the-changing-phd_final

Whether the professional development of the researcher is of equal
or more importance that the progress of the research can then raise
another matter – that of the extent to which postgraduate students have
some of the characteristics of employees rather than of customers of the
university – and the broader implications of this. The European Council
of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc) has argued that
doctoral candidates should be considered employees. Some countries
such as Germany and Austria already recognise them as employees and
some treat them as neither students nor employees. 75 For example, in
some countries PhD students have the status of university employees
with respect to some areas of industrial and even human rights
legislation. This recognises the often substantial contributions that the
students make to measurable university outputs.
From a national
perspective, what is
the balance between
the value of the
research produced
by a PhD candidate
and the value of the
training the candidate
receives?
Recognising the hybrid nature of research students – as customers of the university undergoing
training provided by the university in the form of work which makes important contributions to the
outputs of these same universities – raises questions about the fees that research students should pay
universities and the extent to which estimates of the full cost of research training need to acknowledge
this research output.
Another issue associated with the important role research students play in performing a significant
proportion of university research is that research students are also an important source of revenue.
Individual researchers, schools and institutions can benefit from attracting larger numbers of research
students because this has the potential, or even the direct effect, of increasing their funding. This is
true both of domestic students (through RTS funding) and international students who may be paying
fees (although many universities also offer fee scholarships to cover the fees of international doctoral
students).
Qualitative concerns
Concerns about PhD training are not just quantitative, relating to the number of doctoral students
in relation to the demand for their services. Closely related to the demand/supply issues there are
qualitative concerns that the attributes that doctoral students develop during their PhD training
are inadequate because they reduce the employability of PhD graduates or do not match the
expectations that potential employers have about the attributes that such graduates should possess.
These concerns can relate even to the research expertise of doctoral graduates, reflecting in part the
changing nature of research and the different management processes and management expectations
of researchers in academia and industry.
Changing nature of research
There is no doubt that research and researchers are playing a growing role in economic development,
in improving our health, in managing our environment and across all areas of human activity. However,
research is not a static activity and the context in which a growing proportion of global research
effort takes place is quite different from that of traditional university research. Research and research
processes are themselves changing as a result of technological and other innovation and much
university research will reflect this. However, research is also changing because of the changing
75. http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7401-
THE CHANGING PHD PAGE 34