Research Matters 16 - Aberystwyth University

Decline and Fall
or Brave New World?
The Changing Face
of the PhD
I am a product of the
old-style apprenticeship
– or ‘secret garden’ –
model of the PhD: for
good or ill, the student’s
primary relationship was with a single
supervisor rather than a department,
faculty or university; research training
was minimal. Thirty five years (or so)
on from the completion of my own
PhD experience I have just come to the
end of an extended period as convenor
of the English Language and Literature
Postgraduate Panel of the AHRC and
as a member of its Postgraduate Panel.
This work, and some other work that I
have recently done for the AHRC in
connection with its Block Grant
Partnership Scheme, leads me to
believe that, despite the many reports
on and reviews of the nature of the
PhD in the last fifteen years, and
despite growth of a range of generic
research training and skills
development training (of which more
below), the apprenticeship model is
still alive and well in English Studies
and in the AHRC domain more
generally. Almost every statement on
research training that I have ever read
indicates that the subject-specific
element of research training will be
provided by the supervisor. It is not
felt necessary to go into details: we are
all supposed to understand how
research training will be provided
through the supervisory process.
Typed in triplicate
Back in the days when the thesis was
still typed in triplicate it was supposed
2
to be an original contribution to
knowledge, and no-one was
particularly concerned if it took ten
years to complete. Indeed, in some
circles, failure to complete a doctoral
thesis in a timely fashion was a badge
of honour, a sign of the magnitude of
the project and the scholarly tenacity
and rigour of the writer who was being
inducted into the academy fraternity
(sic). In this bygone era it was not
unknown for people to get academic
jobs before they had completed their
thesis, or, having obtained a post, to
abandon their doctoral thesis whilst
they slowly simmered towards the
great book which in some cases
materialised but in others was
endlessly deferred. Nowadays, of
course, a PhD is a sine qua non for an
academic post and an article or two
plus a book contract deriving from the
thesis are distinct advantages.
In addition, today’s doctoral students,
whether or not they are aiming for an
academic career, must seek to
complete their thesis in under four
years (if they are registered as fulltime)
and at the same time undertake
subject-specific research training,
generic research training and general
skills training which fulfils the
requirements of the RCUK statement
of skills. Increasingly they will be
required to engage with the
employability skills training which
HEIs are being pressed to provide and
also to engage with the Knowledge
Transfer and Exchange agenda. This is
the context for the recent diatribes in
the Higher and elsewhere about the
decline of the PhD.
PhD-in-decline?
As far as I can tell, the PhD-in-decline
lobby take the view that the quality of
the PhD thesis (the PhD product) has
declined because of the (regrettable)