As universities become accustomed to the complexities of their art and design faculties, a body of literature has emerged that explores some of the possibilities of a doctorate in the creative arts. In the area of fine art in particular, although not exclusively, there has been a drive towards a purely practice-based thesis. This article argues that the notion of the practice-only thesis is not only an unrealistic illusion that puts pressure on students, but also does not reflect contemporary professional practices. For an art practice to communicate any sort of specific knowledge it must be embedded in a pre-existing and continuously evolving flux of discourse produced through written and spoken language. The American artist Trisha Donnelly’s 2014 Serpentine Gallery exhibition is taken as an example. Critical writing in the art press produces an accepted interpretation, and this is what the artist ‘Trisha Donnelly’ comes to stand for. So artwork that might appear to be producing its meaning autonomously should be seen as a collaborative practice involving the artist together with their professional interpreters. Research students are required to produce a self-contained project which would seem to preclude the incorporation of writing or academic interpretation by others. But it is fundamentally unfair to demand a thesis without any written component since it does not exist in an expanded notion of the contemporary art world.

Historically, the individual tutorial has been seen as an opportunity to focus on the student and the student’s particular needs. The aim of this study was to discover more about both student and staff perceptions of the one-to-one within an undergraduate fine art course. Ten online tutorials were observed over a five-month period and twenty follow-up interviews undertaken with students and lecturers, using a structured set of questions. There was broad agreement that good communication and dialogue were at the root of a successful experience, with students particularly valuing the strength of their relationship to their tutor. In addition, the opportunity to talk to a practising artist could have a validating effect on the student and help to bring them into the community of fine art practice. This supports existing research which has stressed the importance of empowerment and legitimation in the process of forming an identity as an artist.