral research and theses writing journeys. In recent times however, many doctoral education programmes have adopted a collegial support system for doctoral students by introducing students’ research seminars to supplement traditional supervision. Research seminars offer both students and faculty the opportunity to engage in scholarly dialogue aimed at improving the former’s research and thesis. Although such seminars have become commonplace in many doctoral education programmes worldwide, little research exist on students’ perceptions of research seminars in doctoral learning. In this paper, we contribute to the literature by exploring the perceptions of 12 PhD students from a University in Ghana about research seminars and their usefulness in doctoral education. The findings indicate that the students perceived research seminars in doctoral education as spaces evoking manifold purposes—constructive advice; discrediting students’ work; varied views; and “muffling” students’ voices. Furthermore, the students’ perceptions of the usefulness of research seminars in their learning were trifocal in scope—research and thesis writing, presentation skills, and confidence-building. The paper makes some recommendations for improving research seminars in doctoral education for the purpose of enhancing collegial learning.