Doctoral student support programs in diverse national contexts Omer Caliskan Department of Educational Sciences, Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi, Ankara, Turkey, and Karri Holley University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA Abstract Purpose – The growing demand for doctoral education and the role of the doctoral degree to advance nations socially, economically, and culturally forces countries and individual institutions to respond to concerns stemming from the doctoral process. Numerous initiatives to support doctoral students have been adopted with varying features across countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine doctoral student support programs in two countries: the USA and Turkey. These countries offer higher education systems at different stages of maturity and stability. Design/methodology/approach – The data for this study came from a comparative case study analysis of doctoral student experiences in support programs at two research universities, one in the USA and one in Turkey. Ten American doctoral students and eight Turkish doctoral students were interviewed, for a total of 18 interviews. The study utilized the conceptual framework specified by the PhD Completion Project initiated by the US Council of Graduate Schools. Findings – The two national systems featured in this study are at different points of their development. These developmental starting points influence the rationale and construction of a student support program, particularly one focused on advanced degrees, research activity, and knowledge production. The Turkish higher education system faces the challenge of building its infrastructure to be responsive to national needs in future decades, including producing qualified faculty as teachers and researchers. The American model of doctoral student support concentrates on increasing diversity within the academy. By focusing on first-generation students, students of color, and women in STEM disciplines, efforts are directed toward not just improving the quantity of graduates, but also the diversity of those graduates. Originality/value – While doctoral student support programs are increasingly common in multiple national contexts, analyses of these programs are rare, and comparative analyses even more so. The emergence of new academic disciplines, the trend toward interdisciplinary research, and the prevalence of neo-liberal policies has made the doctoral experience increasingly complex. The data presented here reveal that while doctoral education is influenced by country-specific contexts, doctoral students from multiple countries share many of the same experiences. Keywords Mentoring, Doctoral education, Comparative, Student support programs Paper type Research paper In industrialized countries, the doctoral degree is increasingly seen as a national mechanism for social, financial, and cultural advancement (Nerad and Evans, 2014). While historically viewed as the exclusive training ground for future university faculty, contemporary doctoral programs are commonly utilized as hubs of innovative knowledge activity and a platform for training knowledge workers in a wide range of settings (Altbach, 2016; Neumann and Tan, 2011). In response to concerns about student experiences in doctoral programs, initiatives designed to support doctoral students are prominent on multiple levels. For example, the Salzburg Principles, established as part of the Bologna Process to reform doctoral education across the European Union, emphasize professional development opportunities for students as well as sustainable funding sources (European University Association, 2010). In Australia, the Council of Learned Academies argued for programs and initiatives to support the increase in non-traditional students pursuing a doctoral degree, Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education Vol. 9 No. 4, 2017 pp. 565-576 © Emerald Publishing Limited 2050-7003 DOI 10.1108/JARHE-12-2016-0095 Received 16 December 2016 Revised 12 June 2017 Accepted 9 August 2017 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-7003.htm 565 Doctoral student support programs Downloaded by 162.253.26.222 At 07:10 04 October 2017 (PT)