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2017 - Volume 1 - Number 1

University Education System as a Research Environment for the Training of PhD Students

Boris Manov * bmanov@swu.bg * ORCID: 0000-0002-4956-3598 * ResearcherID: F-4196-2014
South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Blagoevgrad

Valentina Milenkova * vmilenkova@gmail.com * ORCID: 0000-0002-7592-1475 * ResearcherID: F-2581-2014
South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Blagoevgrad

Open Journal for Sociological Studies, 2017, 1(1), 27–36 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojss.0101.03027m
Online Published Date: 15 December 2017

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

KEY WORDS: Ph.D. research activity, university, quality of support, departmental environment.

ABSTRACT:
The present article aims to analyze some aspects of Ph.D. training as a specific basis for intellectual establishment and research support focusing on the following issues: What are the characteristics of Ph.D. students’ integration to research activities? How young people evaluate various research processes? What is the department support as an institutional unit to doctoral students? What is the role of the family in the carrying out of Ph.D. process? The analysis focuses on the support that students from the Faculty of Philosophy, South-West University (SWU) receive for their research activity from their families and the institution they graduate. The paper is based on results obtained through quantitative as well as qualitative methods in the course of research projects carried out in 2013, 2015, and 2017 at SWU. The main methods of obtaining information are focus groups and survey conducted with graduate students in the Faculty of Philosophy, SWU. The basic conclusion of the study is that Ph.D. student’s research activity is a prerequisite for their future professional identity. The establishment of research skills is directly related to the support that doctoral students receive from the department, by the assistance of their supervisor and other professors who encourage creative activity, applying individual approach and seek active communication based on person-centered pedagogy. Meanwhile, the psychological support of the family is a no less important part of the received support, stimulating the construction of individuality in the process of socialization of young researchers.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Valentina Milenkova, Ivan Mihailov 66, 2700 Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. E-mail: vmilenkova@gmail.com.

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