Professional Doctorates in England

Abstract

This article reports the results of a survey and analysis of the professional doctorates that have been developed in England over the last decade. Its aim is to identify the extent to which professional doctorates have been adopted by English universities, the rate of growth of professional doctorates programmes, and to clarify their distinctive features. By the end of the decade, professional doctorates could be found in the majority of the country's universities and in a wide range of subjects. The number of professional doctorates was still rising at a rapid rate. The article identi es 20 distinctive features that are common to the professional doctorates that together could reasonably be said to comprise 'professional doctorateness' at least as it is interpreted in English universities.

The role of the professional doctorate in Ireland from the student perspective

“…The others can be found across subject domains such as theology (though some would argue that this would constitute the archetypal medieval doctorate), psychology, engineering and business. The growth of professional doctorates (and more specifically in education) in the UK and Australia, in particular in the 1990s, has been well documented (see for example, Bourner, Bowden, and Lang 2001;McWilliams et al 2002;United Kingdom Council for Graduate Education 2002;Scott et al 2004). However, although there is a policy impetus to increase the number of doctoral-level graduates, they will not come under the aegis of the professional variety.…”

‘A doctorate in a tight compartment’: why do students choose a professional doctorate and what impact does it have on their personal and professional lives?

“…Although professional doctorates have been available in the UK for over 15 years (Bourner et al, 2001;UK Council for Postgraduate Education, 2002) there is still some confusion over their status vis-à-vis 'traditional' Ph.D.s. As we noted earlier, it is useful to conceive of a continuum of professional doctorates to accommodate the diversity in nature, form, content and assessment.…”

“…Thus, Bourner et al (2001) have written of 'professional researchers' versus 'researching professionals'. To an extent this dichotomy appeared in our data, as we discuss later, but perhaps there was more evidence of Gregory's (1997) slightly different notion of 'scholarly professionals' as opposed to 'professional scholars'.…”

Pursuing maritime education: an empirical study of students’ profiles, motivations and expectations

“…As professional education could be a direct and effective approach to improve productivity (c.f. [6]), a massive growth in 'practicebased' and 'professional' programmes has taken place within academic institutions [7]. The latter increasingly provide professional education on subjects which traditionally emphasized non-academic, apprentice-style learning approach.…”