The Research Training Experiences of Doctoral Students Related to Australian Cooperative Research Centres

Abstract

This paper reports on the research training experiences of Australian doctoralstudents working in or funded by Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs), notes how theirlevels of satisfaction compare with those of their counterparts in regular university scienceand technology disciplines and assesses to what extent the CRC program is achieving itshopes with respect to PhD training. Findings are based on data from a survey of all enrolledPhD students in two research-intensive universities in Australia, together with supplementarydata from student and supervisor interviews. Findings indicate that in the main, CRC-relatedPhD students fare well compared with their counterparts in regular university departmentsand that on a number of indicators CRC-related students recorded higher levels of satisfactionwith their course experience. This situation suggests that CRCs are playing a significant andworthwhile role in research training in Australia.