9th International Conference on Professional & Practice Based Doctorates
On April 7th and 8th 2025, we ran our 9th International Conference on Professional & Practice Based Doctorates in partnership with Middlesex University, and hosted by the Royal College of Art in London.
The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Professional & Practice Based Doctorates — A Creative Force for Change’ and topics ranged from the role of literature reviews in reimagining doctorates to discussions about the Dutch doctoral landscape, accreditation for DBA programmes, and many other facets of doctoral education.
Our first keynote speaker, Professor Ashley Hall (Postgraduate Research Lead at the Royal College of Art), opened proceedings with a paper co-authored with Professor Michael Hohl, looking at concepts and theories relating to confidence and doubt in doctoral research. A busy programme of presentations followed, including a panel discussion devoted to PhD students and their experiences. Day one concluded with a keynote from Professor Gina Wisker (Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor, Management, University of Bath) on ‘The professional doctoral journey for students and supervisors; negotiating peaks troughs and breakthroughs’. This was followed by another keynote panel discussion featuring current doctoral candidates.
Day Two opened with a keynote from Professor Dimitris Assimakopoulos (President of the European Doctoral Programmes Association in Management & Business Administration) on the DBA. In the afternoon, Professor Carol Costley (Director of Work and Learning Research Centre at Middlesex University) presented another keynote: ‘A review of ICPPD 2009–2025 and the future of practice doctorates’. More presentations followed, ranging from knowledge brokering in professionally integrated PhDs to repositioning theory as practice in the EdD Professional Doctorate.
Finally, members of the conference steering committee summed up with their reflections on the two days. Professor Hala Mansour said: “One of the main points that has been raised for me is the importance of the student voice. I think it came through very clearly in our roundtables and discussions. In creating, devolving, initiating, engaging with professional doctorates and practice-based doctorates, it’s very important that we trust our students – that we empower them to be part of the development of these programmes.”
Other members of the steering committee expressed their thanks for the high level of support and participation from delegates, with Professor Costley noting that she was delighted to see many new people in attendance at the conference.
Professor Ian Haines (Emeritus Professor, London Metropolitan University) added: “I want to go back to one thing: do we need a lot of titles for different kinds of doctorates? Science is always applied and all the people doing research — they’re all trying to answer a question. It would be so much easier if we just had one name for the doctorate.”
Dr Owen Gower, Director of the UK Council for Graduate Education, also thanked delegates and concluded: “An important question for us at the Council is the extent to which professional doctorates and other types of doctorate are opening-up access to doctoral-level qualifications for different demographics. We’re going to try to unpick all of that – the conversation isn’t over.”