1. Doctoral education as career preparation? What the evidence suggests
Lynn McAlpine
University of Kent
October 2013

2. What external drivers are affecting higher education research and research education?
What are the implications for those preparing the next generation of researchers?
What are the concerns of those who imagine becoming academics?

3. What external drivers are affecting higher education, research and research education?

4. External drivers Specific to research Models of knowledge production
Requirements for social impact and engagement
Measurement of quantity not quality
From curiosity-driven towards more strategic inquiry
In social sciences and humanities, the challenge of lack of funding
e.g.,LERU, 2012 ; Kalayci, 2012

5. External drivers Specific to research education
University categories: which to prepare PhDs?
External drivers
PhD for what purpose?
Increase in kinds of doctorates BUT not clearly differentiated
Policy and accreditation requirements imposing pedagogies
Disciplinary efforts but not much change
Research councils (funding): from individual to structural support of students, e.g., RCUK, German Excellence initiatives
e.g., World Bank, 2006; Park, 2007; Neumann & Tan, 2011

6. What are the concerns do those who imagine becoming academics, including what is missing in PhD education?

7. Changing nature of academic work
Non-traditional work spaces
24/7
‘Piece work'
Disillusionment!
Ill-prepared for demands of the PhD
Interest in academic careers drops during degree
Post-docs more available but not a stepping stone
What are the alternatives?
What focus? Competing views …
Disciplinary  inter-disciplinary
Qualitative  quantitative
Single scholar  team research
To what purpose? Tensions…
Scholar, researcher, knowledge worker
e.g., Cantwell, 2011; Mason et al, 2009; Nerad et al, 2007; Neumann & Tan, 2011

8. What’s missing in doctoral education? Teaching Career development
Academic communication: varied genres – reading and writing
Ethics: approval but not day-to-day practice
Management skills
Research design skills
Policy: invisible to junior researchers
e.g., Malfroy, 2005; Jones, 2008

9. What are the implications for those preparing the next generation of researchers?

10. Getting the balance right: Impact on the curriculum
Purpose of PhD?
Scholar  competent researcher
Reduced time?
Significant original contribution  do-able project
Play it safe  take risks
Research education: PhD student  post-doc (1)
How does doctoral education fit within research education?
Quality: What it is? How will it be tracked?
Easy to measure  worthwhile to measure
Graduate institutions

11. Getting the balance right: Impact on the curriculum
Admissions processes (2)
Past accomplishments  future learning
Alignment of student and program purposes
Choice of supervisor: Who and when?
Cohort?
Supervision: who is responsible? ( 3)
Student  supervisor  institution
What’s missing? What’s do-able? (4)
Teaching, careers, communication, ethics, management skills, research design skills, policy
Imagining the future, e.g., technologies
Graduate institutions

12. Getting the balance right Who owns research education?
Graduate schools
Faculties of graduate study
Internal research units or centres
External research organizations
Externally-funded training centres or schools
University program linked to business/industry
Graduate institutions
Pedagogy  Knowledge production

13. Where, what next?

14. Where, what next?
Workplace learning:
“Reciprocal interaction between the individual and the workplace …determines learning.” (Tynjala, 2008, 141)

15. 1. Research education: PhD student  post-doc
Possible pedagogies
1. Research education: PhD student  post-doc
Researcher development framework:
2. Admissions processes
Changes in admissions processes: Maher, M., & Barnes, B. (2010). Assessing doctoral applicants' readiness for doctoral-level work. Assessment today, 22(5), 8-10.
Choosing supervisor in first year: EUI code of practice
3. Supervision: Who is responsible?
Distributed responsibility between student and supervisor: OU postgraduate code of practice
Distributed responsibility between student, supervisor, department: Canadian Association of Graduate Studies contract
Termly reporting by student and supervisor to Director Graduate Studies: Oxford GSS
Just-in-time support for students and supervisors: Oxford supervision website

16. 4. What’s missing? What’s do-able?
Possible pedagogies
4. What’s missing? What’s do-able?
Careers: Academic:
Alternate: (good links from this page; (more general career info)
Ethical case studies
Writing resources: for non-English speakers: resources; see also online resources