PhD students’ experience

In the study, the doctoral students did not perceive of themselves as capable of returning to their research environ- ments and acting as ‘agents of change’. They often located themselves at the bottom of a well-estab- lished hierarchical structure in relation to their supervisor or research team. The vision of changing university culture by means of research training
for early career researchers – a vision found in international, national and institutional policies and strategies – is made difficult to realise by established structures and power relations