DOCTORAL STUDENTS´ EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES IN THE CHANGING CONTEXTS

Multiple global and social changes become widely realized in the different contexts of life, and the change requires wide adaptation and comprehensive examination. Changes are reflected in the universities and in the doctoral education. The doctoral education is trying to answer the wide demands set for it - better relevance to the working life and systematized effectiveness are sought after for the doctoral education. The global change and new demands for doctoral education forces us to discussion about the new doctoral education and the future of the prospective doctors.

The higher education has been unified in Europe, with the help of the Bologna process and Lisbon Strategy, and they both have powerful role in the doctoral education. In spite of the common aspirations, the doctoral education is still heterogeneous nationally, according to the university and the field. To form a comprehensive understanding, it requires an examination at the micro and macro level. Widely internationally the doctoral students form a heterogeneous group. The graduating doctors face a very different reality and future compared to how it was in earlier decades. The change in form of knowledge and information create the need to examine the current practices in doctoral education. The doctoral education has to answer the expectations set for it, these being set also by the future doctors.

Doctoral education is a part of the society´s operation, which is affected by multiple factors and development. Many studies examine doctor education from the macro level with the emphasis on the financing, effectiveness or internationality and separated from the context. Forming a comprehensive understanding also needs an examination at the micro level and making visible the doctoral students´ experiences. It is valuable to paid attention to the everyday and concrete level of the operation. The doctoral studies are a multi-dimensional process in which the different starting points and contexts build different entities and everyday experiences. The diversified lifecourse and the expanded possibilities of doctoral students require matters to be examined as a whole. Individual orientation to the future by combining the different areas of life helps to perceive life in wider perspective.

The paper is based on my doctoral thesis research in education. In the study participated 12 under 40-year-old female doctoral students with a family from three different universities in Finland. I examined the female doctoral students with a family individual experiences and the significance of doctoral studies at the micro level. I concentrate on the personal lifecourse experience of the women and on the chronological stories based on them and how the macro and micro level are in constant dialogue. I examine the new everyday conventions made by women that are suitable for the changing contexts and how university could develop further in this holistic and global change process.