ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way doctoral studies are experienced in the institutional context of the biggest Bulgarian university. It reviews the institutional regulations and the programme for innovative doctoral studies with reference to national and European developments in the area of higher education. The case study is based on doctoral studies programmes in the social sciences and incorporates experiences of doctoral students, supervisors, examiners (members of examining juries) and university officials. Three main themes are in the chapter’s focus – supervision, identity and language – which are covered from the doctoral researchers’ and supervisors’ perspectives. The process of doctoral studies is experienced as a transition period on both sides but also as an emerging researcher status, which is and could be even more explicitly correlated to the European research and higher education area through enhanced mobility, language competences and promotion of the European dimension in doctoral studies.
