Tensions between student and institutional conceptions of postgraduate research

Universities assume that the conceptions of research represented in their policies and plans are universally applicable. However, if individual postgraduate research students experience significant tension between their understandings about research and those of the institution, and this tension impedes on‐time completion, then the institutions may be faced with a research funding shortfall. In both Australia and the UK, government research funding is contingent on on‐time student completion. With this imperative in mind, an in‐depth longitudinal analysis of the experience of three female postgraduate research students was undertaken to explore the question: how universally applicable to individual students' conceptions are institutional conceptions of postgraduate research? The investigation found that the gap between the students' understandings about research and those of the university was so wide and persistent that on‐time completion did not occur. As the gap was qualitatively different for each of the three women, it is suggested that an unknowable, but appreciable, number of students will also experience such gaps. It would seem desirable, then, for students and their supervisors to explore conceptions of research early in candidature, and to continue this exploration across the candidature, to enhance each student's ability to successfully negotiate tensions and so facilitate on‐time completion.