I'm absorbed in the somewhat narrower topic of the ethics of typeface design right now so I've barely had time to skim these threads, let alone make a real contribution. A couple of things I will note briefly:
The question isn't as simple as saying that practitioners should teach undergraduate classes and researchers should teach at the graduate level. At least here in the US, there isn't a structure in universities to allow such a neat division. More and more, universities in the US are trying to discourage specialized graduate-level-only professorship as those who pay the bills ask why undergraduates get much of their education from term faculty and grad students.
Also, many universities require the "highest" degree in a field. In the US, the College Art Association has declared the Master of Fine Arts Degree to be the terminal studio degree. As such, the MFA is the de facto requirement for most university teaching at American universities in my end of the design world. There are very few PhDs in the US in fields such as graphic design, so they haven't affected the center of gravity. (I have the pleasure of teaching with Kate LaMere, a fine researcher and experienced graphic designer who has a PhD in design. People like Kate are, to say the least, not a commodity here in the US.)
As soon as university administrators and state legislators see a big enough pool of PhDs, a doctoral degree will likely become the de facto standard even if all of the design doctors are researchers rather than designers. (For an example, take a look at what has happened--good and bad--to journalism programs as communication PhD degrees have become the gold standard.) At very least, PhDs will be in control of administrative and curricular issues and will shape what the practitioners are allowed to do.
The problems of fitting applied fields into traditional academic standards is not easy. Some of you were at the RIDE conference in Perth when I gave a talk comparing designers in universities to undocumented aliens working in the US, making choices about preserving vs abandoning aspects of one's old culture and choices about accepting vs shaping aspects of the new one.
This is complicated by fundamental changes taking place at universities. At least in the US, Governmental support is dwindling even as legislators and others pressure universities to show results measurable our students' future careers. The current applied education model is insufficient but many aspects of it are likely to win out over traditional assumptions about the nature of universities.
Back to typeface revivals and originality in type design. (Anyone with thoughts on that, please contact me off list.)
Gunnar
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