Doctoral competencies and graduate research education: focus and fit with the knowledge economy?
Year: 2009
Type: report
Abstract: The paper considers the evidence on the types of skills and abilities that are needed by doctoral students. In particular, it examines whether doctoral competencies can be\ndifferentiated from general undergraduate/postgraduate-level competencies and whether employers value the skills and abilities that doctoral graduates bring to work organisations. Surprisingly, given the cost of fourth level education, there is a dearth\nof existing work regarding graduate and doctoral students’ experiences (Cryer, 1997). In addition, where lists of doctoral competencies are proposed, there is little evidence\nof a theoretical or empirical basis for the choice of these competencies, and the lists appear to have emerged through a process of speculation, or the prior experience of\nstudents and faculty, rather than through any coherent analysis. Many commentators (Allen, 2002; Park, 2005; Mitchell, 2007) consider that PhD and other doctoral\nprogrammes must adapt and become more flexible, as students’ requirements and preferences change and that the personal skills and attributes that a doctoral student\npossesses are as important as any specialist knowledge or skills. The paper suggests that current conceptualisations of doctoral competencies are inadequate and puts\nforward a model to reframe the way in which these competencies are understood and labelled. The paper has implications for the education and training of doctoral\nstudents and for the graduate research education programmes (GREPS) that are emerging as part of the reconceptualisation of graduate education.
Authors: Finian Buckley, John Brogan, Jason Flynn, Kathy Monks, Teresa Hogan, Angelos Alexopoulos
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W25392693