ContextsThe ‘gold standard’ is the phd by supervised research. it has this status simply
because it is a title that is available under the national education system of most
countries around the world, although not necessarily in the creative arts. For example,
it is not possible to gain a phd for creative arts practice in the usa. indeed, at the
moment, one cannot study arts practice at any level at harvard although a Task Force
has recommended that the situation be changed (harvard 2008). The phd degree
in its modern form originates from the german reformed system of the nineteenth
century, pioneered by Wilhelm von humboldt at Berlin university. The phd is
generally regarded as a training in academic research skills leading to the production
and defence of a thesis that makes an original contribution to knowledge in a particular
subject. it is the highest award available in most universities, although some countries
including germany, France, poland, hungary, etc., have traditionally expected a
postdoctoral qualification (Habilitation) in order to take up a university teaching post.
phds ‘by supervised research’ vary in the proportion of coursework included – from
the usa with comparatively high proportion to the uK with often no requirement for
coursework at all, i.e. in the uK the candidate typically spends 100 per cent of their
time on individual supervised research.
in some countries, experienced researchers who have made a professional career as a
researcher without undertaking a phd can submit publications for a phd ‘by published
works’. in general, a selection of publications by the candidate is submitted, together
with a critical exegesis of how these individual publications are equivalent to a coherent
programme of research of the kind normally developed under supervision. The exegesis
is normally a critical assessment of the impact of the published works on the profession.
This is a model inherited from traditional universities such as Cambridge that awarded
phds on this basis.^5 This model is also embodied in the concept of a higher doctorate,
such as dlitt or dsc. higher doctorates are often awarded as honorary degrees for
outstanding contribution to a field, or in response to submissions by the candidate
following the model of phd by published work (uKCge 2008).
The professional impact, rather than the academic impact, of the candidate’s
research is the focus of the professional doctorate (uKCge 2002), which has been
available in the usa since the 1960s. Rather than aiming to make a contribution to
knowledge, implicitly understood as academic knowledge or theory, the professional
doctorate aims to make a contribution to the professional practice of a subject. such
studies are normally undertaken in partnership between a university and a workplace
setting such as a major company. Candidates use their workplace as a source of
problem- finding and contextualize the relevance of their solutions in terms of impact
on the strategy or performance of the host company through the implementation of
the outcomes. Thus the outcomes may be more in terms of modified performance
than in terms of a written/theoretical contribution explaining why the interventions
were productive.
The Taught doctorate is based on both coursework as well as on the individual
supervised research and is another phd model. in Brazil, this is the model for a phd
in which the candidate takes certain taught disciplines towards a more detailed
understanding of their chosen topic of study. The output of these disciplines is in the
form of essays that will compose the chapters of the final thesis. The choice of disciplines
and structure of the essays must be justified and defended in the final argument. in the