2014 edition testimonials

A friend of mine, also a PhD student, told me, that she had not applied to the course because she had been told that the course is so difficult. After some more discussion, she regretted that she had not participated. While being intellectually challenging and stimulating, the course provided also practical advise on how to proceed with qualitative research. It especially helped a lot in understanding the thinking behind the grounded theory, that I probably would not have considered as a potential method for my research without attending the course. The group work with other participants provided an excellent opportunity to discuss and learn together, especially as the instructors supported the learning by dropping in the groups to give guidance and to share their knowledge. I would recommend this course for those PhD students who are in a quite early phasis of their studies and still have the flexibility to select or adjust some of the analysis methods of their (qualitative) research.

- Heli Pietila, PhD candidate, University of Oulu

An eye-opening experience. This course was a mental trip through frustration that eventually gave valuable insight and understanding of grounded theory on a both practical and abstract level. Leaving all of us with new perspectives on research. Highly recommendable even if you could never dream about using grounded theory/theory building in your research. You just need to be open-minded and you will be taken to new and interesting places.

- Rune Osmundsen, PhD candidate, Aalborg University

This was a very valuable course for me, focusing also on Grounded Theory. It is a course that practically shows you how to analyze textual data, such as interviews, and how to take it to the next level beyond the narrative understanding of the context. After the course you will understand how to analyze your interview data using substantive coding and theoretical coding, and create a formal theory (although the practical part of the course only focuses on the first two steps of coding). Nevertheless, Grounded Theory can be used to analyze both qualitative and quantitative data, and the course presents analysis methods which are useful even to those students who do not plan to use Grounded Theory in their research. This course has therefore been the most valuable course I’ve taken to this date.

- Michal Lysek, PhD candidate, Halmstad University

This course is very well thought and designed to cater for student problems in developing theoretical models and concepts. It has mix of lectures, student presentations, class assignments, guest lectures and follow-up discussions. I have learned a lot from this course and it has been very useful for my academic and research career. I was indeed struggling with theorizing and theory building before attending this course. I was lacking the practice and art for scientifically reviewing literature and theorizing from it. But now I feel more confident and comfortable in theoretical development. Student participation from different research discipline is also a healthier addition to course environment. 

- Muhammad Anees-ur-Rehman, PhD candidate, University of Oulu

Participating in the TBRP PhD course was an unforgettable experience, beyond what I was expecting prior to the course. In addition to being faced with presentations by academically highly competent and respected scholars you are engaged in interaction with the rest of the participants and lecturers alike applying the newly received knowledge, which makes the impact on your comprehension of the material that much stronger. You get a great chance for networking with researchers in different fields and from different countries. And it is needless to advocate for importance of networking. The course is highly recommended, - participate, learn, and apply!

- Alex Fomcenco, PhD candidate, Aalborg University

The TBRP course was useful for me as it helped to understand different research methods, especially the Grounded Theory method. After this course I was able to understand the applicability and usefulness of the Grounded Theory method but also other methods. The course was very well organized - the dedicated professionals as course leaders as well as multinational PhD student group made the course contents interesting and rich. I can warmly recommend this course for any PhD student.

- Lotta Haukipuro, PhD candidate, University of Oulu

In the course I was challenged and presented with tools and methods on how to theorize from literature and from data that would allow me to enhance my PhD. In addition to in-depth discussion and practice on inductive and deductive methods, I had once in a life opportunity to dialogue via Skype with Dr. Barney Glaser, founding father of Grounded Theory. I recommend this course to new PhD fellows to build and enhance their theory building skills.

- Allan Sort Dahl, PhD candidate, Aalborg University

The whole course was extremely valuable for me at this stage of my PhD. It is a very good idea that PhD students take it not in the very late stages of their dissertations. In addition, the organization of the course was excellent, so were its social events. The feedback session, organized at the end of the course, on the issues from my thesis was extremely useful for me as well - I had a very good discussion and received a constructive feedback.

- Monika Musial, PhD candidate, University of Oulu

The TBRP PhD course offered me valuable insights on how to advance my dissertation, introducing a valuable set of theorizing and theory building techniques that I may apply during my PhD research. The structure and content of the course was well-defined and balanced. Even the program schedule was tight, it was the only way to learn so much new information just within one week. I did enjoy the course lecturers who in addition to their experience also were very motivated throughout the week. I recommend TBRP PhD course to anyone who is interested to learn theorizing and theory building techniques in order to enhance his or her own PhD research. 

- Marko Juntunen, PhD candidate, University of Oulu

The course gave me an opportunity to get acquainted with different approaches to building the theory in organizational research. The group assignments were a unique experience of analyzing qualitative data, going beyond the obvious information, finding latent patterns and discovering the true concern – the concerns of interviewed persons. I got the very good and useful feedback on my research design and suggestions for improving my research. At the course I discovered that the best way to do the good research is to stay open-minded, keep it simple, just get there and do the research. The course provided me with new knowledge and inspired me to improve research.

- Branka Likon, PhD candidate, University of Oulu

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