Читать книгу Fulfilling the Potential of Your Doctoral Experience - Pam Denicolo - Страница 14

In this chapter, we will consider how to:

 Understand the legacy of the doctorate

 Recognise what a doctorate means in the 21st century

 Grasp the implications of the contemporary doctorate for newer researchers

 Tailor your doctorate to meet specific needs, making the best of available opportunities

In this chapter, we hope that we can clarify both what a doctorate is, what its value can be in the near future and what attributes a doctoral researcher tends to develop rather quickly.

We will begin by outlining the recent history of the doctorate because that history will have some influence on your experience as a doctoral researcher whether you are new to the higher education system in which you are registered or are very familiar with it in general terms. This is because doctoral education worldwide has undergone radical changes in structure and function in recent times, at least at the policy level that impacts on the requirements placed on doctoral candidates. This caveat is included specifically because we want to make you aware of the variety of expectations of doctoral researchers held by both staff within your institution and external people such as examiners and prospective employers, each of whom may be, more or less conversant with the changes involved in doctoral programmes. With every development in education, there are ‘early adopters’ and ‘reluctant engagers’ and all possibilities in between. By reading this book, we hope you will become familiar with, and even expert in, the requirements of and possibilities within doctoral education now and in the future. Then you will be able to respond appropriately to those requirements, sometimes even guiding others about what is currently deemed appropriate.