Graduate Student Support Services

Two weeks into a new semester, I am gearing up to begin research for my doctoral dissertation, "Student support services and graduate student persistence in the social sciences and humanities disciplines." The purpose of this study is to identify graduate students' needs, particularly with regards to academic success, and the role of institutional-based support services in addressing these needs. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature on graduate student persistence, the role of student support services, and the experiences of graduate students, while filling a gap in the literature on Canadian graduate education and identifying future directions for research. The overall aim of this research is to elicit feedback that may better enable the provision of support services to the burgeoning graduate student community at Canada's universities.