This study examines the relationship between Generative AI (GenAI) usage and research self-efficacy (RSE) among Chinese doctoral students, a topic of growing importance as AI technologies become embedded in academic practices. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design, data were collected via a survey from 587 doctoral students across STEM and humanities and social sciences (HSS) disciplines. Hierarchical multiple regression and moderation analyses (PROCESS macro) were employed to examine predictive relationships and interaction effects. Results revealed that both the frequency and purpose of GenAI use significantly predicted RSE, with an augmentative approach - using AI as a critical thinking scaffold - emerging as the strongest positive predictor. Furthermore, perceived supervisor support and academic discipline moderated this relationship, with supportive supervision amplifying the benefits of augmentative use, and STEM students demonstrating a stronger link between frequency of use and RSE than their HSS counterparts. The findings underscore the importance of fostering critical AI literacy and providing supervisory guidance to maximize the psychological and scholarly benefits of GenAI integration. This study contributes to doctoral education research by empirically demonstrating how augmentative GenAI usage serves as a psychological scaffold that enhances research self-efficacy, and by identifying supervisor support and disciplinary context as key moderating factors in this relationship.
Financial insecurity is a significant challenge for university students, affecting both wellbeing and study participation. Guided by a socio-ecological perspective, this study examines financial insecurity among university students as a multi-level issue shaped by individual, institutional, and broader structural conditions. A cross-sectional survey examined the prevalence of financial insecurity among Australian university students and its associations with demographic characteristics, health, academic outcomes, and awareness of support services. An online survey was distributed via universities and national student networks (September-October 2024). Financial status was self-reported as adequate ('comfortable'/'just getting by') or inadequate ('struggling'/'severely struggling'). Descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and content analysis were used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data. Of 838 respondents (61% female, 64% domestic), 32% reported inadequate financial status. Independent predictors included international student status, Indigenous identity, disability, and living alone. Financial insecurity was associated with higher odds of perceived poor academic outcomes (OR = 5.5, 95%CI: 3.9-7.6), poor-fair self-rated health (OR = 3.0, 95%CI: 2.4-4.1), and food insecurity (OR = 8.4, 95%CI: 5.7-12.4). Awareness of financial support services was low, with dissatisfaction more common among financially insecure students (OR = 2.1, 95%CI: 1.9-4.1). Findings inform a series of recommendations for universities and policymakers to strengthen student support and address systemic drivers of financial insecurity.
Academic integration plays a critical role in promoting students' academic success. However, few studies have examined how different factors jointly influence the academic integration of academic master's (AM) students, resulting in insufficient support networks for their academic development. Drawing on Tinto's student integration theory and using Chinese AM students as the sample, this study explored how institutional research support (IRS), supervisor academic guidance (SAG), peer academic support (PAS), and cross-institutional graduate enrollment shaped students' academic integration. Using structural equation modeling, the study found that IRS, SAG, and PAS directly influenced academic integration. Specifically, IRS had a significant effect on the cognitive and affective dimensions but not on the behavioral dimension, whereas SAG and PAS significantly influenced all dimensions. Moreover, SAG and PAS fully mediated the relationship between IRS and academic integration, with PAS emerging as the stronger mediator. In the model where SAG served as a mediator, its effects on cognition and behavior were weaker among cross-institutional students. In contrast, in the model where PAS functioned as a mediator, its effect on behavior was stronger among cross-institutional students. These findings are critical for developing AM student-centered support networks and enhancing overall training quality.
Doctoral education in Sub-Saharan Africa has expanded rapidly, yet evidence on post-PhD career trajectories remains limited. This study examines employment outcomes, career pathways, and structural constraints shaping doctoral graduates' experiences in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. Using a mixed-methods design, the study integrates survey data (n = 154), key informant interviews (n = 27), and multi-stakeholder policy dialogues under the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund. Guided by identity-trajectory theory and academic precarity, the analysis explores how individual aspirations intersect with institutional conditions and broader structural dynamics. Findings show that while career advancement and research engagement motivate doctoral training, graduates navigate fragmented and uncertain career pathways. Academic employment is often characterized by low remuneration, limited research funding, and weak institutional support, prompting engagement in consultancy and externally funded projects. Policy dialogues highlight systemic gaps, including weak research ecosystems, limited industry linkages, and the absence of structured postdoctoral pathways. Alignment between doctoral training and employment is stronger in Kenya and Rwanda than in Ethiopia. The study demonstrates that doctoral career trajectories are shaped by interactions across micro, meso, and macro levels, providing comparative evidence and policy-relevant insights for strengthening doctoral training, research systems, and sustainable academic careers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Completing a master's degree on time measures higher education efficiency and drives national development. However, on-time completion rates in Sub-Saharan Africa remain critically low. In Tanzanian public universities, for example, fewer than 30% of students finish within the expected 18 to 24 months, delaying workforce entry and exacerbating skill shortages. While institutional barriers are well-documented, the recursive, relational dynamics between students and supervisors remain comparatively under-theorised. This study investigated these relational barriers and developed a model explaining how they interact recursively to produce sustained delays. Using a qualitative design, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 48 participants (students, supervisors, administrators). Thematic analysis, informed by sensitising concepts from Tinto's and Bean's models, exposed their limitations in explaining interactional delays. Findings revealed interdependent student-related (inadequate research skills and emotional burnout) and supervisor-related barriers (inconsistent feedback and limited accessibility). These recursively reinforced disengagement through behavioural feedback loops (fear -> avoidance -> neglect -> stagnation), forming the basis of the Dyadic Interaction Model for Timely Postgraduate Completion (TIM-PGC). The model reconceptualises timely completion as a relationally co-created outcome, shaped by feedback loops within a specific institutional context. It advances theory by integrating structural and relational perspectives and proposes context-sensitive interventions for resource-limited higher education systems worldwide.
Research misconduct in higher education is a global concern. Research integrity is vital for ensuring scientific research is trustworthy for the research community and public. Despite the importance of research integrity, research misconduct - breaches of scientific norms such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, and questionable practices - remains prevalent. This study explores academic researchers' perceptions of the relative importance of factors driving research misconduct. An online survey incorporating a novel application of a choice experiment was undertaken by researchers at universities in Australia, the United States and Europe. We adopted an inferred behavior approach to address self-reporting bias and, hence, the choice experiment focused on a hypothetical researcher. The results indicate that among the 11 factors varied within the choice experiment, researchers perceive misconduct as significantly more likely to occur mainly when penalties are lower, when there is lower likelihood of investigation into misconduct, and when the negative human/animal/environmental impact of misconduct is smaller. Three latent classes are also identified, revealing differences among researchers with respect to their judgement of the factors that drive misconduct. The findings of our study provide guidance for university policies and promotion of research integrity.
Although students' motivations for pursuing a PhD in elite, research-intensive, universities have been explored, little attention has been given to the motivations for pursuing a PhD at other types of universities, despite increasing enrolment in doctoral programmes across a broad range of universities. The current study addresses this research gap by examining the motivations of Chinese doctoral students in non-research-intensive (NRI) universities through the lens of self-determination theory. Based on interviews with 27 PhD students and graduates at NRI universities, this study involved a deductive-inductive thematic analysis, which identified a spectrum of regulatory styles that differ markedly from the intrinsic orientation often assumed in elite contexts. The findings reveal that for doctoral students in NRI universities, who are often first-generation attendees from non-elite backgrounds, a doctorate is primarily viewed as a credential shelter against labour market precarity. Three motivational archetypes were identified: (1) Stability Seekers, who prioritise educational continuity in safe and known environments; (2) Reality Accepters, who are driven by introjected regulation stemming from their 'family habitus' and rely on social capital (guanxi); and (3) Long-term Planners, who exhibit identified regulation and use specific resources provided by NRI universities as an instrumental platform mainly for supporting academic careers in the same type of universities. Some of these students exhibited amotivation, which manifested uniquely as 'institutional inertia', reflecting passive entry due to structural constraints and pressures. This study challenges the homogeneity of doctoral motivation theories and studies, showing that in NRI universities, students' pursuit of a doctorate is shaped by the tension between their individual agency and deep-seated structural anxieties. This research thus has implications for policymaking and academic support systems at NRI universities.
As a transnational higher education model, international branch campus (IBC) embodies a blend of global influence and local characteristics. It can also reproduce Western-centric assumptions about knowledge, culture, and credential value under certain institutional and discursive conditions. The hybrid and tension-filled nature of IBC offers students a complex educational experience that requires them to exercise agency in navigating their learning process. While research on IBC students' experiences is increasing, few studies have focused on their agency. Drawing on the notions of agency and third space, this qualitative study explores how Chinese mainland undergraduate students exercise agency at a Hong Kong institution's branch campus in the Greater Bay Area. Based on semi-structured interviews with 15 participants, this study finds that students have enacted agency through clear motivations and goals, adaptable self-reactiveness, and profound reflection on themselves and the IBC environment. The findings also show that Western-centric hierarchies can become salient in students' perceptions, while students may reinterpret and negotiate these influences through agency. These insights advance understanding of student agency within the transnational higher education context and offer implications for creating more supportive and inclusive IBC learning environments.
Industry-based placements, a core work-integrated learning (WIL) practice in higher education, rely heavily on supervisors to shape student experiences. Student under-preparedness and skill gaps, compounded by 'placement poverty', student personal pressures, and the rapid increase in international students, may pose growing challenges for supervisors. However, limited research exists on the supervisor experience, including support needs and challenges, and whether these may differ when supporting international compared to domestic students. This research examined health placement supervisor perspectives of student preparedness for and engagement in placement and reported supervisor support needs, using mixed methods consisting of an online survey (n = 51) and semi-structured interviews (n = 5). Participants came from nine health disciplines at an Australian university. Descriptive statistics were applied to quantitative data, while inductive thematic coding was applied to qualitative data. Findings indicate supervisors value placements but identify student preparation issues and the impact of personal pressures on engagement. The study also highlights potential benefits of enhanced supervisor preparation and support. These insights offer strategies to improve placement experiences and strengthen industry-university partnerships, ultimately benefiting student success and industry engagement across WIL programs.
Within the context of higher education in Australia, academic failure at undergraduate level has not been comprehensively investigated. This study sought to determine factors that predicted failure amongst undergraduate students after two semesters of study. Failure was defined as having a cumulative GPA below a passing grade. At the research site, factors included indigeneity, academic writing literacy, Faculty/college of enrolment, engagement with academic support services, gender, and language background. Amongst a variety of academic and non-academic factors, this study utilised results on a post-entry language assessment (PELA), which screened students according to their academic essay writing skills. The study was conducted over five semesters and comprised a multidisciplinary sample. This research equips university decision makers with a profile of students who may face difficulties navigating the rigours of tertiary education. It subsequently allows key stakeholders to allocate resources appropriately and effectively to respond to academic failure.
