Abstract:

Preparation of PhD students is more and more becoming the prominent role of universities - this includes the development of future leaders in industry, commerce and services (Millett, Nettles, 2006). In addition to being a stimulating element during the exchange of innovative ideas between academia and practice, the PhD students are often the impulses, which can be used to build the future educational activities of faculties (Davis, et al., 2006; Thune, 2009). These attributes, the prestige of schools and their mutually accelerating competitive environment, are all reflected in the pressure to increase the quality of scientific research competencies, which, however, are not primarily focused solely on excellence in science. Today's pragmatic approach aims at the support of leadership and broadly applicable competencies against the backdrop of scientific thinking usable in economic and social practice. That's why we speak about supporting the so-called transversal or generic competencies of researchers (Evers, Rush, Berdrow, 1998; Ritter 2009; Saari, Moilanen, 2012). The key competence that falls under the ability to use theoretical and scientific thinking, is also self-regulation and metocognition, which is closely related to the quality of the self-reflective and self-evaluation processes of the doctoral candidates, which can be strengthened for a wider professional application (Kosová, Šukolová, 2017). In the presented study, we have therefore decided to examine the connection between of the continuous evaluation of the doctoral candidates’ research activities with multiple characteristics of their studies, which will help us theoretically verify, or reject the importance of practical training in this area. The research sample included 53 full-time and part-time PhD students who studied in the field of social and education sciences at the UMB in Banská Bystrica (SR) between 2001 and 2018. To measure the opinion on the use of continuous evaluation and other aspects of PhD. studies we used the Quality in PhD Process Survey (Herrmann, Bager-Elsborg, Wichmann-Hansen, 2013), which we have supplemented with to our own items aimed at evaluating the acquired and supported scientific research competencies.

The findings showed a significantly positive relationship between the subjectively perceived rate of continuous evaluation of the scientific research activity and
(1) the satisfaction with several aspects of the mentor's work and his/her further recommendation;
(2) overall satisfaction with the studies;
(3) the perception of one's own person as part of the scientific community at the workplace;
(4) the perceived degree of feedback on their performance;
(5) the meaning of a further studies for one's own research and dissertation paper;
(6) perceived improvements in academic writing, data analysis and project management;
(7) and the perceived usefulness of tasks that have been outsourced beyond the obligatory tasks of doctoral candidates.

We also noted a significantly negative relationship between the subjectively perceived rate of continuous evaluation of scientific and research activities and
(1) psychosomatic issues during the studies, and
(2) the negative impact of studies on private life of doctoral candidates.

The research findings confirm the need to offer doctoral candidates effective tools of continuous (self-)evaluation within their studies, that will enhance their self-efficacy and will encourage higher quality in research.

Keywords:

PhD studies, generic competencies, self-evaluation, self-reflection.