Report Launch — Professional Doctorates

The session was introduced by Jennie Eldridge (Director of Postgraduate Provision, University Alliance) who began by introducing her co-authors: Carolyn Wynne (Director of the Doctoral and Researcher College, Coventry University) and Rabia Arshad (Postgraduate Researcher Development Manager, Doctoral Training Alliance, DTA). 

The webinar opened by setting out the rationale of the study and the methodology that was used. The study had seen a total of 160 institutions across the UK and Ireland invited to participate in the survey, of which 73 responded, which gave them a 46% response rate. Alongside the survey data, desk-based research was also undertaken, which included reviewing institutional websites, looking at other published reports and other publicly available information around the professional doctorate.

It was noted that the majority of respondents said that they did offer research professional doctorates, and when these were broken down by their university groupings, the majority of those seemed to come from the post-92 universities within the UK. The survey also sought to understand institutional perspectives on the longevity and the future of the professional doctorate.

Some of the key points highlighted noted that only 20% of respondents were looking to close their research degree professional doctorates in the coming years, however, supervisory capacity was highlighted as an issue. It was also noted that a third of respondents indicated that the professional doctorate improved diversity, particularly in relation to age and ethnicity.

The study had found that there were four key drivers for institutions in their professional doctorate provision: increasing PGR numbers; increasing PGR income; engagement with collaborative partners; and widening participation at doctoral level.

The majority of institutions indicated that in relation to taught professional doctorates, there was not the institutional strategy to develop such programmes over the next years. A similar trend had been reported for the intentions to develop research professional doctorates. 

The results of the study found that: 

• Provision of professional doctorates is widespread but no longer growing.
• More than half of institutions (51%) say enrolments are below expectations.
• Parity with PhDs recognised in policy, but not in practice.
• Funding disparities with PhDs persist.
• There is emerging evidence that professional doctorates widen participation.

The results conclude that there is a mixed picture of the success of the professional doctorate across the UK and Irish higher education sector. Where there has been growth, it has been concentrated within those institutions where there is an established portfolio and there is the infrastructure to continue to support its delivery and recruitment.

In contrast, however, is that the success has not been universal, particularly amongst post-92 institutions who do not have established portfolios and who reported declining and static enrolments. A result of this is that a number of institutions are closing their programmes, or are considering doing so, citing market saturation. Ultimately, this divergence does underscore the unevenness of the market at the moment, and the extent to which institutional identity and mission can shape the sustainability of professional doctorates for the future.