What is a PhD for? Festival Fringe Debate
Date and time
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Description
‘Traditionally’ the doctorate was pursued by a few people in a select group of institutions, but since the 1980s there has been a dramatic increase worldwide in the number of researchers undertaking doctoral research. Where the doctorate was once seen as the ‘apprenticeship’ for an academic career, without a corresponding increase in the number of academic posts, the question arises: ‘what is the PhD for’?
Dr Russell Bentley (Associate Professor of Political Theory and the University's Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor - Education) and Dr Julie Reeves (Researcher Development Coordinator, Professional Development - ILIaD), express differing viewpoints on the purpose of the doctorate and discuss the ‘overproduction’ of PhDs.
We invite doctoral researchers and their supervisors to join in the discussion. We hope that every researcher will leave this fringe event pondering what they are doing a doctorate for – in the nicest of ways of course!
The discussion will be chaired by Professor James Vickers (Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Doctoral College).
This Debate is a Fringe event for the Festival of Doctoral Research.
Organised by
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