PhD, postgraduate and early career

Quarter of institutions admit they don’t know if PhD candidates are working with AI, while only a small proportion say they are coming up with guidelines on its use

Doctoral candidates offered hybrid ‘stipend and salary’ studentships with significant teaching hours will struggle to balance competing pressures, union fears

Trump-imposed economic pressures should prompt us to confront the mismatch between PhD admissions and academic jobs, says Joshua Snider 

‘Cynical’ seasoned scholars advise younger peers to pursue alternative employment, signalling ‘sustainability crisis’ for universities

Practice seen as a way to boost participation at higher levels of academia but critics say it could have the opposite effect

The fact that now-established academics survived a system built on overwork does not make it fair or well designed. We must change it, says Yu Tao

No evidence that people with a doctorate experience ‘significant wage penalties’, finds committee’s review of key visa route

Norwegian government celebrates fall in temporary employment rates but academics say they don’t reflect reality

Beijing’s drive for technological self-reliance blamed for high-pressure academic environment as data suggest more academics are struggling to cope

Decades-long freeze on London weighting is making PhD study unaffordable despite recent record stipend increase, student groups warn

Researcher says course at Sorbonne did not require clearance, but university decided to conduct screening anyway

Dean hopes new model for postgraduate study in Asia will influence education in the region more broadly

An open approach to knowledge and a kind, enabling manner help students go their own way but never feel alone, says Andrew Chadwick

Academic life was a lot simpler in the humanities and social sciences when simply finding a document guaranteed originality, says Disha

Aston and Leeds plan to create resources and training tools for students, supervisors and examiners

Responding to early-career researchers’ honest questions with accusations of misconduct is a travesty of open science, says Madeleine Pownall

Honest and open-ended conversations over how AI can be productively used in the learning journey are needed, not ChatGPT bans, says Ava Doherty

Failure to acknowledge how class operates within academia means many students still feel uncomfortable on campus, says Beth Johnson

Churning out so many PhD graduates into a weak academic labour market and marginalising innovative doctorates is immoral, says Ianis Matsoukas

Failure to explain how AI-aided academic writing is a form of plagiarism leaves graduate students horribly compromised, says E.M. Wolkovich

Economic reform begins with injecting order into the hotchpotch of research programmes, and enticing more locals into higher study, according to Australian body

Internal modelling released under Freedom of Information enquiry reveals extent of PhD scholarship cuts, with academics fearing impact could be greater still

Facing a thesis whose bibliography alone was longer than any essay I’d ever written, I was convinced that this time I’d gone too far, says Polly Penter

Teaching assistants have demanded fair pay for years but industrial action has made little progress. AI offers a significant raise, notes Michael Buehler

Around 200 doctorates funded across 10 university consortia in new model for arts and humanities postgraduate research funding

Leading university to review admissions policies and scholarships as part of institution-wide focus on postgraduate participation

Blurred line between staff and students could leave postgraduate researchers at greater risk

Doctoral schools, quality assurance and supervision guidelines all on the rise but question of staff or student status still not resolved, survey finds 

UKRI’s largest proportional spender on PhDs will ensure transparency, access and geographical equity via its new schemes, says Christopher Smith

Better to remind candidates that a doctorate is an opportunity to find and articulate their own thoughts on what they care about most, says Les Back

Finnish researcher Sulo Roukka’s Europop dance anthem won the long-running contest showcasing scientists’ musical and dance talents

Stagnating government funding means tuition fee rises may be inevitable, says Japanese university leader

‘A poor communicator who ghosts me’: disaffected research students and supervisors have similar grievances about each other, survey reveals

Survey of UK doctoral examiners reveals disquiet over problematic PhD examiners keen to initiate emotionally charged intellectual exchanges

Average losses on doctoral training of over 50 per cent seen as ‘underestimate’, with gaps plugged by overseas student fees and quality-related funding

Reforms to boost opportunities for those just starting out could have the opposite effect, observers warn

Employment rates for PhD holders reach record low in South Korea, with younger researchers most affected

Australian department ‘not aware’ of computer ‘bug’ that applicants blame for torpedoing their PhD dreams

Regular breaks, mock vivas and introducing an online option among other recommendations made by review that aims to combat ‘gladiatorial approach’

Domestic postgraduate provision looms as an alternative to out-of-favour international education, but it’s a tough market with questionable returns

‘Endless stress’ confronts Iranian doctoral candidates who worked for a year just to cover the application fee

Collating information from LinkedIn, ORCID profiles, Hesa and HMRC could solve data black hole over PhD careers, says research director

Unprecedented hike in UK Research and Innovation minimum PhD stipend will seek to place it in line with national living wage

While majority do see themselves as staff, discipline and stage of PhD likely to influence how candidates perceive their role, researchers say

Academic hiring focused on star doctoral graduates should instead focus on what comes afterwards, advises longitudinal study

Provocative paper claims boycott of feminist title left early career scholars high and dry while others profited from ‘moral entrepreneurship’

Domestic doctoral enrolments have shrunk by 8 per cent over the last half-decade, says report

María Zambrano programme was designed to attract international talent – but many recipients say no effort has been made to retain them

Support for 150 ‘venture science doctorates’ by 2029 aims to increase number of spin-outs developed by early career researchers in Germany

Oxford student union president Addi Haran Diman is highlighting the difficulties faced by postgraduate researchers after completing a DPhil at 22

Technology can offer a very useful helping hand, but there are an array of pitfalls that need careful handling, says John Miles

Employers’ attitudes and pay discrepancies seen as hampering drive to increase doctoral level enrolments

Government proposals would see 30 per cent of taught postgraduate programmes shortened or reconfigured

Oxbridge and STEM doctoral graduates are more likely to benefit from ‘mover’s advantage’, says Higher Education paper on international mobility

Nigerian doctoral student Sue Agazie will receive compensation after Newcastle University admitted failings in supervision

Cambridge PhD graduate Ally Louks reflects on ‘baseless’ and ‘outlandish’ hate comments she has received after her selfie went viral

Barely one in three postgraduate researchers now have opportunity to teach, finds Advance HE survey, with financial pressure on institutions likely to blame

Offering independent adjudication of complaints against PhD supervisors may offer timely assistance to at-risk students, says India’s suicide prevention tsar

Loan scheme pioneer highlights moral hazard of Australia’s ‘Byzantine’ way of bankrolling master’s places

Happy overseas students push satisfaction with master’s courses to record high, but domestic counterparts are not so bowled over