Dear Eduardo, Dear All,

This seems quite sensible to me. I have often thought that Portugal is
the 
place to go when I need relief from anguish. At least, that is how it
has been
for me on my visits to Portugal, especially to Lisbon and IADE
for good company and good food!

The OECD report sounds quite useful. I must read it. Off-hand, I'd say
that 
what you suggest is much what I propose, with a specific DA or DFA or
DDes 
given for creative practice. We see this in much the same way. 

If you are permitted to award the doctorate for creative arts practice,
please
let me know. I'd love to earn one!

Warm wishes,

Ken
 
>>> Eduardo Corte Real <[log in to unmask]> 8/6/2009 7:28 PM
>>> 
Dear Chris, Gavin, Ken

Recently the Portuguese Law about Higher education diplomas was changed

in order to be adapted to the Bologna Process for the creation of a 
European Higher Education System. This area includes more than 40 
independent states with different, similar and utterly different
systems.

In the 2006 Law, the Portuguese Government defined the conditions for 
awarding doctorates very similar to the “classic” PhD that Ken
describes.

This year an independent commission hired by OECD visited the country
to 
produce a report about Higher Education in Art and Culture.

One of the conclusions was that a key factor to pull up, or push
forward 
Higher Education in Art and Culture would be awarding doctorates by 
practice.

Obviously, the past month our government issued an annexe to the Law 
allowing this kind of doctorates.

Since we don’t suffer from the anachronism of calling Philosophy
Doctors 
to anyone that conducts research sufficiently according to peers in any

area (we only call Philosophy Doctor to the ones that achieved it in 
Philosophy Departments or Philosophy programs) we don’t have the
anguish 
that devours Ken’s intellectual guts.

We simply call Doctors to people. For instance, I’m a doctor in
Visual 
Communication in Architecture, my wife is a doctor in Communication and

Language specialized in Theory of Culture, my colleague next door
Carlos 
is doctor in Production Engineering. (of course that we had to do 
research and a dissertation very similar but nicer to a Anglo-Saxon
PhD)

Apart from these curious Latinisms, and since I was interviewed by the

OECD committee and defended elegantly the importance of awarding 
doctorates by practice, I will give you my arguments:

*“The importance of a specific Doctor of Arts*

- Like the scientific PhD a DA should be sponsored by cultural agents 
interested in the human resources outcome. Institutions like Fundação 
Gulbenkian and Fundação da Colecção Berardo among others, or Television

Producers and Publishing Companies would more easily be involved in 
financing doctoral students of high artistic abilities.

- The Society expects a creative outcome from the A&C institutions, so

the higher degree awarded should result from creative artistic work.

- If the publication in refereed journal would be substituted by other

forms of dissemination and peer approval like exhibitions and 
performances, the general cultural activity would be enhanced.

- Specific Doctors in Arts strengthen the Academic Value of the A&C 
institutions.”

I agree with Ken especially because he runs a Design School in a 
University of Technology, but, I don’t know why there is this
resilient 
notion (at least in Latin countries) that Design is part of Art and 
Culture and that design products are cultural goods.

So if the God of Bureaucracy will give us the right to award doctorates

this year we will consider the possibility of awarding it based on 
project work.

Sorry for the long post,

Soon I’ll write something on how we are planning to structure it.

Cheers from the western shores of Europe,

Eduardo