Experienced student or rookie employee? A quantitative study on PhD candidates’ role perceptions and its influence on their expectations and self-efficacy

This article studies PhD candidates' role identity, that is, where candidates position themselves on the spectrum between being a student and an employee, and how this relates to certain background characteristics (the type of contract, discipline and progress). Furthermore, we study how this self-perceived role relates to the responsibilities PhD candidates expect their supervisor to take up (in terms of day-to-day organisation, execution of the research, and design and timing of the project) and their self-efficacy. We used quantitative data from a survey conducted at a university in Belgium among PhD candidates (n = 560) and supervisors (n = 208). Results showed that whether PhD candidates perceive themselves as students or employees was quite divided, both among the PhD candidates themselves and among their supervisors. Teaching assistants, PhD candidates in human sciences and in life sciences and medicine identified more as employees. Those in the finalising phase of their PhD were more polarised between the roles of student and employee. There was no significant relationship between self-perceived roles and the expectations regarding supervisor responsibilities in general, but there were effects when diversifying by subdimensions of responsibilities and by background characteristics. Finally, self-perceived students scored higher on self-efficacy.