This thesis presents a small-scale, qualitative, phenomenological study of the socialisation experiences of seven international and one local STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and non-STEM PhD students in the early period of their candidatures at the University of Wollongong. This focused and extensive phenomenological study aims to identify and describe the core essences of the socialisation experiences of these PhD students over a period of four weeks. The statistics prepared by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training (2020) show that 4,036 intern...