Quality Assurance in Education: Volume 10 Issue 2

Doctorates – converging or diverging patterns of provision

Stephen Hoddell, Deborah Street, Helena Wildblood

Since the 1980s, the traditional research‐based route to a PhD and the PhD by publication have been joined by practice‐based doctorates, professional doctorates and recently by…

Quality assurance issues for a PhD by published work: a case study

Keith Wilson

Describes a number of quality assurance issues relating to the award of the degree of PhD on the basis of published work by the University of Hertfordshire which arose over a…

Discourses on research and the PhD in Design

David Durling

Art and design has recently seen considerable growth in PhD studies and in the UK the sector has been at the forefront in developing practice‐based doctorates. There is an ongoing…

In the dark? Preparing for the PhD viva

Penny Tinkler, Carolyn Jackson

In a climate of tightening quality controls and audits within higher education, the transparency of doctoral examination practices is increasingly the subject of scrutiny…

A flexible approach to PhD research training

Iain A. Frame, ILiz Allen

The Wellcome Trust has reviewed the provision of PhD training from the viewpoint of the students and supervisors it funds; this paper presents evidence from these reviews. A…

Research degree examining – common principles and divergent practices

Stuart Powell, Claire McCauley

Reports on discussions that took place at a series of specialist seminars and workshops on research degree examining organised by the UK Council for Graduate Education during…

Benchmarking the PhD – a tentative beginning

Malcolm Shaw, D. Howard Green

The Quality Assurance Agency’s (QAA) qualifications framework has resulted in hives of benchmarking activity in 42 subject areas focussed on defining acceptable standards of…