Dear Cameron,
One of the problems that has become apparent to me with the three-year PhD is the fact that it may not be a genuine research degree. Since I have made the full argument in the paper on writing and supervising the PhD (Friedman 2014), I won’t make it here.
The short argument is that the full model of the PhD program teaches research skills, research methods, and compare ative research methodology, along with giving students a foundation in appropriate areas that will be vital to a full research career. In contrast, many of the 3-year PhD programs teach only those research skills needed for the specific research project that a student hopes to complete within the program.
What we are seeing is a significant number of graduates who cannot conduct research outside a very narrow project, who cannot and do not publish their research, and who lack the skills required for doctoral supervision outside their own field.
If you’d care to read the full argument, you’ll find it in the “PhD Training, Skills and Supervision Section” of my Academia page. It is the paper titled Writing for the PhD in Art and Design.
https://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman
There is another explanation for the complaint that North American universities turn out too many PhD graduates. The PhD degree is the degree for most research jobs, in universities and outside them. There are more people seeking such jobs than the available number of academic and research positions. A careful review will show a mismatch between graduated doctors and appropriate jobs in many nations.
When I served as a dean, our university policy was that the deans would sit on every hiring committee for each research position within his or her faculty. This meant that I reviewed the CV of every applicant and read theses, conference papers, and articles for everyone we shortlisted. I found that many people who held a PhD in art and design fields were simply not competent as researchers; many could not demonstrate basic research skills. In this respect, I am not distinguishing between those researchers that were first rate and those who were merely competent. I saw that many people did not have the basic skills that authors such as Gordon Rugg and Marian Petre (2004: 6-7) identify as essential for completing a doctoral degree. This suggests to me that many 3-year doctoral programs are not simply “easier” than solid North American programs. Rather, it suggests that they fail to meet basic standards.
In this respect, I am specifically writing about PhD graduates in art and design. This is not the case in other fields where laboratory traditions and seminar traditions are in place, along with cohorts of experienced supervisors.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University Press | Launching in 2015
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology
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Reference
Friedman, Ken. 2014. Writing for the PhD in Art and Design. Issues for Research Supervisors and Research Students. A Research Skills Working Paper. Melbourne, Australia: Centre for Design Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology.
Rugg, Gordon, and Marian Petre. 2004. The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research. Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press.
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Cameron Tonkinwise wrote:
—snip—
Not sure 'easier' is a useful characterization.
3 year minimum PhDs are not unique to Oxbridge but standard across the Commonwealth, EU and Scandinavia and increasingly South, Southeast and East Asia and South America. American exceptionalism results from the degree serving different purposes: academic job training vs research degree (crudely put). This why in the US 'too many PhDs for the number of academic jobs' is a frequent discussion, and examples of people with PhDs taking up non-academic positions remain newsworthy.
—snip—
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