Reimagining PhD Programs: Communication Training as a Catalyst for Student Success

As a follow-up to my previous post on the lack of practical training in PhD programs, I want to offer some recommendations for PhD programs to improve students’ marketability in the PhD job market. It’s not enough to critique the system; we must propose actionable solutions.

My recommendation to help students in the PhD job market focuses on developing communication skills at the program- and department-levels. Program- and department-level training is not only more feasible in terms of execution, but it’s also more meaningful and impactful for students. The specialized nature of programmatic training can help students develop skills directly related to their research focus, as opposed to the broader approach a centralized training program might offer.

This focus on communication skills development and training should not be looked at as just “professional development” training, optional seminars, or extracurricular courses. Communication is a core competency and transferable skill set (Sarrico, 2021) that should be taught with the same rigor as research methodologies. Communication is a part of our everyday lives, Cronbach’s alpha is not. 

In this post, I offer some recommendations for PhD programs to better serve the needs of today’s students in the PhD market by focusing on enhancing communication skills. I also offer some big-picture initiatives for PhD programs that require more resources but can make a bigger impact in the long term.

Recommendations for PhD Programs Preparing Students for the PhD Job Market

Introduce a Public Engagement Foundation

Public engagement as a foundational approach to communication training for PhD students can be the bridge to various career paths. For students who choose the academia path, understanding public engagement can broaden their impact and elevate their intrinsic motivation. For those who chose the private or public sector path, lessons in effective research and science communication, audience engagement, trust-building, and public writing can help bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Updates for PhD Programs 

1. Emphasize the importance of public engagement. This includes discussing how public engagement can enhance research impact, inform policy decisions, and contribute to progress. Students should understand that engaging with the public is not just an add-on, but an integral part of the work they do. 
2. Teach techniques for effective science and research communication. This could involve workshops on crafting clear and concise messages, using analogies and metaphors to explain complex concepts, and adapting communication styles for different audiences. Share examples of public engagement at work.
3. Elevate the importance of learning how to communicate research to various audiences. Discussions around research communication and rigor are important for students to realize that they are delivering the same message – whether this is an academic or non-academic audience – the packaging is just different. 
4. Encourage or require students to enroll in communication-related elective courses. These could include data visualization, public speaking, creative writing, or graphic design. Such courses can help expand students’ skills beyond a superficial level, providing them with practical tools for effective public engagement and communication.
5. Incorporate reflexive communication training into the curriculum. Reflexive communication can help PhD students continuously identify and address their biases in how they communicate their findings to and with various audiences. Reflexive training can impact research, teaching, grant writing, and any research-related discussions. 

The public engagement foundation works for any student in the PhD job market, as it lays the foundation to further develop communication skills in their respective space.

Incorporate Public Writing into Coursework in PhD Programs

Public writing is a crucial skill for any student on the PhD job market. Public writing offers good practice to broaden writing skills beyond the stuffy and passive academic writing, emphasizing storytelling, jargon-free language, and succinct prose. It can also students connect their research to the real world. PhD programs can integrate this skill development in several ways:

1. Assign public writing tasks as part of standard coursework across the program. These could include writing op-eds on current issues related to their field, creating blog posts about ongoing research and share them on a program-hosted blog website, or drafting articles for general audience publications.
2. Encourage or require students to submit their public writing pieces for publication, providing real-world experience in the dissemination of research. Your university magazine or blogs could be a great place to start. Media outlets like The Conversation is also a great resource for this sort of practice.

Big Picture: Create a public writing requirement for graduation. For example, students could be required to publish one blog post or op-ed in a reputable outlet before defending their dissertation. With a long runaway (establishing this requirement upon entering the program), students can have 3-5 years to work through their piece and submit for publication.

Develop Presentation Skills Beyond Academic Conferences

Effective presentation skills are crucial for researchers to communicate their work to diverse audiences. PhD programs can help build this skill in a variety of ways:

1. Practice presenting to lay audiences:

   • Organize presentations for undergraduate students or students from other disciplines
   • Encourage real-time constructive feedback to help students understand how their presentations are received by a lay audience

2. Incorporate storytelling techniques:

   • Encourage students to enroll in a creative writing course, which can help their academic writing skills and help them communicate their work through storytelling
   • Encourage students to develop and share personal narratives about their research journey. This not only will help them with communication, it can also help them bridge trust with audiences (Jensen, 2022)

3. Host a “Community Research Day”:

   1. Invite the local community to learn about and engage with ongoing research
   2. Include poster sessions and informal conversations to help students practice discussing their research with a wide range of people

Big Picture: Implement a lay summary requirement for dissertation proposals and defenses in your PhD programs. This would ensure that all PhD students can effectively communicate their research to non-specialist audiences, a crucial skill for both academic and non-academic careers.

Introduction to Media Training & Relations in PhD Programs

Working with the media may not fit every student’s goal, but having a baseline knowledge of the media ecosystem can help students navigate the space and better understand how the media can help (or hurt) their causes. A few ways PhD programs can introduce media training into coursework include: 

1. Integrate media training into existing courses:

   • Incorporate mock press conferences and media interviews into coursework through assignments
   • Provide opportunities for students to practice asking and responding to challenging questions and articulating complex ideas succinctly

2. Leverage university resources:

   1. Invite the university’s public affairs specialist to discuss media relations, relationship building, and effective use of institutional resources
   2. Organize sessions with journalists or editors to provide insights on media relations and successful pitching strategies

3.  Practical media engagement:

   • Encourage students to write press releases and white papers about their research, sending them to the university public affairs office for distribution
   • Encourage students to develop relationships with relevant media outlets in their field

Big Picture: Establish a comprehensive interdisciplinary collaboration with the university’s journalism program for interdisciplinary training. This is a great way to introduce students to the media ecosystem, bridging the gap between media knowledge and research creation. This could involve reciprocal learning experiences where PhD students and journalism students train each other, joint projects combining research communication and journalistic storytelling, and workshops led by journalism faculty and experienced media professionals. A collaboration like this emphasizes the importance of media engagement in amplifying research impact.

Digital Communication and Social Media

There is no getting around it: social media and digital communications is a part of our lives, whether we like it or not. There are ways to make it work for us, and an introduction to this during graduate school can propel a researcher to great heights. Here are some ways PhD programs can integrate digital communications and social media into their coursework:

1. Develop a professional online presence/brand:

   • Encourage students to develop and maintain a professional online profile by emphasizing the importance of a digital presence for thought leadership, networking, and collaboration opportunities. Building a brand can also help PhD students identify their core values. While ‘brand’ may feel like a dirty word, it can allows students to launch and elevate their expertise in ways unimaginable decades before.  
   • Guide students in creating research-focused social media accounts, blogs, or newsletters

2.  Develop digital content creation skills:

   • Introduce students to various forms of digital research communication (e.g., podcasts, videos, infographics)
   • Leverage university resources by inviting digital communication specialists to provide insights on content creation
   • Assign practical projects that require students to produce digital content, such as recording a podcast episode or designing an infographic

3.  Teach social media strategy:

   • Provide guidance on effective use of different social media platforms for research communication
   • Discuss best practices for engaging with academic and non-academic audiences online
   • Address ethical considerations, pitfalls, and risks of social media use in academic contexts

Big Picture: Develop and maintain program-wide social media accounts as a platform for research dissemination for PhD students and faculty. This could involve using these platforms to showcase student research, share digital content, and engage with interested public audiences. This can also serve as practical experience for PhD students, where you establish a rotating schedule for students to manage and contribute to these accounts while also analyzing engagement metrics to refine communication strategies and measure impact.

Measuring Success and Impact 

There is “no size fits all” approach to communication training for PhD programs (Seo et al., 2020). Not every student will go on to write for the public, hold community events, or work with external stakeholders. But students will be communicating. Every day. With students, practitioners, other researchers, and administration. This skill set will remain incredibly valuable throughout their careers, in whatever route they go. 

PhD programs can gauge the training impact and outcomes for PhD students to ensure the effectiveness of training and highlight training successes. 

1. Gather student and alumni data:

   • Conduct annual surveys and in-depth interviews of current students and recent graduates to assess the relevance, effectiveness, and long-term effects of communication training
   • Develop a comprehensive alumni tracking system to monitor post-graduation communication activities
   • Record media appearances, public engagements, and contributions to public discourse by former students (and share on your social media accounts!)
   • Analyze career trajectories and how communication skills influence professional success
   • Gather testimonials from alumni about the program’s impact on their communication skills and career success
   • Initiate long-term studies to track the impact of communication training on career trajectories and research impact

2. Implement portfolio assessments:

   • Create a portfolio requirement for students to showcase their public engagement efforts throughout their PhD. I would recommend the portfolio be housed on a website created by students as opposed to some ancient university system that they may not have access to upon graduation. 

3.  Establish key performance indicators (KPIs):

   1. Define clear, measurable KPIs for communication skills development (e.g., number of public engagements, media citations, digital content reach) for each PhD cohort, academic year, etc. 
   2. Regularly assess program performance against these KPIs
   3. Use this data along with student and alumni survey data to inform continuous improvement of communication training initiatives

Big Picture: Establish a communication impact lab within your department:

• Create a dedicated space for ongoing research into effective research communication strategies
• Involve students in designing and conducting studies on communication effectiveness
• Use findings to continuously refine and improve the program’s communication training
• Publish and share insights to contribute to broader discussions on doctoral education and research communication

Conclusion

Implementing these changes requires PhD programs to evolve their approach to doctoral education. The times, they are a changin.’ By focusing on communication skills, programs can equip their PhD students with versatile tools that enhance their marketability and impact, regardless of their chosen career path. These recommendations are not just add-ons. Communication skills are essential for everyone, especially future scholars.

Next Steps

Are you interested in learning more about how to update your PhD programs’ curriculum with communication training? Schedule a free strategy session today!