The first semester of the doctoral club has ended

Back28/05/2026

Over the course of four sessions, the series provided doctoral students with an opportunity to engage in informal and supportive conversations about the more personal and often less visible aspects of academic life.

Doctoral studies are not only a professional challenge but also a personal journey: inspiring, intense, and often lonely at the same time. Responding to this experience, the Doctoral Club was launched during the Spring semester of the 2025/26 academic year as a joint initiative of the Student Wellbeing and Community Centre and the Doctoral Schools. The aim of the program was to support community building and the mental wellbeing of PhD students.

The goal of the Doctoral Club was to create a community space where students could openly reflect on their experiences, challenges, and dilemmas related to the academic path, while also connecting with doctoral students from different disciplines. Workshop topics included coping with academic failure and criticism, perfectionism, researcher identity, shared academic values, and coping strategies for dealing with difficulties and setbacks.

The second part of each session featured informal discussions with invited faculty members and researchers about their academic journeys, with particular attention to experiences that are less frequently addressed in formal academic discourse. During the semester, our guests included Dr. Yuling Wei, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Marketing and Communication Sciences; Dr. Noémi Katona, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology; Dr. Olivér Rácz, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Economics; and Prof. Dr. Viktor Dörfler, Research Professor at the Institute of Strategy and Management.

Based on the positive feedback from students, the organizers are planning to continue and further develop the Doctoral Club in the coming semesters as well.