Writing a Doctoral Dissertation: A Qualitative Study of Education Doctoral Students' Perceptions

Abstract

For doctoral students, dissertation writing is an important stage in their completion of the degree. They might face several problems during this stage. The aim of the current qualitative study was to explore doctoral students' perceptions of dissertation writing. Ten participants were selected through a purposive sampling technique from the education department of a private university in Lahore, Pakistan. An interview guide was constructed in light of the research objectives and literature review. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. The findings of the study revealed language barriers, insufficient academic writing skills, inadequate supervisory support, and personal factors as problems faced by doctoral students during their dissertation writing. It is recommended that an academic writing course should be offered during coursework. Moreover, effective supervisory support should be ensured at the dissertation writing stage. The concerned department should facilitate and solve the problems of doctoral students during their write-up stage.

Investigation of the thermodynamic, structural, electronic, mechanical and phonon properties of D0c Ru-based intermetallic alloys: an ab-initio study

“…This stability is defined in terms of elastic constants C ij , Bulk Modulus (B), Shear Modulus (G), and Young's modulus (E), providing insights into a material's hardness and ductility. For tetragonal crystals, mechanical stability criteria at zero pressure are defined by the following set of equations [53]; The melting temperature (Tm) of a material depends on its mechanical properties, and it follows a linear relationship with its elastic constants [54][55][56][57]. For tetragonal structures, the melting point is given by…”