What is a PhD for? Festival fringe debate Event
- Time:
- 14:00 - 15:00
- Date:
- 26 May 2016
- Venue:
- Building 67/1027, Highfield Campus
For more information regarding this event, please email the Doctoral College at doctoral-college@soton.ac.uk .
Event details
‘Traditionally’ the doctorate was pursued by a few people in a select group of institutions, but since the 1980s there has been a dramatic increase worldwide in the number of researchers undertaking doctoral research.
Where the doctorate was once seen as the ‘apprenticeship’ for an academic career, without a corresponding increase in the number of academic posts, the question arises: ‘what is the PhD for’?
Speakers
Dr Russell Bentley, Associate Professor of Political Theory and the University's Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor - Education, and Dr Julie Reeves , Researcher Development Coordinator, Professional Development - ILIaD, will express differing viewpoints on the purpose of the doctorate and discuss the ‘overproduction’ of PhDs.
The discussion will be chaired by Professor James Vickers, Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Doctoral College.
Open to all
We invite postgraduate researchers and their supervisors to join in the discussion and we hope that every PGR will leave this fringe event pondering what they are doing a doctorate for – in the nicest of ways of course!
This event makes up part of the Festival of Doctoral Research.