Doctoral Research by Distance

Your doctoral research
Your place, your time, your way

Many doctoral students experience a tension as they navigate being emerging experts in their fields of study while being new to the world of research. This is a complex situation for any doctoral research student, and there are unique considerations for those who are becoming researchers at a distance. How do we become researchers when we are studying away from campus where so much of the action happens?

To date, much research, advice, and guidance has had an implicit focus on the experiences of on-campus (and typically full-time) students – yet being a full-time, on-campus student is less and less the normal or only way of undertaking a doctorate. Whether officially enrolled “by distance” or not, increasing numbers of students:

• Work on their doctoral research from home
• Study online or away from campus
• Engage in hybrid or flexible modes that blend on- and off-campus study
• Travel away from their institutions to collect data
• Complete their doctorate while also working and/or maintaining caring responsibilities
• And more!

Our work centres the experiences of doctoral researchers studying at a distance. We aim to share practical examples, stories, and strategies and to give students a sense of agency to make their doctoral research experience the best it can be.

We resist the idea that doctoral research by distance is “second best” or an anomaly, and we seek to equip and empower students, supervisors, and institutions to make the most of distance, flexible, hybrid, online, remote, and cross-national modes of doctoral study.