Is an arts and humanities PhD fit for purpose? The AHRC's Chief Executive Christopher Smith says recent funding proposals offer an alternative model with higher ambitions.
The modern PhD in the UK is usually dated to the years immediately after the First World War. It is a relative latecomer then, and the complex articulation of a three-cycle process (undergraduate, masters, doctorate) through the Bologna Process is even more recent, and dates to the end of the 20th century.
For a qualification which is so steeped in the appearance of prestige, the doctorate is remarkably under-examined. It has changed relatively little in terms of output, form and process but the context is markedly different.
In 2020/21, there were about 18,000 arts and humanities doctoral candidates. The gap between supply and demand is inverse to the situation in parts of science, where jobs requiring a PhD exceed the supply. ..Keep reading on Higher Education Policy Institute.
The modern PhD in the UK is usually dated to the years immediately after the First World War. It is a relative latecomer then, and the complex articulation of a three-cycle process (undergraduate, masters, doctorate) through the Bologna Process is even more recent, and dates to the end of the 20th century.
For a qualification which is so steeped in the appearance of prestige, the doctorate is remarkably under-examined. It has changed relatively little in terms of output, form and process but the context is markedly different.
In 2020/21, there were about 18,000 arts and humanities doctoral candidates. The gap between supply and demand is inverse to the situation in parts of science, where jobs requiring a PhD exceed the supply. ..Keep reading on Higher Education Policy Institute.