Discussion group C

Particular challenges of working together at doctoral level

Report by Liviu Matei

Doctoral layer -third cycle in the Bologna process?

• To exclude doctoral education from the Bologna process or to underestimate this level would be a mistake

• The European Higher Education Area cannot be complete -- and competitive -- without strong education at doctoral level

• A timely decision: the explicit statement in the Berlin Communiqué of the particular importance of doctoral education and the appeal to move towards considering the doctoral level as the third cycle in the Bologna process

Doctoral level - not just another cycle

- it is at this level that teaching, learning, and research are most intimately intertwined

- doctoral training is -- more than the previous cycles -- not only about the reproduction of knowledge, but also about the production of new knowledge

- the specificity of doctoral education results first of all from its particular emphasis on research

The need to work together

• High level research necessarily involves an international dimension

=>=> High level doctoral education requires

international cooperation

• Joint degrees at doctoral level - excellent tool, not the only one, though

Challenges of working together

• Result form the specific characteristics of doctoral education

1. At the level of applicable legal and policy frameworks

2. At practical level

1. Supportive policy and legal regulations are needed

• At national level: legal regulations explicitly allowing joint doctoral degrees, recognition of diplomas obtained through joint programs; provisions about incentives for joint degrees

• At international level: amendment of the Lisbon convention; European framework for quality assurance and recognition of joint degree studies

• define a “European model” of joint degrees at doctoral level?

Caveats

• National and international frameworks for joint degrees should allow for flexibility in terms of particular fields, design of doctoral studies, and other aspects; “one size fits all” models will not work

• cooperation and joint doctoral degrees should be voluntary; no “duty” or legal requirement for universities to do joint degrees

• joint degrees are justified when they generate added-value

Recommendations

• Connect European cooperation at doctoral level with other relevant European initiatives, e.g. Centers of Excellence

• Seek student input and feedback from at initial phases of joint degrees already

• Cooperation with academies, research institutes, industries is welcome, but doctoral students should be officially enrolled by universities only

2. Practical difficulties should be tackled

• Ensure proper supervision

• Coordinate taught components

• Ensure quality research

Supervision

• Clear arrangements with regard to supervision should be made up-front, otherwise students moving from one institution to another might not get proper supervision

• Benefits from joint degrees:

- opportunity to depart from the model of too close supervision, in some cases

- possibility to disseminate good practice in supervision

- the research capacity around a given professor/for a given institution is significantly strengthened by students coming from outside

Teaching

• Curriculum is to be decided jointly

• Not all doctoral programs have taught components; in the European tradition doctoral studies are primarily about research

• Aspects regarding research methodology and ethical aspects could most easily be a common taught component

Using the diploma supplement for joint degrees at doctoral level

• Could be cumbersome (should include descriptions of the national system of each participating institution)

• Is it necessary?

- the material evidence for the quality of doctoral training is the thesis itself

- potential employers will not require it

- there is no other cycle above doctorate

• The decision regarding the use of the diploma supplement at this level should not be taken automatically, based on the argument that it proves useful in the other two cycles;