Colleagues,
Ken wrote
>> If a candidate cannot demonstrate most of these skills, he or she
>> cannot teach and supervise research students. It is likely that he or
>> she cannot conduct research without these skills.
>>
>> Therefore, demonstrating these skills establishes the basis for
>> awarding or denying the PhD.
I think you are forgetting something! The PhD is often undertaken to explore understandings, and demonstrate new approaches. Too rigid an emphasis on research, its conduct, and teaching can leave out humanistic concerns, reasoned arguments, development, and demonstration. The opportunity to cultivate philosophy, theory, informed speculation, and evidence of feasibility at an advanced level can remain unavailable to those interested in and able to pursue them. Design is not a discipline in which the humanities should be deemphasized in order to define its highest level of education as devoted exclusively to preparing researchers.
Or, so I believe,
Chuck
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