What is a Quality PhD?: Fitness for Purpose in Doctoral Education

Abstract

The term 'quality' can be used in a variety of senses. Each of these entail the exercise of judgement in some way. Uses of the term often entail reference to a potentially coherent concept for what quality is, either through the comparison of evidence relative to that idea, or through direct appeal to some sort of ideal. On these assumptions, the challenge of responding to questions like 'what is a quality PhD?' becomes one of establishing a defensible means for arriving at a coherent idea of what a quality PhD is, and reliable ways of evaluating and comparing evidence relative to that idea. The question as construed in this thesis is, then, an ontological one. Responding to the question means accounting for how a potentially coherent concept of a quality PhD might be defined, and how this might usefully inform the evaluation and comparison of evidence. A fitness-for-purpose approach to judgements about quality provides a structured means for responding to questions of this kind. On this view, the determination of purpose may be understood as a definitional problem, with measurement being instrumental to estimations of fitness. This thesis describes the pragmatic application of a fitness-for-purpose approach to quality in research doctoral education. It distinguishes aspirations, requirements and expectations as normative domains in the determination of purpose, and considers how each of these are reflected in the idea of a Global PhD. It considers prevailing narratives as to its origins, and how these inform contemporary expectations regarding its essential qualities, and its fundamental purpose. It employs an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on scholarship in doctoral education, quality assurance, and studies in higher education more generally. It describes a novel application of fitness-for-purpose in responding to the question 'what is a quality PhD?' In doing so, it aims to provide a useful basis for informing responses to questions of this kind in regard to degree programs in general, and for research doctoral degree programs in particular.