For PhD Students

Professional Development & Postdoctoral Affairs offers an expansive professional development curriculum for Boston University PhD students built around seven Core Capacities, and provides programming, workshops, and trainings in areas of project management, leadership, communication, self-awareness, and career development. Explore PhD Progression, our online micro-credentialing platform to begin skill building in each of the seven Core Capacities.

Career & Professional Development contains resources to help you prepare for future careers through self-assessment and creating Individual Development Plans, as well as guidance for exploring potential career pathways in both academic and non-academic job fields. You will also find information on PDPA workshops, events and experiential learning opportunities. The Resources section of our website has information about a variety of  PDPA and University-wide resources available to doctoral students, including how to connect with PDPA through bi-monthly PhD Office Hours and our Moderated Discussions. We also encourage you to check out our podcast, Vitamin PhD, a supplement to your doctoral training!

PDPA supports PhD students primarily through professional development programs, but as part of Graduate Affairs and the Office of Research, we are also here to direct doctoral students to resources throughout the University relevant to other aspects of the graduate experience. Visit the following links to the Graduate Education and Office of Research websites for information on Health & Wellness offerings, Living in Boston and finding Community at BU, or finding support for your research.

We acknowledge that the territory on which Boston University stands was once home to the Wampanoag and Massachusett People. As a campus community, we strive to honor and respect the proud history and continued efforts of these people to recognize how we came to reside on this land, and to seek understanding of our place within that history. Ownership of land is itself a colonial concept; many tribes had seasonal relationships with the land we currently inhabit. Today, Boston is still home to indigenous peoples, including the Mashpee Wampanoag and Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). For more information, please visit the North American Indian Center of Boston and the Commission on Indian Affairs of the State of Massachusetts.