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Hi Rob I would definitely agree that the emphasis is placed on linking BA & MA and that, in my experience, the possibility of PhD as a further option seems never to be mentioned. Not even with the growth in practice-led studies. Though I may be out of date here as I guess I have been a bit out of the teaching side of things for a few years whilst sitting on the student side of the fence full time. I had an interdisciplinary supervisory team, including a professor of Human Geography. Sometimes I think it would have been good to situate myself differently - to have registered with Queen Mary, for example, and have the 'guest' supervisors from my 'home territory'. That way, I too would have received the kind of training you are talking about. I suspect it is less of a pre/post 92 issue and more of the art school/academia, immature/mature research culture issue. The university I was based at is a mono-cultural institution in the sense that it is purely art & design. I suspect other post 92 institutions that are broader in scope offer those art & design students doing PhDs a similar training programme to yours. Though again, I may very well be wrong. Interestingly my human geography professor was really on board with the 'visual', but I guess there is a tradition of the visual within the geography, and she has also worked in collaboration with artists regularly. With regard to graphic design specifically, I am not sure that I was any better off in terms of the knowledge of anyone running the training programme, as it it was pretty much exclusively fine art oriented - definitely no interest in the letterhead, never mind anything else design related. I felt very much like a second class citizen as a graphic designer, but that is probably a whole other thread... Cheers, Alison On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 9:37 AM, Robert Harland <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Hi Alison > > I want to briefly return to the specific point you make here (below) > because I think provides some a critical reflective insight to the current > climate that a mature PhD candidate with our respective backgrounds may be > faced with in electing to do a PhD. Your experience contrasts with my own at > a research led Russell Group university in the UK that probably would not > recognise graphic design beyond the emblem on its letterhead. > > From the very beginning, I was encouraged to undertake research training > courses provided by the Graduate School, and the choice was wide-ranging. A > quick glance back at what I elected to do in the early phase is listed > below, the only compulsory course being the 'Tradition of critique'. > > The point I want to make here is that often these courses were populated by > Masters as well as PhD students studying topics as broad as 'nursing > studies' to 'violence in same sex relationships'. It was bewildering to me, > despite my experience in industry. But. I began to understand how > established research subjects nurtured their future PhD students. > > Would you agree that in 'art school' based design education the emphasis > has seemed to be on linking BA and Masters, rather than Masters and Doctoral > level studies. Its often quoted that traditionally the terminal degree for > art and design is MA, and this is consistent of those tutors who taught you > and me. > > I wonder if this is a critical point of recent historical differentiation > between pre/post 92 Universities in the UK, between art school/academia, > between independent/co-dependent disciplines, between immature/mature > research cultures. > > Of course, in the approach I experienced there was little empathy with the > tradition of inquiry in arts based 'design practice', so there is an balance > to be struck. But, does here lie one of the important challenges for the > future of research in arts based education. > > Rob > > Dr Robert Harland | Lecturer | School of the Arts | School of the Arts, > English and Drama | Loughborough University > http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/staff/robert-harland.htm< > http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/staff/robert-harland.html> > > —Websites > —Referencing and citing using Endnote and Reference Manager > —Analysing interview transcripts > —Interview workshop > —Tradition of critique (11 x 2hr sessions) > —Getting started with research design and statistics: 3 > —Getting started with research design and statistics: 2 > —Getting started with research design and statistics: 1 > —Planning research and time management > —Exploiting the power of MS Word a+b long documents from scratch > —Questionnaires > —Case studies > —Traditions in qualitative research > —Nature of the PhD and the supervision process > —Observational & ethnographic research in social sciences > —Focus groups > —Introduction to qualitative research > —Philosophy of science, scientific ethics & research design > > > > > On 6 Oct 2011, at 14:33, ALISON BARNES wrote: > > In reality I found a huge gap > in my knowledge, in particular in relation to the traditions and academic > discourse of research. I took part in the training programme offered by my > University, which focussed primarily on practical research (more > information > gathering and management) skills for first years, then academic writing and > viva/presentation skills for years two to five. Alongside these there were > a > range of very interesting and sometimes useful seminars from guest > lecturers > that focused on their own research. But I can't help feeling if the > training > programme had begun with an introduction to research design and an > introduction to a range of qualitative approaches, I may have not only been > able to position the work of the lecturers more clearly within the wider > academy, but also my own. > -- * * * Dr. Alison Barnes School of Graphic Design, LCC University of the Arts, London www.alisonbarnesonlineportfolio.tumblr.com http://informationenvironments.academia.edu/AlisonBarnes/About http://geo-graphic.blogspot.com/