ABSTRACT
Promotion of doctoral research students is an important strategic task. Good supervising practices are, however, based on structural preconditions. A sufficient number of doctoral scholars at a particular time, who have time, commitment and energy for their challenging task, become an area of focus for universities. Such a “critical mass” provides the background before which innovative supervisory practices can be introduced in order to help doctoral students navigate through unclear waters, accept intellectual challenges, and eventually complete their research theses successfully and in a timely manner. In this chapter, we will reflect on the structural dimensions of doctoral studies in order to show that they are far more important than often admitted.
