If We Can Do It, So Can You: How Doctoral Study Leads to Personal and Professional Growth for Tertiary Learning Advisors

The work of tertiary learning advisors (TLAs) in Aotearoa New Zealand is performed in collaboration with staff from all disciplines and support services on campus and online all year round. This work occurs across the full gamut of educational levels, starting with the school to tertiary study transition right through to working with doctoral students. In amongst all of that, some TLAs even manage to do doctorates ourselves. In this article, four of us reflect on our respective journeys towards successfully completing our doctoral studies while also doing our work. We share and discuss our markedly varied personal experiences of balancing work, life, study, and relationships; personal health and wellbeing; working in solitude and/or within communities; and impacts on TLA professional practice. In reading this article, we hope that other TLAs are inspired to start, continue, or restart their doctorate.