Academic degree recognition in a global era: The case of the doctorate of education (EdD) in Israel

Abstract

The current discussion around recognition of the doctorate of education (EdD) typically focuses on a national context, usually in relation to the PhD; however, relatively little is known about recognition of the EdD degree in countries that do not offer the qualification. As international cohorts and online delivery of doctoral education grows, it is valuable to understand the recognition of the EdD, particularly in countries that do not currently offer it, and in which policy and legislation may impede its recognition. Using Israel as a case, this study explores EdD recognition in a country that does not offer the degree and that has a particularly rigid recognition system, likely as a result of a neoliberal experiment with the deregulation of the higher education arena in the 1990s. My investigations indicate three spheres of recognition for the degree: the public, private and academic spheres. This article outlines these spheres and explores the implications of such a system.

Neoliberalism, internationalisation and higher education: connections, contradictions and alternatives

“…While Israel was founded by the dominant social democratic party (Mapai), with the transition of power to a more right-wing party (Likud) with free-market views in 1977, a neoliberal agenda began to trickle through the various levels of the state, gaining ground in the 1980s (Maron and Shalev, 2017) and today, Israel is considered a neoliberal 'success story' (Avigur-Eshel, 2014, p. 165). In HE this involved a wave of reforms in the 1990s which included the deregulation of the sector to foreign providers (since then restricted, see Bamberger, 2018;Lieven and Martin, 2006;) and the addition of a private sector of second-tier academic institutions (Volansky, 2005). Israeli universities have always had an international element (Kirsch, 2018) which did not begin with the rise of neoliberalism or 'internationalisation' in the 1990s.…”