Identify the issue
Understand the Context: Stakeholders
- Learn who else besides you has a stake in your completion of graduate school, and how they affect your opportunities and progress through the program.
“We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.” — George Bernard Shaw
Stakeholders in your graduate education include anyone who plays a role in and/or is affected by your progress in graduate school.
| Stakeholders | How you depend on them | How they depend on you |
|---|---|---|
| Advisor | Responsible for guiding you through the requirements of your degree. Depending on the quality of this relationship and the level of involvement of your advisor, this relationship can serve as either a support or barrier to your graduation and success in graduate school. | Your advisor often depends on the work that you provide them. Your achievements and progress in graduate school reflects upon their reputation in the department and the discipline. |
| Committee | Responsible for critiquing and ultimately approving your thesis/dissertation. Depending on the relationship you have with the members of your committee and the level of vested interest they have in your success, these faculty members can serve as either a support or barrier to your graduation and success in graduate school. | Faculty members are responsible for serving on committees. The quality of your thesis or dissertation can help or hurt their reputation in the department. Committee chairs usually have more vested interest in your success. |
| Department | Establishes the policies and procedures for completing your degree. Depending on the changes in faculty positions and the most recently established policies, the expectations you are required to meet to graduate may become more difficult. Within your college, division and department are many administrators who oversee policy changes. The graduate director of your program, the department chair , and the dean of your college will make policy and funding decisions that affect your progress toward graduation. | Your department depends on students like you for its survival. Your success in graduate school and in your career contributes to the reputation of the department. |
| Supervisor | Your supervisor for your research or teaching assistantships, or those in charge of your fellowship, decide the requirements you must meet to receive continued financial support. The expectations these individuals have of you and your time will influence your progress through graduation. | Your supervisor usually has less interest in your degree completion and more interest in the quantity and quality of work/research you produce. |
| The graduate college | The graduate college provides prospective and current students with resources and support. They also work with staff and faculty to establish policies and programs aimed to strengthen the quality of education and help students complete degree requirements in a timely manner. | The graduate college depends on you to cooperate with the policies and procedures designed to keep you on track toward graduation. |
| The university board of regents | Convenes regularly to discuss and take action on the important issues facing higher education in your state. This board of professionals is integral in state legislation regarding college access and higher education. The board of regents regulates tuition, fees, and benefits for graduate students and approves new academic programs. Depending on the policies set forth by the Board of Regents, you may experience greater supports or barriers to obtaining your degree. | In most instances, it is in the Board of Regents’ best interest to aid graduate students in the timely completion of their degrees. |
| Co-authors | You depend on co-authors to help create quality work and to help you get published. | Co-authors depend on you for the same. |
| Co-workers | You often depend on co-workers for the timely completion of group work and, perhaps, for moral support. | Co-workers depend on you for the same. |
| Employers | You depend on potential employers to make requirements explicit, provide good working conditions, and be transparent about expectations. | Potential employers depend on you to have acquired the knowledge, technical skills, and soft skills to do a good job starting on Day 1. |
Stakeholders may also include your:
- Dependents (e.g., children, aging parents, partner)
- Financial Supports (e.g., boss, financial aid providers, parents, partner)
- Moral Supports (e.g., friends, partner, family, cohort, co-workers, religious community)
Some stakeholders will play a more central role than others in your professional development and/or in your personal life. It is impossible to meet the needs of everyone involved in your graduate education, so it is important to clarify the key players.
Of course, you are the No. 1 stakeholder in your graduate education. If you don’t put your own needs first, no one else will. See the CareerWISE module Setting Priorities to learn tips on prioritizing your needs with respect to different stakeholders.
Bernstein, B. L., Evans, B., Fyffe, J., Halai, N., Hall, F. L., Jensen, H. S., Marsh, H., & Ortega, S. (2014). The continuing evolution of the research doctorate. In M. Nerad & B. Evans (Eds.). Globalization and Its Impacts on the Quality of PhD Education: Forces and Forms in Doctoral Education Worldwide. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Springer.
Bixenmann, R., Natalizio, B. J., Hussain, Y., & Fuhrmann, C. N. (2020). Enhancing dissemination of evidence-based models for STEM PhD career development; a Stakeholder Workshop Report. https://doi.org/10.13028/79a5-ym66
Bridgstock, R. (2009). The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: enhancing graduate employability through career management skills. HE Research and Development, 28(1), 31- 44. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360802444347
Jackson, D. (2016). Re-conceptualising graduate employability: The importance of pre-professional identity. Higher Education Research & Development, 35(5), 925-939. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1139551
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2018. Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25038.
Pool, L. D. (2017). Developing graduate employability: The CareerEDGE Model and the importance of emotional intelligence. In Graduate employability in context (pp. 317-338). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Small, L., Shacklock, K., & Marchant, T. (2018). Employability: a contemporary review for higher education stakeholders. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 70(1), 148-166. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2017.1394355
Separate Advisors and Mentors
The importance of having a variety of mentors throughout your graduate experience.
Advisor Issues
How a positive advisor challenged his students to think for themselves.
Special Characteristics of Your Advisor and Struggling with Life Balance Issues
Advisor's experiences encourage well-informed career decisions.
Give Yourself Credit
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses, but ultimately giving yourself recognition for your successes.
Hearing from Students and Having an Impact
The importance of giving back to students and making an impact in their future education and career choices.
Developing a Scientific Identity in an Advisor's Shadow
Challenges faced with establishing yourself as an independent researcher separate from an influential advisor.
Trade Offs and Choices
The tradeoffs and choices of graduate life.
Stubbornness and Tenacity
Highlights the obstacles faced when trying to have research reviewed by the advisor and emphasizes the steps necessary to make adequate progress in the program.
Explains that satisfaction comes from working with students and the opportunity to make new disco
Explains that satisfaction comes from working with students and the opportunity to make new disco
The importance of learning from mistakes and persisting despite setbacks.
The importance of learning from your effort, regardless of the outcome.
Advice on how to seek out support in graduate school and how to bounce back from setbacks.
Shares the excitement that comes from collaborating with others to make new discoveries.
Elaborates on the standard practice of science despite cultural differences.
Strategies for negotiating as a faculty member.
When it's time to graduate and when it's important to start learning on the job.
Highlights the transition into graduate level science where the answers aren't known.
The importance of goal setting and using others' experiences to make strong choices about your own p
Advice for balancing research and fun in graduate school.
Advice for students: stay focused, ask questions, and remain open-minded when working with others.
How to adapt experimental methods to match a lifestyle.
How to negotiate a schedule for raising a family and overcoming setbacks in a new career.
The importance of giving yourself credit and remembering why you are doing what you're doing.
The importance of peer relationships and the learning process that takes place despite concrete outc
Working with graduate students is a rewarding aspect of being a faculty member.
Advice for graduate students on how to maintain their confidence, courage, and dignity.
Emphasizes peer relationships and departmental climate.
How to handle being accused of having an affair with the advisor.
Explains an interdisciplinary branch of physics and the passion for research, service, and teaching.
Teaching as the impetus for work.
Discusses necessary precautions to take as a female student working late nights on campus.
Discusses necessary precautions to take as a female student working late nights on campus.
Being accused of cheating and regrets about not being more assertive.
Being accused of cheating and regrets about not being more assertive.
The importance of self-authorship and using graduate school as a process for self-definition.
Reminder that support can be found in unexpected places.
Urges female graduate students to persist in the field of mathematics because the field needs divers
How being unaware of being the only woman was advantageous to program success.
Alternatives to departmental isolation and the importance of networking.
Environmental issues faced in academia.
The importance of first impressions in choosing a graduate program.
Satisfaction comes from interacting with intelligent people across cultures.
Adjusting physical appearance to fit in with peers.
The importance of remembering that graduate school is only one part of a larger career.
Describes an incident of receiving a lower grade than a man for similar work.
The opportunity for freedom, growth, and collaboration as a faculty member.
How to survive the aftermath of a sexual harassment incident.
Highlights the gendered assumptions encountered as a faculty member.
The Importance of Having Positive Working Relationships: A Case Study
An alternative way to approach being the only woman in a given situation.
Contributions to the field are reflected through choices.
The importance of sharing stories of sexual harassment with others to gain support.
The importance of finding the right advisor to support your research goals.
How to handle being accused of having an affair with the advisor.
Explains when to confront a problem and when it may be better to maneuver around it.
How to be upfront, direct, and assertive when confronting instances of sexual harassment.
Highlights the universal customs of science.
Class performance builds confidence to remain in program.
Captures the annoyance of male colleagues making sexist assumptions and the challenges with conferen
The importance of recognizing the progress that has been made by women in science fields.
Advice for accomplishing your academic goals without making unnecessary compromises.
Emphasizes the challenge with saying no, but the importance of learning to do so.
How to make friends with colleagues to encourage a supportive environment.
Underscores the challenges that come from being the only woman in an academic department and gives s
Highlights an experience in which peers were not only colleagues, but also friends.
How the physical space in a laboratory allowed for collaboration among colleagues.
The importance of a good leader in setting standards for diversity, climate, and tenure policies.
How to observe others' reactions to subtle comments in order to gauge an appropriate response.
Urges students not to get wrapped into issues that do not directly involve them.
Departmental reactions to the choice to have children.
How to refute sexist comments and challenge gendered assumptions.
The importance of sharing stories of sexual harassment with others and realizing that you are not al
Confronting a male colleague with contradictory findings at a conference.
How colleagues can assist in making the transition into graduate life easier by sharing information
Captures the small but noticeable annoyances that come with being the only woman.
The importance of picking your battles to avoid unfair labeling.
Reminder that it is not necessary to feel comfortable socially to do good science.
Gender stereotypes faced in getting into graduate school and conducting research.
How to seek support from administrators outside the department when dealing with departmental sexism
The first realization that being a woman in science was outside the norm.
Challenges of being international and female, particularly with regards to an academic career and th
Suggestions for how to deal with sexist comments.
Playing a variety of roles as the only woman in the department.
The process of establishing yourself in the same department as your spouse.
Emphasizes positive peer relationships within her cohort.
The challenges of working in male-dominated academic environments and the negative stereotypes assoc
The feasibility of pursuing a family and science.
The importance of hearing other people's stories.
The importance of understanding priorities and allocating resources accordingly.
Advises how to keep family informed about research goals and progression from student to faculty mem
Explains some of the setbacks in dating relationships.
Advises students to continue to pursue their education because the payoff is self-respect.
The importance of believing in yourself, admitting your mistakes, and continuing to do what you love
How to accept non-traditional relationships and lifestyles in academia.
Notes the challenges of a dual career marriage and the obstacles in fighting for tenure and balancin
The process of overcoming setbacks related to career options and personal relationships.
How to balance motherhood responsibilities in graduate school.
The importance of supportive peer relationships.
Being married in graduate school and having children as a faculty member.
Advisor's experiences encourage well-informed career decisions.
The importance of a supportive network of colleagues.
Doing something useful to make a difference and how to appreciate a happy, supportive work environme
Taking time off before pursuing her PhD.
How a supportive department and a modified teaching schedule allowed for maternity leave.
How to sustain taking time off and pursuing the PhD later in life.
Advises how to keep family informed about research goals and progression from student to faculty mem
The importance of a supportive extended family in helping to balance school and children.
The importance of having a number of things in your life that bring you joy and satisfaction.
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses, but ultimately giving yourself recognition for your suc
The importance of learning over time and remaining positive in the face of criticism.
Motivation for doing work: interacting with students and doing research that can make a difference i
Emphasizes the challenge with saying no, but the importance of learning to do so.
The importance of remaining passionate and remembering that the PhD opens doors.
The importance of defining clear goals, remaining self-confident, and learning to say no.
The importance of allowing yourself the opportunity to change your mind and reconsider your goals.
The importance of knowing what you want and expecting tradeoffs on the path to get it.
Making discoveries and collaborating with others brings satisfaction.
Creating a schedule and meeting an advisor's expectations.
Advises graduate students to take a semester off if they choose to have a child because it is too ch
Explains the role children play in career choices.
Using leisure activities to relieve stress and build friendships.
The satisfaction that comes from working with colleagues and interacting with others.
The decision to get married in graduate school.
The importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle to alleviate stress.
Addresses personal relationship sacrifices.
The importance of nurturing relationships outside of academia.
Explains the choice to have children in graduate school.
Challenges with being married to a fellow academician and finding faculty positions.
How a flexible schedule as a professor made it possible to have a family and a career.
The importance of evaluating your priorities to create balance and happiness.
Appreciation for advisor's assistance in transitioning to the US.
Emphasizes the joy in working with others and giving back to society.
Chronicles the evolution of a career over time.
Suggestions for how to increase women's participation in science with an emphasis on policy change.
The importance of being open and honest with your advisor.
How a positive advisor challenged his students to think for themselves.
Highlights the obstacles faced when trying to have research reviewed by the advisor and emphasizes t
The importance of having a variety of mentors throughout your graduate experience.
Challenges faced with establishing yourself as an independent researcher separate from an influentia
The importance of asking questions and searching for creative solutions to new problems.
The importance of finding a good advisor and making sure to get everything in writing.
Challenges in confronting the advisor with news of pregnancy.
Experiences with an international advisor.
How to maintain good relationships with colleagues while being motivated to finish the program qu
The importance of giving back to students and making an impact in their future education and care
An Arizona State University project, supported by the National Science Foundation under grants 0634519, 0910384 and 1761278
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. © 2021 CareerWISE. All rights reserved. Privacy | Legal
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