The Viability of Doctoral Thesis and Oral Exams in Student’s Native Language

ABSTRACT

The issue of English being the lingua franca in transnational higher education remains a debate, especially regarding fairness in doctoral examinations. The current study builds upon a recent publication that proposes examining doctoral students of an Anglophone doctoral program offered on an offshore campus in China to be held in the Chinese language with translation and interpretation. The current study explores the viability of this option for transnational doctoral programs from doctoral supervisors' and students' perspectives. This qualitative exploratory study recruited 13 full professors and 18 doctoral students to collect data using a hypothetical case scenario and in-depth face-to-face interviews. The qualitative data analysis utilized the six-phase framework of Clarke and Braun for the thematic analysis of the data. Four major themes in the findings suggest that such a radical provision might be an arduous process, if not impossible. The results are discussed regarding fairness in assessment, efforts to safeguard indigenous knowledge, and creating spaces for building knowledge from non-English speaking countries. This research sheds important light on the complexities and challenges involved in promoting fairness and inclusivity in transnational doctoral programs, highlighting the need for creative solutions that balance practical feasibility and ethical ideals.

KEYWORDS:

• Doctoral assessment
• English
• Lingua franca
• transnational higher education
• validity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amrita Kaur

Amrita Kaur is an Assistant Professor at the College of Liberal Arts, Wenzhou-Kean University, China. She is also the coordinator for the psychology program at her university. She is a is a UK Council of Graduate Education recognized doctoral supervisor. Her research interests includes SoTL, motivation and teaching and learning in schools and higher education.

Vijay Kumar

Vijay Kumar Mallan is an Associate professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is a UK Council of Graduate Education recognized doctoral supervisor and a founding member of the International Doctoral Education Research Network. His research interests are in doctoral support, doctoral examination, feedback practices, humour in academic settings and academic well-being.

Mohammad Noman

Mohammad Noman is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at the College of Education at Wenzhou-Kean University, China, where he is the Coordinator for the Graduate programs in Educational Leadership. His research interests are in educational leadership and cognitive sciences, focusing both on schools and higher education.