"Originally doctorates were based on the needs of a specific discipline and were recognised as a badge of excellence largely for teaching" ❤️

A Centralised Dashboard for PhD Scholars?

Light at the end of the Tunnel, At last? 😊

In the Offing | Good News for PhD Scholars

#newspaperinlearning #newspaper

5th May 2025 | Today’s New Indian Express

The State Higher Education Department has decided to create a web portal, which would act as a centralised dashboard for data related to PhD works from across state universities.

The initiative is aimed at monitoring PhD works, ensuring timely completion of the PhD, streamlining the process and keeping a tab on the quality of research work in state universities.

“The portal will serve as a one-point information centre for all the information related to PhD research work happening in the 13 state universities. Currently, there is no such mechanism,”

said C Samayamoorthy, Secretary, Higher Education department.

He added that, the universities will have to continuously update data right from registration of PhD scholars, topics of their research work, and progress on their work.

“The database will help us to track and identify the scholars, who have sought for extension of time for thesis submission, as well as check plagiarism in final dissertations,”

Samayamoorthy said.

An announcement regarding the project was made by Higher Education Minister Govi Chezhiaan in the Assembly recently, following which the department held a meeting to discuss the functions and execution of the web portal.

According to officials, the project is likely to be implemented from the next academic year. An agency will be selected to create the software and it will take six months to one year to get the portal running, said a senior official.

Higher education department officials said only the 13 universities will be included in the portal initially, and in later phases steps will be taken to upload data of the remaining state universities, functioning under other departments.

Coming back,

Well, even as the Higher Education Department is planning on a huge overhaul of the PhD process in its 13 Universities across the State, it’s only meet that the PhD Scholars also brace themselves to giving their best to their research work.

In this regard, Rob Bongaardt and Anne Lee in their seminal article titled, ‘The Global Knowledge Economy’, have some very interesting observations.

Doctoral Researchers as ‘Early Career Researchers’

All doctoral researchers are otherwise called, ‘Early Career Researchers’ (ECRs for short). They have a huge responsibility on them, as they ‘represent’ the University that hosts them, and hence, they are expected to contribute with original knowledge, thus supporting and promoting a university’s profile on the global stage.

Moreover, your research in itself should help the governments at the forefront while framing their policies and while taking political decisions, they aver.

Kate Whittington and Sally Barnes while highlighting the ‘Changing Face of Doctoral Education in academia today’, say that –

Today, the PhD is a well- recognised doctoral award considered largely as research training. Originally doctorates were based on the needs of a specific discipline and were recognised as a badge of excellence largely for teaching.

They have subsequently moved towards a degree that confirms research experience and skill and are widely considered the starting point of an academic career.

The PhD as a ‘Long Apprenticeship’

The doctorate is one of the highest levels of academic degrees awarded. In the Middle Ages the doctorate was achieved through a long apprenticeship with a master teacher. It was the only type of doctorate available until the early 1800s when universities based on both teaching and research were established and moved the focus of a PhD towards research.

The original conception of the PhD as an apprenticeship model has moved towards a model that can often include course work and requirements to publish and/ or teach and to meet disciplinary norms. Professional doctorates have more recently emerged as an alternative to the PhD.

The shift of the award of a doctorate from teaching to research excellence occurred in 1810 when Wilhelm von Humboldt established a new type of university in Germany (Berlin) that was based on both research and teaching. From its establishment, this university offered a PhD based on research. Up to this point the PhD was seen as a necessity for teaching at degree level, with graduates being expected to be able to teach a wide variety of subjects.

However, as the award shifted towards a research focus, academic staff began to specialise in their research endeavours and to focus their teaching on areas related to their research. This research- orientated doctorate spread across Europe and the world and the encompassing of both research and teaching is the basic premise of the majority of academic posts today.

Common Destinations of doctoral graduates

Historically, a doctorate typically gave one an academic job for life within the university environment. Governments have encouraged increased participation in higher education as one means to achieve economic security and advancement. With more individuals achieving Bachelor’s degrees, there are more that go on to Master’s degrees and then to doctorates

Because of the paucity of tenured academic posts, such individuals rarely progress further up the academic ladder and employers do not appear to value the skills they offer in the external job market.

The decline in permanent academic posts is likely to have resulted, at least in part, from universities utilising increasing numbers of doctorate students to deliver teaching previously delivered by academic staff.

The questions we are left with concern the doctorate’s future. What is it for? What benefits does it bring and for whom? Maybe we need to accept that one doctorate model cannot fit all and that clarity on the benefits and purposes of each type of doctorate would help all.

Maybe the time has come for us to consider what each type of doctorate model prepares its graduates for. For example, marketing one route – the traditional PhD with a focus on research skills – as the doorway to academic careers would provide a clear supply chain into the world of academia.

Single-discipline or interdisciplinary research projects?

In this complex world, the skills and wisdom acquired by doctoral graduates make them more needed than ever, and hence there is an urgent need to move towards interdisciplinary work through initiatives that ‘liquefy’ traditional borders. 

This has strong resonance with University College London’s initiative to create a ‘connected curriculum’ at other pedagogic levels. 

It’s time for different disciplinary traditions to understand each other and plan how to work together, 

they sign off!

Works Cited

Whittington, Kate and Sally Barnes. “The Changing Face of Doctoral Education”. Anne Lee and Rob Bongaardt, Ed. The Future of Doctoral Research: Challenges and Opportunities. NY: Routledge, 2021.

Lee, Anne and Rob Bongaardt. “The future of doctoral research in the light of experience”. Anne Lee and Rob Bongaardt, Ed. The Future of Doctoral Research: Challenges and Opportunities. NY: Routledge, 2021.

PS: You may want to read our past post on the subject HERE on our blog.