The first professional doctorate (PD) program in an Australian university was inaugurated in 1990 1. The introduction of this program coincided with the abolition of the ‘two-tier’ higher education system - whereby colleges of advanced education and universities had distinct roles and profiles, as well as different academic structures - and the introduction of the Unified National System. Over the ensuing fifteen years, PDs have continued to proliferate and diversify. PDs have now secured a legitimate position in postgraduate degree offerings at most Australian universities. In fact thirty universities today offer robust PD programs, all taking their place alongside the more ‘traditional’ research-based PhD. Nevertheless, there are suggestions that the success of professional doctorates may be short-lived, primarily because traditional PhD programs are now accommodating the need for applied research training and professional development. A professional doctorate is a program of advanced study which seeks to both enhance scholarship within a discipline and meet the needs of industry and professional groups 2. The purpose of a PD is to inject into the research training agenda of Australian universities a concern for ‘work-focused learning’. PD programs have emerged as a response to the historical shift towards professionalism in education more generally. The project of broadening and reorientating doctoral education to address industry and commerce sector concerns was reinforced through an ideological critique of the traditional PhD program. This came from within the ranks of both industry leaders 3 and academics 4, who called into question the appropriateness of the traditional PhD to meet future employment needs. PDs were argued to provide workplace orientation, realistic and collaborative research environments and cutting edge answers to professionally relevant questions in comparison of PhDs which were academically orientated, often intellectually isolated as well as narrow and overly specialised in their focus. The PD is normally undertaken over a period of no less than three years, and includes a relatively substantial component of directed study or formally assessed coursework. Coursework is geared toward the acquisition of research methods skills, transferable generic skills, and relevant disciplinary knowledge. PD candidates are also expected to submit independently a dissertation or thesis, which is examinable by an expert in the specified field. A number of PD degrees also call for attendance at a program of seminars, meetings and conferences, as well as submission of a portfolio of work. Admission requirements for professional doctorates include consideration of past academic achievements – the minimum being a relevant bachelor’s degree - as well as criteria related to professional experience. It is interesting to note that, prior to the late 1980s academia, the state and industry in Australia did not exert a great deal of influence on one another. Throughout the 1990s, however, the three institutional blocks have increasingly developed tangible relationships, interacting agendas and shared interests. Testaments to these are the proliferation of local and international industry linkages, state government collaborations, alliances with charitable organisations, as well as other Western Australian universities. Professional doctorates have consequently evolved in response to the development of more and more industrially relevant research projects. But does this relatively new form of doctoral education offer any intrinsic advantage over the traditional PhD? While the number of PDs offered in Australian universities increased rapidly in the 1990s, new research has called into question the viability of these programs. Evans et. al (2005) have provided a detailed analysis of the numbers and types of doctorates awarded in Australia from 1990 to 2002 5. Their results show a much greater growth in the number of traditional PhDs than PDs awarded in fields that offer both types of doctorate. In fact, the growth in PhDs awarded in particular disciplines between 1990 and 2000 was between 2.4 to 7 times greater than that of the total number of PDs. Furthermore, the largest proportional growth in PhDs from 1990 to 2002 has been in professionally related fields such as Psychology, Education, Health and Business, all of which were thought to be the specific areas of PD growth. The authors attribute these trends to the higher prestige assigned to a PhD; the flexibility of PhD programs that do allow for collaboration with organisations outside the University; by the RTS funding model; and by the relatively high expense of providing PD training. The analysis concludes that it is ‘difficult to see how contemporary Australian universities can continue to support professional doctorates of quality in the future’ 6. However, it is likely that doctoral training in Australia will continue to evolve, and its assessment has become a more controversial issue. |
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