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Participation in doctoral studies has becoming a national agenda as it contributes towards the accomplishment of world class universities in Malaysia. However, the path towards obtaining a PhD degree can be challenging and full of uncertainties. Thus, success is not definite. This scenario may discourage eligible students to pursue for doctorate degree and thus the national agenda in terms of higher education may not be achieved. Therefore, this research was conducted to explore the significant people in the lives of female PhD students in Education and Engineering at one university in Malaysia as to shed some lights on their journey. Reasons for choosing those people were also being investigated. Thirty eight students were interviewed in this qualitative study and data were also derived from two focus group sessions. Thematic analysis of the data led to the discovery of certain significant individuals which provide