About us

Since our start back in 2016, the DoctorateHub is using a freemium business model. This means, that we attempt to keep our basic service offer available for free. We want to act as a Hub, and thus to connect all those that are in need for support, that want to connect to others, and those that can provide support.

With the launching of the new DoctorateHub community marketplace all of our advanced training courses will be offered under three support formats: a free self-study edition with peer support, as a fully tutor supported edition, or with flexible on-demand feedback whenever you need it. You can select the option that suits your learning needs best.

Drawing on the continued feedback and demand of our students you also can expect further community services, such as the introduction of Clubs, integrated videoconferencing with whiteboards, a community kitchen, or your own study space where you have all resources at a fingertip.

The year 2020 we kicked-off with two workshops, one in Dubai and one in Dallas. In between these two we also were asked to run with less than two weeks of notice an In-Residency week in Porto, which we did, and which was very well received. With the Dubai workshop we also introduced our Learning Cafés as an open session format for students and academics to connect. Luckily all such events took place within the first ten weeks of 2020, and thus prior to the globally growing pandemic lock downs.

With the growing lock downs and uncertainty on what to expect for the months to come, it was clear that from March 2020 onwards we would prioritise development efforts of our new DoctorateHub educational community marketplace, including to increase our already existing virtual service portfolio by converting analogue services to virtual ones. With the beginning of November 2020, a first beta-release of our new platform is to be released, with many more features and functions to be expected by 2021.

With the year 2019, we saw the emergence of our workshop training program and our advanced training courses, which grew from one course subject by the start of 2019 to six course subjects that we delivered by the end of the same year. The first workshop that we run in Liverpool, UK, was also well received and thus the next workshop sessions were scheduled for taking place some time after our September residency.

What also started back in 2019, though would remain largely invisible until late 2020, was the development of our new DoctorateHub educational community marketplace – a technology platform which we decided to design from scratch. The continued growth in service offers, the need to better mediate between students and tutors, the quest to keep learning and achievements connected, and to establish clear communication and collaboration structures, all this called for a central platform to be put in place.

2018 saw a continued growth in student support requests, and we kept on developing education services upon such requests. For each request we would look at the student’s individual situation so to jointly decide on the right format. By 2016 we started with review and editing services, including a full thesis reviews and proof reading, complemented with residencies and webinars by 2017. And in 2018 we were approached to run a couple of Mock-Viva examinations. Students also started to ask for some more continuous support, and for which we developed our mentoring and coaching services, and as complementary support to the students’ university supervision.

In 2017 most of the DoctorateHub support was provided on an ad-hoc base and the most structured training format that we offered back then was perhaps the 2017 residency event, which then developed in our annual flagship event. Well, at least until the Pandemic kicked in in 2020, and with this kicked out our 2020 residency…

And while ad-hoc service requests continue to be the standard, they became much more robust and mature over time.

The end of 2017 then saw the emergence of the DoctorateHub web presence. And with this came the start of our regular webinars. This provided students with a mean to connect and to stay in touch.

We started the DoctorateHub back in 2016 as a result of what might be best described a ‘demand-side pull’. We started out from a group of doctoral tutors who worked with students in a large scale global doctoral program offered by a UK university, and with more than 700 enrolled students.

Our initial student population therefore consisted of practitioner doctorate students, aged roughly 35 to 70, who had to fit in their research and thesis development actions next to full time work and managing family live.

Like our students, also we as tutors were based across the globe, but we would meet up occasionally for our residencies in Liverpool, allowing us to connect to students and tutors alike. And with this connection came the ever-growing support requests that students would approach us with.