An anonymous survey of doctoral researchers registered on programmes that are wholly or predominantly studied online at UK universities was conducted between October 2025 and March 2026. 193 participants from 23 universities took part.
A feelings map was created to capture all the emotions present in the data.
Analysis of the survey data uncovered three types of stories, which are captured in the following composite vignettes. These are narrated by actors.
Resonance: where individual characteristics, learning needs and the affordances of support and online systems align perfectly. Transcript available.
Dissonance: there are sites of tension where learning and the progress of doctoral research are disrupted by competing demands. Transcript available.
Fracture: where breaks or absences in the support network and online systems stall or severely impede learning and progress. Transcript available.
The findings from the survey data identified the following ways that online doctoral researchers’ wellbeing can be supported by universities and doctoral programme leads, by supervisors and by doctoral researchers themselves.