Please fill in our survey to help us understand more about Professional Doctorates

This UKCGE survey, in partnership with University Alliance, seeks to understand in more detail what is happening in the sector regarding Professional Doctorates and will inform wider research undertaken to understand the perspectives of institutions, funders, employers and the candidates themselves. It also seeks to understand the different professional doctoral programmes offered, their classification as either Research or Taught Doctorates and the longer-term institutional strategies for professional doctorate provision.

Context

Much has been discussed about the purpose, form and format of Professional Doctorates over the last two decades, and, while still forming the minority of doctoral enrolments, their growth and popularity — primarily in post-1992 Universities — have contributed to the increase in the doctoral population. Many institutions have indicated that an expansion of their Professional Doctorate provision was instrumental in that continued growth (Smith McGloin and Wynne, 2022), and anecdotally have played a role in improving the diversity of the doctoral population and widened participation.

There are, however, conflicting views on what is really happening in terms of growth of doctoral programmes and enrolments. CRAC reported in 2016 that there was an identifiable growth in professional doctoral provision in English HEIs in 2016 (Mellors Bourne et al., 2016). In contrast, HEPI suggest that enrolments halved between 2008 and 2018 (House, 2020) with the Doctor of Education (EdD) seeing a particularly steep decline. 

Practicalities

The survey is voluntary, should take approximately 20 minutes to complete, and the closing date is March 31st 2025.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with the UKCGE office.