Crowe, M., Mendez, D., Churchill, M., and Jones, R. (2023) Designing an innovative cohort doctoral studies program for health professionals. Focus on Health Professional Education: A Multi-Professional Journal, 24 (2). pp. 142-145.

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Abstract

Practising health professionals, driven by a desire to see the translation of research knowledge into improved patient outcomes, may wish to improve their research skills via part-time doctoral studies (D'Arrietta et al., 2022). To do so, they must maintain demanding careers within the health sector while studying part-time and externally. Part- time, external research candidates have notoriously poor success rates. To address this issue, a new and innovative program-the Cohort Doctoral Studies Program (CDSP)- was designed for higher degree by research (HDR) candidates studying in a health discipline at a mid-sized, research-intensive Australian university. This paper describes the CDSP and the associated outcomes. Innovation The CDSP is a multifaceted program that supports HDR students from pre-enrolment through to completion. Places are prioritised for Australian candidates who are employed in the health sector, but international applicants are also accepted. Each year the CDSP accepts two cohorts of 12-18 students, who remain as an interacting group throughout their candidature. Thereafter, cohorts amalgamate for stage-of-candidature training. Students can attend two intensive "block weeks" each year, where they engage in core and elective training workshops. Each student is assigned a mentor, external to the candidate's supervisory panel, to provide ongoing in-person or online writing, administrative and pastoral support. The key features of the program are summarised in Figure 1 and described below.

Item ID:	92067
Item Type:	Article (Case Study)
ISSN:	1442-1100
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Copyright Information:	Articles published in FoHPE are available under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Date Deposited:	27 May 2026 01:54
FoR Codes:	39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390199 Curriculum and pedagogy not elsewhere classified @ 50% 39 EDUCATION > 3903 Education systems > 390303 Higher education @ 50%
SEO Codes:	16 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 1601 Learner and learning > 160102 Higher education @ 100%
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