Purpose

This study aims to explore the disciplinary characteristics of doctoral students’ generic skills learning experience at a Finnish university.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey measuring doctoral students’ generic skills learning experience was administered to all doctoral students of the university and 1,184 responses were obtained. The study conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, principal component analysis and heatmap analyses.

Findings

The results suggested three major trends. First, students’ scores for research integrity skills were consistently lower in the hard sciences, such as biological and environmental sciences, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, science and medicine. Second, students of the law showed a unique trend; their scores for research integrity, leadership and entrepreneurship skills learning were remarkably higher than those in other faculties, but they had the lowest scores for communication skills.

Research limitations/implications

The data represented students at one Finnish university, so institutional and geographical differences fell beyond the scope of this paper. Furthermore, the results could reflect either the authentic levels of students’ acquired skillsets or self-interpretation of experiences governed by their disciplinary values. Accordingly, the immediate generalisability of the findings to individuals and different contexts should carefully be considered.

Originality/value

The findings can contribute to improve doctoral training practices. In addition, the survey results are useful for the further development of inventories, as doctoral students’ engagement in generic skills development has been attracting attention in higher education.

中文翻译：

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博士生参与共性技能学习的学科差异

目的

本研究旨在探讨芬兰大学博士生共通技能学习经历的学科特征。

设计/方法/方法

对全校博士生进行了博士生共通技能学习体验在线调查，共收到1184份回复。该研究进行了探索性和验证性因素分析、主成分分析和热图分析。

发现

结果表明了三个主要趋势。首先，学生在生物与环境科学、药学、兽医学、科学和医学等硬科学领域的科研诚信技能得分一直较低。二是法学生呈现出独特的趋势；他们在科研诚信、领导力和创业技能学习方面的得分明显高于其他院系，但他们在沟通技巧方面的得分最低。

研究限制/影响

数据代表芬兰一所大学的学生，因此机构和地域差异超出了本文的范围。此外，结果可以反映学生获得的技能组合的真实水平，也可以反映受其学科价值观支配的经验的自我解释。因此，应仔细考虑研究结果对个人和不同背景的直接普遍性。

原创性/价值

研究结果有助于改善博士培训实践。此外，调查结果有助于清单的进一步发展，因为博士生参与共性技能发展一直受到高等教育的关注。