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This paper aims to explore the support experiences of 381 PhD students within the humanities and social sciences from three research-intensive universities in Denmark (n = 145) and Finland (n = 236). The study investigates the cross-cultural variation in the researcher community support and supervisory support experiences, factors associated with their support experienced and the perceived support fit.

The study used a mixed methods design, both quantitative analyses and qualitative analyses (open-ended descriptions) were used.

The results showed that students in both Danish and Finnish programs emphasized researcher community support over supervisory support. The Danish students, however, reported slightly higher levels of researcher community support and experienced lower levels of friction than their Finnish counter partners. The results also indicated that the only form of support in which the students expressed more matched support than mismatched support was informational support.

The results imply investing in a stronger integration of PhD students into the research community is beneficial for the students’ progress. Building network-based and collaborative learning activities that enhance both instrumental and emotional support and a collective form of supervision could be further developed. The possibility of Phd student integration in the scholarly community is likely to lead to more efficient use of finacial and intellectual resources in academia and society more broadly.

This study offer a unique contribution on doctoral students’ academic and socialization experiences in terms of explicationg the sources of support, support forms and support fit among Danish and Finnish doctoral students. Both invariants and socio-culturally embedded aspects of support experience among the students were detected.

Doctoral students’ ill-being in terms of stress, exhaustion and high levels of mental health problems has been well documented. Yet, the well-being of doctoral students is more than the absence of these negative symptoms. The number of studies exploring the combination of positive and negative attributes of doctoral students’ well-being is limited. Therefore, this study aims to focus on exploring individual variation in doctoral students’ experienced engagement and burnout across two distinct socio-cultural contexts in Finland and in South Africa.

A total of 884 doctoral students from Finland (n = 391) and South Africa (n = 493) responded to the cross-cultural Doctoral Experience Survey. The data were quantitatively analyzed.

Altogether four distinctive engagement–burnout profiles were detected, including engaged, engaged–exhausted, moderately engaged–burnout and burnout profiles. Differences between the Finnish and South African students were identified in profile emphasis. The profiles were also related to several study progress attributes such as drop-out intentions, time-to-candidacy and satisfaction with study.

This study provides new understanding on doctoral students’ well-being by focusing on both positive and negative attributes and exploring doctoral students’ discrepant profiles with a cross-country design.

The purpose of this paper is to find out and understand the role of competence management in Finnish forest company maintenance. The key questions of this paper are: what is the required maintenance competence and how can this competence be achieved? Competence needs are here approached from the managerial perspective.

The research was qualitative by nature. In total, 29 managers and supervisors were interviewed with focused interview; 22 interviewees worked in maintenance and seven in production.

Competence management in forest company maintenance is twofold. First, the existing personnel's competence level should be developed. Second, the competence of new recruits should be taken care of. The co‐operation between maintenance and production is important in promoting competence development. The supervisors are responsible of the overall competence level of their subordinates. The transference of the tacit knowledge from a senior to a junior worker is important. The commitment of new personnel should be secured by training and during mentoring processes. Also the apprenticeship contract is important in improving the high level competence of maintenance personnel. It is necessary to have the right quality and quantity of competence available in right place at right time. Therefore, it is not essential to have all kinds of competence in every work unit. These specialists can rotate from one unit to another.

This study included one Finnish forest company and competence was approached only from the managerial perspective. Therefore, the study is not comprehensive.

The paper provides information concerning competence development in maintenance, i.e. which are the necessary competences inside the company and how know‐how can be achieved and developed.

The paper provides useful information concerning competence management in industrial maintenance.