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On Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 5:00 PM, Deirdre Barron <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I certainly understand that there are different approaches to the PhD- not > only because of different expectations in different countries but also > because of different disciplines. This applies to design in that it is > influenced by so many disciplines. Having provided supervision in design > doctoral education for nearly 20 years I have see a range in quality of > dissertations- even though there is only a pass/ fail option in assessment. All that is true, but I still keep to high standards. > For me the massification of doctoral education raises issues around > minimum expectations. The massification of doctoral education (in all fields, not just design) is indeed a pribblem, but not an excuse to lower standards. > As such I would be interested in knowing what you saw as a minimum > requirement for the award PhD > / > The work has to be technically sound, and, most importantly, it has to make a definite contribution to our understanding. At my university, I was once on a committee that denied the PhD to a budding young composer whose work was brilliant. We said the candidate would probably have a brilliant, very successful career. But the composition itself did not make a contribution to knowledge. If the candidate would describe the underlying foundation and structure in such a way as to produce a contribution that others could build upon, then we might have a PhD dissertation. But the composition alone alone does not suffice. In other words, we could imagine a musical critic getting a PhD for an analysis of this person's work, even though the person did not. -- In a similar sense, a designer who produces a wonderful product (digital, physical, ...) does not get a PhD. I would only give the Design PhD for people who have increased our understanding. Comment: I have been on a number of Design PhD committees at TU Delft. I thought that the works there fit my standards very nicely. New insights, explored across a range of situations, described in a way that others could benefit from the knowledge, with example designs that were noteworthy (but by themselves, not sufficient for a PhD). don Don Norman Prof. and Director, DesignLab, UC San Diego [log in to unmask] designlab.ucsd.edu/ www.jnd.org <http://www.jnd.org/> ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------