Electronic Theses Howard Green Staffordshire University Chair. UK Council for Graduate Education

Format Current Trends in PGR Electronic theses – some thoughts –Examining –Culture changes –Accessibility

Current trends in PGR Numbers Diversity Concentration Quality assurance and compliance

YearTotalAnnual Growth (%) , , , , , , , Source: HESA Table 13 Table 1: Total number of Doctorates awarded by UK HEIs,

Table 2: The Distribution of Doctorates awarded by Institution (2000) QuartileNumber of Institutions Upper5 Second9 Third18 Lower97

Some Implications Managing Tracking Supervising Examining

Issues - Diversity Full time/part time Disciplinary Types of doctoral awards and associated outputs. –Mathematics to Music –Published works to Professional Doctorates

Table 3: Mode of Attendance 2001/02 Total: Old Universities Total: New Universities Total: Colleges of Higher Education Grand Total:

Table 3: Doctorates awarded 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 Subject Group2000/ /2002 Medical and Biomedical Sciences Natural Sciences and Engineering Social Sciences Arts and Humanities Combined Subjects Total

Table 4: Professional Doctorate Programmes in UK Universities 1998 to 2000 YearPD Programmes

Table 5: Professional Doctorates in the different disciplines Doctor of Education Doctor of Engineering Doctor of Clinical Psychology Doctor of Psychology Doctor of Educational Psychology Doctor of Counselling Psychology Doctor of Occupational Psychology Doctor of Clinical Science-Psychotherapy Doctor of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Doctor of Business Administration Doctor of Administration Doctor of Finance

Quality Assurance HEFCE/ Joint Funding Councils – Improving Standards QAA Review of PGR Code of Practice

Examining – Current Practice Very variable –Stage 1 –Hard/soft/ring – bound –Some use of E for appendices etc. –Stage 2 Final –Bound

Examination Issues Negatives –Need to print? Cost transfer –IT skills of external –Screen reading –Definitive versions –Stability and modification

Examining Positives –Word/text searches –Plagiarism checks –Check validity

Culture Change Very slow change process for all PhD work Gold standard(s) Amending Regulations – not a problem?? As no BS – good time to attend to this too?

Accessibility Would help (increased difficulty in getting copy) Accessible to who? Plagiarism?