Completing a Ph.D. – Does it have to be a Lonely Existence?

Abstract

The co-authors of this paper are current Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) students with the University of Wolverhampton. We embarked on writing this opinion piece to share our experience of the first year of our Ph.D. and suggest how higher education institutions (HEIs) can enhance the academic development of doctoral researchers and minimise the detrimental experiences which studies have shown to affect this group of students.