UKCGE Vice Chair presents at European Conference
UKCGE Vice Chair presents at European Conference
The annual EUA-CDE event between the 22nd and 24th January hosted byDokuz Eylül University explored various outcomes of Doctoral Education across Mindset, Research and Innovation.
Gill Clarke Said;
‘Plenary presentations and complementary paper sessions enabled exploration of a wide range of doctoral outcomes. The workshop was a good example of how EUA-CDE events provide evidence-based insight into pan-European developments in doctoral education and opportunities to learn about practice elsewhere’.
Thomas Jorgensen Head of the CDE unit said:
‘The workshop in Izmir showed how the issue of outcomes in doctoral education touched upon a very wide range of issues. Some issues were of practical nature, such as how to include different activities in a doctoral certificate or on the last page of the Thesis, whereas other issues pointed to the very big challenges of the ‘crisis of science’ and the role of researchers in regional development’.
Gill has compiled a detailed blog about her experience at the event as well as further details on plenary and paper sessions. After some post-event reflection, Gill identified the following emerging questions:
- Is there an over-supply of doctoral graduates in Europe?
- Are we producing doctoral graduates in all subjects capable of developing the knowledge society?
- Should we require doctoral candidates to include another ‘chapter’ in the thesis summarising their personal achievements during the PhD (e.g. publications and work-related activities), putting their research in a wider perspective, which would be assessed with the rest of the thesis?
- Should universities target skills training at candidates’ individual needs and involve supervisors more in working with candidates on all skills development, as well as research methods?
The questions above will be taken to the UKCGE Executive Committee meeting as they begin to start putting plans together for a second ICDDET in 2015.
