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themselves, they should instead be put in a position where they have responsibility for the project and
have to manage the job. 102
As discussed earlier, however, one of the difficulties in introducing course work relates to the varied
background and existing competencies of any cohort of PhD candidates. There is also a need to
consider how formal coursework has to be – for example whether it should involve formal assessments,
marks and boards of examiners. This is a particular issue in a country such as Australia in which the PhD
examination process relates only to the dissertation and the examiners do not need to have had any
direct contact with the student.
Pathway to a PhD
One issue related to the introduction of coursework is the nature of the path that research students
take to become PhD candidates and the extent to which this equips them with the transferable and
generic skills that they need. In many countries students take a two year masters degree before they
start a three year PhD and this provides an opportunity for them to pick up transferrable skills, not least
those directly related to research methodologies. In Australia a typical domestic research student
has completed a three year bachelors degree and followed this by an honours degree that typically
involves around 9 months study. The PhD generally provides 3 to 3.5 years of scholarship support,
so the total study time is less than the 8 years implied by the Bologna protocol. This pathway has
implications, not only for the preparedness of PhD candidates in Australia but also for the acceptance of
Australia honours graduates for the PhD programs of overseas universities.
Within Australia, Macquarie University has already decided to replace its honours degrees with a two
year masters by research. Professor Max King, formerly Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Research
Training) at Monash University has initiated a process to examine the adoption of a masters pathway
to an Australian PhD. This would align Australia with what is increasingly the international practice; it
would also provide an opportunity to include some necessary coursework in this pre-PhD degree.
Improving the quality of research training
While there is no doubt that the expanding number of doctoral graduates can create problems in them
finding employment as researchers or in jobs that make use of their disciplinary knowledge, there is
no argument that quality matters. High quality training has an increased probability of producing
excellent graduates with broad career opportunities.
Employers of all kinds are competing to attract the very best and most talented candidates. Those who
find it most difficult to find employment will often lack some of the attributes that the best candidates
are able to demonstrate or, if they possess these attributes, are less able to demonstrate them. In a
very competitive environment, it may also be true that the status and reputation of the institution
that provided the qualification may also play a role in the initial process of culling the applicants for a
position – but status and reputation flow at least in part from the quality of the programs on offer.
Excellence is at a premium but it is important to recognise that excellence is a relative, not an absolute
measure. If excellence is better than normal performance, at least 50 per cent of all graduates must
be less than excellent – but this is against a selection process that has already chosen the best for
PhD training. Moreover, the criteria used to measure excellence depend on context. Measuring the
excellence of the research produced by a researcher in a university can quite properly (and effectively)
102. http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120903152518738
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