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Each of these complementary but different ways of working requires high levels of education combined
with relevant experience. An individual’s degree of comfort with these different approaches can be as
much a matter of personality as of education, but a sound education can help realise the potential for
both. Different styles of pedagogy and of learning may be necessary to achieve these dissimilar but
complementary outcomes but even at the extreme ends of the spectrum the educational experience
has to offer the opportunity to hone intellectual skills beyond the needs of quotidian demands and in
a supportive and relatively low risk environment, such that the consequences of failure (an inevitable
outcome of risk) are acceptable.
The need to master technical detail as against an ability to operate broadly across fields and
strategically can change, even within an individual. For example, as a career progresses to higher
positions with greater responsibility for broader leadership, the ability to operate with a more general
and broader strategic perspective becomes increasingly important, even though the first steps on the
career ladder may demand the ability to operate in a highly specialised and focussed way involving
great detail and in-depth knowledge. One solution to this is to encourage graduates to gain multiple
qualifications at different times, as appropriate; another is to consider changes to the learning content
of individual qualifications by using an holistic approach to balance specialisation with complementary
breadth. However, teaching general and higher level skills before there is a need to use them may not
be effective. This is why life-long learning is important and why even though a PhD may be the summit
of educational achievement it should not mean the end of formal education.
Need for flexibility
A further major challenge is that education services and outcomes need more than ever before to
recognise and embrace the importance of contingency in everyday life. The unforseen is always with
us. The interrelationships between different parts of our economy and the interdependencies between
different parts of the world place a premium on an education system that supports flexibility.
An effective education system leads to a population having the ability to respond to unexpected events
in thoughtful and creative ways that take advantage of the new circumstances while still retaining
the ability to respond to subsequent (equally unexpected) changes. Higher education has to aim at
creating adaptability and resilience as essential outcomes for its students if they are to prosper in the
modern world.
Adaptability has to cover both the ability to apply existing knowledge to unexpected or new problems
and the ability to move from one career to another as opportunities arise or change. Maintaining
such flexibility while focussing on very narrow areas of specialisation can be difficult. However, if PhD
training does not facilitate adaptability and broader creative responses to unforeseen circumstances, it
not only fails the students, it also means that society is losing the potential of some of its most talented
and thoughtful people.
Funding constraints
Universities in Australia and elsewhere are facing challenges as their costs increase, funding from all
sources is becoming less certain and the market for students is becoming global and more competitive.
This creates problems for all areas of university activity and PhD education is at much as risk as other
areas.
In Australia, for example, funding for the Research Training Scheme (RTS), a block grant that supports
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