Ken,
I was glad to see your recent post about the equivalent of PhD and MFA
degrees. There is no way the two are equivalent experiences and I would
venture to say they should not be considered as such. As a practicing
designer, academic department head, and someone who has gone through a PhD
program, I would urge others to realize the value, but difference, that
each of those degrees bring. They can both have rigor, and focus, and
contribute to design knowledge but in a different way. Let us look at
strengths we can bring to the table to support each other. I would be glad
to have folks with both degrees in my program.
Lorraine
Where some of us find the issue a bit irritating is the number of
people with professional training and studio degrees, yet no research
training, and no obvious skill at research, declaring that at MFA and
professional experience is the equivalent of a PhD in research
training. It is not, and many of the disasters of design arise from
incompetent research projects and incompetent conclusions drawn from
research by perfectly skilled practicing designers who do not
understand research issues.
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