Obtaining the doctoral degree offers numerous opportunities in the university environment, from obtaining a position as a professor at a university to achieving very enriching experiences within the field of research. In order to reach that position, PhD students have to go through a series of circumstances that are not without complexities.

On the one hand, carrying out a doctoral dissertation requires the development of a series of research competences. These seem not to be in accordance between the legislative documents of the academic world and the reflections found in the specialized literature. There are several recent studies that have worked on this issue, such as Ferrer (2020), García-Lastra (2020), Oleas et al. (2020), Sandín et al. (2020), Rodríguez-Mantilla et al., (2020), and Schimdt and Hansson (2018), from whose theories it is deduced that an emerging researcher has to achieve competencies that are distributed in two closely related dimensions. Here we refer to them the Research Activity and the Socio-affective Well-being. In these dimensions, aspects related to the development of a research work, research training, and individual and social well-being are combined.

Apart from the tendency of doctoral students to suffer psychological disorders, such as depression, anxiety, or Burnout (Evans et al., 2018; Levecque et al., 2017, Bolio et al., 2015; Caballero-Domínguez, 2015), a harmful phenomenon has currently appeared: Covid-19. During this period of global pandemic, various measures have been carried out in the educational field, with the transfer from face-to-face to virtual spaces being one of the most representative events. In the case of doctoral studies, the adaptations have focused on guaranteeing an adequate duration to complete the investigations and changes in the doctoral closing procedure, such as the delivery and defense of the doctoral thesis. However, these measures have been insufficient to alleviate the difficulties that are being lived by PhD students.

Given the need to create a network among doctoral students where their training was encouraged and they shared research experiences, at the beginning of 2019 the Permanent Seminar of Doctorate in Education was born at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). This project is considered a training activity of the Doctoral Program of the Faculty of Education, in which a group of PhD students organize a monthly seminar under the supervision of the Vice-Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies. The possible assistants are 247 PhD students that are doing their thesis both in Spain and in other countries. Each session has a section where one or two students participate voluntarily to present their research progress. In 2020, the second edition of the seminar incorporated a workshop section in which transversal content related to academic and emotional research needs are discussed. Also, this edition included an interview with professor Mustafa Yunus Eryaman (elected-president of the World Educational Research Association).

During the three editions, an attempt was made to meet the needs that doctoral students demanded through questionnaires elaborated ad-hoc, in which they were asked about their training preferences, general information and proposals for improvement of the Seminar. Since then, we have made improvement changes, such as conducting sessions via streaming, adapting their schedule, offering variability of workshops and content. As a consequence, the participation and feedback of the doctoral students is increasing. The Seminar is creating a culture of research and networking among PhD students in education.

Thus, it is worth asking, what are the current demands of the doctoral students in education at the Complutense University of Madrid? In this sense, the objective of this study is to develop a quality questionnaire that can assess these demands.

The questionnaire was received by the PhD students in Education at the Complutense University of Madrid from June 25, 2020 to July 13, 2020 via email. The data were analyzed through a quantitative methodology, and a statistical treatment of the results was performed. The items of the questionnaire respond to a Likert-type scale, where 1 meant nothing and 5 a lot. The instrument used has three sections. The first has 7 questions about the characteristics of the students and their doctoral studies. The second consists of 18 items, configured in two dimensions: one on the achievements of the current Seminar (structure of the sessions, communication system between organizers and participants, and promotion of socialization) and second on the satisfaction and prospects of the next editions. Finally, the third section includes two open questions related to the training preferences and content of the seminar sessions. The sample (n=49) is made up of 69.4% women and 30.6% men. The students belong to different lines of research, among which are: Education and modernity: Spaces, times and agents, with 26.5%; Cognitive neuroscience, psychopathology and curriculum within the framework of inclusive education and attention to diversity, with 4.1%; Research in disciplinary didactics, with 26.5%; Social processes and evaluation of educational policies, with 12.2%; Inclusive, intercultural and permanent education and technological development in the information society, with 16.3%; Diagnosis, orientation and evaluation in education and psychopedagogy (educational psychology), with 14.3%. PhD students identify their research within the qualitative (26.5%), quantitative (18.4%), mixed (49%), philosophical-theoretical (6.1%) area or research method. Related to the year of doctorate, 36.7% are in first year, 22.4% in second; 20.4% in the third, 10.2% in the fourth and 10.2% in the fifth. More than half of the sample completed their doctoral thesis full time (57.1%), compared to 42.9% who do it part time. In terms of attendance, 6.1% of the students attended the six sessions held during the 2019/20 academic year, 12.2% at five sessions, 24.5% at four sessions, 22.4% at three sessions, 18.4% % at two sessions and 16.3% at one session. Most of the emerging researchers have attended the Seminar in person.

In general, the doctoral students positively valued the achievements of the seminar and felt quite satisfied with the training sessions offered. The minimum ratings were found in the use of social networks to find out about the news of the Seminar (mean = 2.98). About the alternation of the hours to hold the sessions, and the socialization among the doctoral students promoted by the Seminar, average scores have been obtained. The students moderately prefer that the sessions be virtual, and in general they are moderately satisfied with the offer of workshops and the interviews. Furthermore, the Seminar has exceeded their expectations. High scores have been obtained with respect to the content and structure of the sessions (presentation and training workshop) and with the communication between the organizers and the students through email. In addition, students would like to have questions about the PhD resolved in future sessions. The highest rating is related to the participation of experts from other countries in the sessions (mean = 4.65). In the open questions the students have demanded that sessions be organized on general aspects of the doctorate, the use of digital tools, systematic review, thesis defense, stays, data analysis, contribution writing, information on educational scientific journals and the National Agency Quality Assessment and Accreditation. Some of these demands have already been covered in previous editions of the Seminar. Students would also like to see educational professionals linked to politics, theorists, peers or teachers to be interviewed. To sum up, as improvements, the seminar will: 1) address those aspects that the doctoral students have assessed as improvable, 2) implement changes at the level of communication and 3) improve its channels for the dissemination of scientific knowledge.

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