Salvaging the troubled PhD student: a discussion paper

The purpose of this article is to explore the rarely discussed and somewhat taboo topic within universities around PhD student failures. It will be shown that the addition of a willing supervisor at a second university can ‘salvage’ the PhD project of the ‘troubled’ student, resulting in the passing of the thesis and oral viva. The paper will draw on personal supervisorial experiences since 2007 and specifically focus on two PhD students from Libya. We use Althusser’s concept of ideology and Foucault’s idea of dominant discourses and materialized practices to explain the awe and wonder which staff often attach to leading professors and the allegedly high standards for PhD work that they expect. Further reasons for PhD failure include supervisors’ inability to connect with students and a lack of cross-cultural skills.