When Katrina McChesney received an email from an Australian university that she had ¡°never heard of¡± about free research master¡¯s and doctoral degrees for Antipodean citizens, she assumed it was a scam.

At the time, the Kiwi teacher was working on an educational reform project in the Middle East. An academic back home reassured her that it was a legitimate proposal. She gave little thought to whether she really wanted a PhD, let alone which university or supervisor would be best. ¡°I just fell into it.¡±

She started a master¡¯s programme and, when things went well, switched to a PhD. ¡°I was enrolled at an Australian university, but I lived in the Middle East for the first half and then moved back here to New Zealand,¡± said Dr McChesney, now a senior lecturer in education at the University of Waikato. ¡°I lived in 11 houses in two hemispheres. I had a baby in the middle of it. The first time I went to my university was to graduate.¡±

This scenario is not all that unusual, according to the preliminary findings of an international research project into the experiences of doctoral candidates who study by distance.

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A survey conducted by Dr McChesney and??in England, South Africa and Australia elicited responses from 521 current and former PhD students in 42 countries. It revealed a hotchpotch of approaches, from partly online study a stone¡¯s throw from the host university to fully remote learning on the other side of the planet.

While three-quarters of respondents had undertaken three-fifths or more of their studies off-campus, one-sixth had been off-campus for the entirety of their programmes. And while 84 per cent had studied in the same countries as their universities, 10 per cent had spent the whole time abroad.

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Most respondents came from social science disciplines and particularly education, reflecting the researchers¡¯ professional networks but possibly also a comparative dearth of distance doctoral students in laboratory-based courses. Nevertheless, about one-fifth of responses came from people in the sciences.

Dr McChesney said the figures ¨C set to be published in full next year ¨C reflected the heterogeneity of a largely overlooked cohort. ¡°Institutional understandings of who distance doctoral students are, and what they need, are a bit out of date. They¡¯re kind of invisible in the statistics. We haven¡¯t been able to find any reported data.¡±

While the pandemic forced people off campus, distance doctorates were ¡°not a new post-Covid thing¡±. A subset of PhD candidates had ¡°always¡± studied remotely because of work obligations, caring responsibilities or sheer distance from their universities. ¡°We know that people do doctorates from prison. Doctorates are being done [in] places like Antarctica. I have this hunch, which I am yet to prove, that somebody must have worked on their doctorate from space,¡±?Dr McChesney said.

Covid had triggered new practices in any number of workplaces. ¡°That¡¯s happening for doctoral students too, but it¡¯s happening quietly because doctoral students are independent and¡­do their own thing.¡± But universities were struggling to recognise the phenomenon, hampered by ¡°institutional inertia¡± and a sense that ¡°doctoral programmes have always looked a particular way¡±.

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¡°Until now, most of the responsibility has sat with students. It¡¯s on you to make it work. Universities have said: ¡®Here are the ways you can communicate with us and access our services.¡¯ There hasn¡¯t been that sense of, ¡®We as an institution are responsible to make sure our provision serves all of you¡¯,¡±?Dr McChesney said.

Dr McChesney?did not choose her supervisor and her PhD topic ¡°emerged by accident¡± as an extension of her work at the time. As it happened, ¡°my supervisor was wonderful¡­but she was really all that the university offered me¡±.

The university had promoted itself as a specialist in distance doctoral education. ¡°Occasionally a librarian would scan a chapter if it wasn¡¯t digitally available. But really, I spent most of my doctorate getting increasingly annoyed at¡­emails advertising these wonderful networking events, professional development opportunities, workshops, speakers, seminars ¨C all of which required you to be on campus in [another] country.¡±

Despite such frustrations, the survey elicited many positive stories. ¡°A lot of doctoral students became distant students by accident, because of Covid, and found that it was really great for them.¡± Dr McChesney said her team rejected the ¡°deficit discourse¡± of distance study as a ¡°second-best¡± option. ¡°We think it should be tackled from an inclusion and equity lens in terms of good institutional provision,¡± she said.

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¡°Financial constraints¡­caring responsibilities, health and mobility, anxiety, trauma ¨C all of those sorts of experiences are perhaps particularly highly represented in an off-campus cohort. Universities¡­wanting to be part of the equity drive in ÖйúAƬ can¡¯t [overlook] off-campus students.

¡°Offering a really strong distance doctorate pathway [has] got to be a good marketing opportunity. There are students out there who want to do doctorates. Be the best at looking after them, and students will come.¡±

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com