The educational pathways and personal narratives of 13 Canadian doctoral graduates are the focus of The Doctoral Journey: Perseverance – a newly published collection edited by Nipissing education professor Thomas G. Ryan.
Supported in part by a grant from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario’s Opportunities to Innovate Fund,
the book chronicles the doctoral student experience through
first-person accounts that span virtually every facet of the PhD – from
the decision to apply to finances, work-life balance, thesis preparation
and ultimately, entering the workplace.
Beating
the odds in the current academic marketplace, all but three of the 13
graduates followed in the volume held postsecondary academic
appointments at the time of the book’s publication. Two recent HEQCO reports
on doctoral studies found that the demand by PhD students for full-time
faculty positions vastly outstrips the supply. Estimates suggest that
less than 25% of PhD students in Canada will secure full-time,
tenure-stream research and teaching positions, according to the studies.
Published by Common Ground Publishing LLC, The Doctoral Journey: Perseverance is available for purchase online.
