Dear Karen, the other contributors to this thread, and all interested

Thanks to Karen for bringing in the important issue: “Is a PhD necessary 
for lectureship and professorship?” Thanks also to the other interesting 
contributions to this thread. In this post, I will give three answers to 
Karen’s question.

My post is very much delayed, primarily because I volunteered to organize 
the institutional “Christmas-table” (Norwegian julebord). This event, 
however, became more fruitful than expected, keep reading, and I will tell 
you in what way. 

Erik says there are three distinct, different practices related to design: 
research, teaching, and professional practice. In Norway there is a fourth 
category called: art development work, in which art includes design. I 
therefore suggest a model that consists of three distinct, different 
practices: research, art development work and design. In addition, running 
parallel to these three, there is teaching. My first answer then to 
Karen’s question is: yes and no, according to what you teach.

To explain the category of art development work further, a brief 
historical background may be illuminating. In Oslo the education in 
architecture started within the National College of Art and Design from 
which it split in the late 1960s. The same happened to the field of 
industrial design some decades later, and the two joined forces to become 
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). Surprisingly, interior 
and furniture design were left in the National College of Art and Design 
together with textiles and costume and visual communication or graphic 
design. 

AHO started in the early 1990s a new doctoral program for design, 
coordinated by Prof. Halina Dunin-Woyset. In 1995 this program was 
expanded allowing applicants from art and design schools, including 
pedagogical schools. The National College of Art and Design immediately 
began to collaborate, sending candidates to the research training courses, 
I myself being the first one. However, in 1996 the National College of Art 
and Design became part of the larger Oslo National College of the Arts 
that includes the former schools of Dance, Opera, Theater and the Art 
Academy. From now on several design educations were trapped within an 
institution defined as an art school. This mix of institutions was purely 
political and highly rejected by all the involved fields. The situation 
became unbearable for the design subjects, and to help the design 
institutes develop appropriately, the old National College of Art and 
Design (established as part of the nation building process of Norway in 
1818) in 2003 was split in two faculties: Art Subjects (Norwegian 
Kunstfag) (Ceramics, Metal, Textile, Graphics) and Design. The same year 
(2003) the Norwegian government launched a completely new “Programme for 
Research Fellowships in the Arts”. 

The Norwegian Government has decided to initiate a new recruitment 
programme for higher education in the arts. The Programme for Research 
Fellowships in the Arts will be an equivalent to academic Phd programmes. 
The scheme will enable artistic research and development work of a high 
quality and will be considered as qualification for the academic post of 
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor. This is one of the first programmes 
of its kind in Europe.

The programme offers candidates who have completed their arts education at 
the highest available level (normally MA) the opportunity for a three year 
funded fellowship. The fellowship will be attached to one of the Norwegian 
educational institutions offering higher education in one or more of the 
creative and performing arts. The Fellows will also participate in an 
interdisciplinary programme across the boundaries of individual projects 
and artistic practices (Online <http://sofie.khib.no/stipend/> 
[7.12.2007]).

This programme is made for the art schools, and the design education 
within them. Since the art schools now have their post graduate level, AHO 
no longer has the obligation to let external candidates enter their 
research programme as they previously had. This means that at present we 
do not have a PhD-level to offer design candidates educated in the art 
institutions. Worse, only two design candidates have so far been accepted 
into the new art development work programme, one is at present on 
sabbatical, the other started this autumn. 

The goal of the fellowships in the art development programme is to produce 
art (including design) on a high international level. I guess it is close 
to the research-based or studio-based doctorates in UK in which a route 
mapping and an oral examination is demanded in addition to the art work. 
To avoid conflicts with established academic milieus, this programme 
offers no titles; it is an unscientific development work (not the OECD 
type of development work, which is scientific) that is asked for. The 
debate about the name of the baby has not yet silenced. Speaking about the 
programme in English, many use the terms doctorate and PhD programme, but 
today that is incorrect. 

As my text goes, you may sigh: poor designers in Norway! Thanks to the 
julebord event, I can assure you, leading designers in Norway have 
confided that their success is due to the fact that their education is 
located in the art school. It is the very closeness to the arts, to the 
illogical, intuitive and playful attitude of the arts that they do well 
and conquer the designers that are educated in more academic institutions. 
And this tale is not only told me at the julebord after the welcome drink, 
but regularly confirmed by other sources. 

I used to speak up for the benefit of research in art and design, and 
certainly we need systematic development of knowledge. However, design is 
a term that covers practices from theory building to cabinet making and 
mere art work. A good education in design demands teachers with the 
different kinds of competences mentioned in the model above: research, 
development work and design, all of them combined with good pedagogy. How 
this conglomerate of competences will be within the indiviudual 
institution, will depend on the type of design that is taught. My second 
answer then to Karen is that to teach research, you have to have research 
competence, which is a PhD, but in the other two areas you need that 
competence and not a PhD.

My third and concluding answer to Karen’s question: “Is a PhD necessary 
for lectureship and professorship?” is that it depends on the profile of 
the institution; in some types of design it is yes, in the more practice-
based varieties it is no, but for the research classes if they exist.
I have followed this debate on research and practice for the last 15 years 
and tried it all: professional practice, art development and doctoral 
work. Contrary to David’s confession of once being a designer, I like 
Birger, persistently keep to my making practice. I therefore, tentatively –
 and I am open to change my mind after another julebord with convincing 
arguments – think that if we want a bridge between practice and theory 
within design, we have to see the bridge itself as an area of special 
competence. May be the Norwegian art (and design) development work, which 
oscillates between research and practice, represent that bridging 
competence? I suggest it does. Furthermore, I think research in design 
should, at least for a while, allow this art (and design) development work 
to be included as what it is: the in-between-activity. If not, I fear that 
we are back to start with an unbridgeable gap between theorists and 
practitioners. That would in my opinion be bad.
 
The Programme for Research Fellowships in the Arts is an experiment that 
will be evaluated in 2008. I’ll keep you informed! 

Meanwhile: enjoy your Christmas and New Year celebrations! 



Best wishes,
Grete Refsum

Associate Professor
Oslo National Academy of the Arts
Faculty of Visual Art
 
Postbox 6853 St. Olavs pl.
N-0130 Oslo, Norway 
 
Office: +47 22 99 56 84
Mobile: +47 91 85 02 58
 
Homepage: www.refsum.no