Soft Skills for a Successful Doctoral Journey in Moroccan Tertiary Education: Awareness, Perceptions, and Readiness

Abstract

Soft skills have become increasingly important among educational stakeholders, particularly politicians, educational psychologists, and researchers. There is solid evidence that these skills play an integral role in either the success or failure of a doctoral journey in terms of academic performance, drop-out rates, and career readiness. Using a web-based survey, this exploratory study aimed at comparing the doctoral journeys of 35 students enrolled in two Moroccan higher education institutions. Results revealed that though the majority of doctoral students were familiar with the concept of soft skills, deemed soft skills as synonymous with life skills, and could distinguish between hard skills and soft skills, they had different perceptions about the concept of soft skills with regards to the phrase meaning, agency, culpability, and perceived importance. As a major result, the participants asserted that written/oral communication, academic research, and management skills were of paramount importance, accentuating the urgent need to possess them to lead a successful doctoral journey. A promising result was that the majority of respondents showed much readiness to improve their soft skills, suggesting the inclusion of soft skills as a stand-alone subject during the doctoral journey, and proclaiming that equipping themselves with such skills would help them achieve academic excellence in the doctoral journey. Collectively, these results are a contribution to the body of knowledge on the ties between soft skills development and the success of the doctoral journey in Moroccan Tertiary Education.