08:45 – 09:00
Registrations
09:00 – 10:15
Sharing Best Practices on Student Onboarding
This session explores doctoral onboarding as the decisive starting point of the doctoral journey. Moving beyond administrative induction, it examines how institutions use onboarding to clarify expectations, introduce research culture, support diverse student profiles, and build an early sense of community and belonging. The discussion highlights how early signals around supervision, well‑being, and available support shape doctoral trajectories long before research begins. The session opens the day by framing the doctoral journey as a structured process shaped from the very first institutional touchpoint.
- Jan Zouhar, Associate Professor, Prague University of Economics and Business, CZ
- Lukas Nachtigal, Head of Doctoral Studies Office, Charles University Prague, CZ
- Dr Scott Foster, PhD Programme Leader, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
10:15 – 10:45
Coffee break
10:45 – 12:15
The Doctoral Student’s Identity: Rethinking Success?
What does it mean to “be” a doctoral student today – and how might that identity evolve for the next generation? This interactive session explores how institutions, supervisors and students can better support flourishing during and beyond the doctoral journey. Drawing on recent research, Simon Oldham (Royal Holloway, UK) will open with reflections on how expectations and realities shape doctoral experiences and success. Followed by group work.
- Simon Oldham, Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisation Studies, Royal Holloway Business School, UK
- Helen Wadham, Doctoral College Faculty Head (Business & Law), Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
- Moderator: Paul Ellwood, Director of the Maynooth DBA, Maynooth University, IE
12:15 – 13:45
Lunch
13:45 – 15:00
Supporting Successful Completion and Preventing Dropout
This session focuses on how institutions can help doctoral candidates sustain progress and reach successful completion, especially when challenges arise along the doctoral journey. Recognising that delays, stalled research, supervision difficulties, and personal setbacks are common in long projects, the session explores institutional strategies that identify emerging problems early and provide timely, constructive support. The discussion highlights how universities can strengthen resilience, prevent dropout, and help candidates regain direction when momentum falters — ensuring that a temporary difficulty does not become a permanent barrier to finishing the doctorate.
- Jan Zouhar, Associate Professor, Prague University of Economics and Business, CZ
- Daiva Dumčiuvienė, Professor, Kaunas University of Technology, LT
15:00 – 16:00
Bring your own challenge
16:00 – 16:30
Coffee break
16:30 – 17:30
Co-Creating Value in Doctoral Supervision
Doctoral supervision in business schools is still often shaped by a master–apprentice logic and a narrow focus on the supervisory dyad, despite widening candidate diversity, career pathways, and well-being pressures. Drawing on insights from doctoral candidates and supervisors, this session reframes supervision as value co-creation within a broader, student-centred supervision ecosystem.
- Adina Dudau, Professor, University of Glasgow Adam Smith Business School, UK
- Moderator: Dr Fariba Darabi, (Associate Professor), Director of Executive DBA programme, Bangor Business School, Bangor University, Wales, UK
18:30 – Organised walking tour to the dinner venue
19:30 – 21:30 – Conference dinner at Brasserie Le Sud – Bocuse
21:00–21:30 – Bus transfer back to the Q7 Lodge hotel (organised by EFMD)
