ABSTRACT
The most significant and important element in a doctoral research training is the level and quality of supervision researchers receive. This chapter focuses on the model of doctoral study that is quite common in Europe, where the production of a doctoral thesis stands at the centre (and conclusion) of the process, and every aspect of doctoral supervision and doctoral research feeds into this important product. Doctoral study in this model involves:
Undertaking a rigorous research study that falls a gap in knowledge and stands as a significant contribution to the scientific literature.
Writing up the research they have done in the form of a substantial thesis.
Submitting the thesis for examination and successfully defending it.
To achieve the above objectives, it is not only necessary to find and engage with a supervisor who will guide you through the project that you are planning to undertake, but also to establish a good supervisory relationship so that expectations, on both sides, can be met in order to successfully train as a researcher. It is important to understand that a PhD study should be approached more as a training to be a researcher than an ambition to undertake a 'brilliant and groundbreaking' piece of research that will be talked about and remembered for years to come! The training to be a researcher should also encompass a process whereby the doctoral researcher not only learns his or her own research method from the study being undertaken, but also explores the multifaceted and fascinating world of research, learning about many other research methods and techniques in the process. That is why it is often helpful to engage in a research milieu where other students are also undertaking studies in a wide variety of areas and through an equally wide range of research methods.