Factors Impeding Agency of International Doctoral Students in Education: a Case of State Funded Students from Kazakhstan

Prior research has demonstrated that agency plays a key role in doctoral student socialisation. While several prior studies have pointed to the lack of attention to the agency of international doctoral students, empirical explorations of the experiences of international doctoral students rarely explore the students' socialisation from the agency perspective. This paper uses data from interviews with funded international doctoral students from Kazakhstan to analyse factors, which influence agency of international doctoral students. The findings reveal that clarity of career goals is a critical individual factor enabling agency, while contextual factors such as supervisory support, peer relationships, funding, cultural divide, responsibilities associated with Bolashak scholarship, and personal circumstances significantly shape students' capacity to exercise agency. Unique to this study is the emphasis on the structural pressures imposed by the Bolashak scholarship, which both enable and constrain students' agency through its rigorous requirements and expectations. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of mentorship from faculty with home-country experience in fostering agency. Based on the findings from the analysis, several recommendations for future research and practice are suggested on providing better support for international doctoral students.