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Chris Kueh said: >>There have been some discussions on structure for practice based PhD at Curtin University. Many supervisors/lecturers in Design and Art have voiced their concerns over the appropriateness of logic based structure for PhD with creative production component. I am just wondering what are the structures that other universities are having for practice/creative based PhD. Have there been such discussions/arguments at your universities and how did you solve it? What are the main differences between PhD and practice based PhD, in terms of the process and credibility?<< My main observation is that a PhD is a single piece of research so I stay away from the idea of "components". Students must identify the question or problem that they want to investigate and choose/devise/compile/evolve methods for shedding light on that problem. Chemists do practices of chemistry to advance their research so it's reasonable for designers (or writers or musicians) to do their professional practices in the same spirit AS LONG AS the doing helps to advance our SHARED understanding of the problem. Of course we don't have to do this in a very strict procedural way (select problem > choose method > execute method > know answer) Instead I would paraphrase Rittel and Webber and suggest that the problem, the solution (contribution to knowledge) and the method might emerge together over time. The problem of creative/professional practice in research is not to fend off traditional methodologies, as is often implied. Instead it's to hold on to the idea that you might be able to use your creative practices to good account in your research, as expediency (and the examiner) close in on you. Best wishes from Sheffield Chris ...............................................................o^o Professor Chris Rust FDRS Head of Art and Design Sheffield Hallam University, S1 2NU, UK +44 114 225 6772 [log in to unmask] http://chrisrust.wordpress.com/ Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race. - H. G. Wells