Doctoral Education in Europe Today: Approaches and Institutional Structures
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1 SURVEY Doctoral education in Europe today: approaches and institutional structures By Alexander Hasgall, Bregt Saenen and Lidia Borrell-Damian Co-authors: Freek Van Deynze, Marco Seeber, and Jeroen Huisman 2 Doctoral education in Europe today: approaches and institutional structures Copyright © European University Association 2019 European University Association All rights reserved. Rue du Rhône 114 This publication is licensed under the Case postale 3174 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 1211 Geneva 3, Switzerland CC BY-NC +41 22 552 02 96 This information may be freely used and copied www.eua.eu · [email protected] for non-commercial purposes, provided that the source is acknowledged (© European University Association). Graphic Design: Pitch Black Graphic Design, Berlin/The Hague 1 SURVEY Doctoral education in Europe today: approaches and institutional structures By Alexander Hasgall, Bregt Saenen and Lidia Borrell-Damian Co-authors: Freek Van Deynze, Marco Seeber, and Jeroen Huisman 2 Doctoral education in Europe today: approaches and institutional structures Table of contents 1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................5 1.1 About this survey ................................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Background of doctoral education reform in Europe .............................................................................. 6 1.3 Previous surveys and studies on doctoral education (by Alexandra Bitusikova) ................................... 8 1.4 Methodology of the 2018 EUA-CDE doctoral survey .............................................................................. 10 2. Doctoral education in Europe ..................................................................................12 2.1 Organisational structures ...................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Training and activities ............................................................................................................................ 14 2.3 Career development ............................................................................................................................... 17 2.4 Funding .................................................................................................................................................. 20 2.5 Mobility .................................................................................................................................................. 21 2.6 Time to completion ................................................................................................................................ 22 2.7 Supervision ............................................................................................................................................ 23 2.8 Application and admission .................................................................................................................... 25 2.9 Decision-making processes .................................................................................................................... 26 2.10 Completion rate ..................................................................................................................................... 28 3. Trends and conclusions ..........................................................................................29 3.1 Strategic priorities.................................................................................................................................. 29 3.2 Quality assurance ................................................................................................................................... 31 3.3 Developments in doctoral education ..................................................................................................... 32 3.3.1 Doctoral candidates as highly mobile early career researchers......................................................32 3.3.2 Institutional responsibility ............................................................................................................32 3.3.3 Virtuous cycle of quality ................................................................................................................33 3.3.4 A landscape of diversity ................................................................................................................33 3.3.5 Future priorities of doctoral education ..........................................................................................33 3.3.6 Looking to the future, building on a successful past ....................................................................34 Annex ........................................................................................................................35 List of figures and tables Figure 1: Share of doctoral candidates per country attached to institutions Figure 14: Rules and guidelines on supervision ................................................................. 23 participating in the survey ................................................................................................... 11 Figure 15: Team vs. Single supervision ............................................................................... 24 Figure 2: Organisation of doctoral education .....................................................................13 Figure 16: Steps for admission to doctoral education programmes ................................. 25 Figure 3: Level of organisation.............................................................................................13 Figure 17: Complaint procedures ......................................................................................... 27 Figure 4: Guidelines for elements of doctoral education ...................................................15 Figure 18: Percentage of doctoral candidates graduating within six years ......................28 Figure 5: Skills training .........................................................................................................15 Figure 19: Completion rate over last 10 years ....................................................................28 Figure 6: How do doctoral candidates spend their time? ...................................................16 Figure 20: Strategic priorities .............................................................................................30 Figure 7: Conceived future role of doctoral candidates ......................................................17 Figure 21: Internal or external Quality Assurance ...............................................................31 Figure 8: Continuation of the academic career in the same institution ............................18 Figure 22: Indicators used for assessment .........................................................................31 Figure 9: Career tracking of doctorate holders ....................................................................19 Figure 10: Financial support of doctoral candidates ..........................................................20 Table 1: Decision making procedures .................................................................................. 27 Figure 11: Qualifying degree from same or other institution .............................................21 Table 2: Representativeness of the EUA survey ................................................................35 Figure 12: Time to completion ............................................................................................ 22 Figure 13: Average time to complete the doctoral programme compared to 10 years ago ...................................................................................................................... 22 3 Foreword European ambitions to meet social and economic to argue the case for doctoral education among goals through the application of knowledge the many pressing issues facing universities and can only be realised if there are sufficient well- their funders. trained researchers able to take up the challenge. Doctoral education is more important than ever in The scope of the issues pursued was broad. The assuring the supply of early-careers researchers. survey examined the balance between institu- The decade since the foundation of the EUA tional responsibility and that of the individual Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE) has supervisor, as well as the mechanisms that seen remarkable change in the scale and nature underpin the passage through the doctorate of doctoral education. The direction of travel and towards future careers. It also assessed the was clearly signposted in 2005 by the formative degree of change, asking if a doctorate today is Salzburg principles. These affirmed the core really different from that of a decade or more ago. component of the doctorate as the advancement The institutional status of the doctoral candidate of knowledge, while recognising the need to as a student, colleague, or both was another line prepare for widening employment opportunities of questioning. beyond academia. The large response to the survey provides confi- The impetus of these principles has contributed to dence in the findings, but also indicates that insti- the transformations we have witnessed. However, tutions want to know where we stand on these until now the scale of change has not been