‘Almost but Not Quite’: Professional Services Working in Doctoral Education

ABSTRACT Professional Services staff who hold doctoral qualifications and remain research‐active can make important contributions to doctoral supervision and scholarly activity. Yet, despite their expertise, they are often formally excluded from doing so because their employment contracts often categorise them as outside the scope of academic activities. These contractual and structural restrictions form an unspoken but pervasive ‘taboo’ within doctoral education, the assumption that only staff on academic contracts are legitimate participants in supervision and scholarly practice. Drawing on the autoethnographic reflections of two such professionals with distinct disciplinary and career trajectories, this article explores how these constraints generate processes of marginalisation and ‘othering’ for doctoral‐qualified Professional Services staff. The paper argues for a more inclusive model of doctoral education that recognises and utilises the supervisory expertise and research contributions of research‐active Professional Services colleagues.