All nations share a concern about how to best prepare the next generation of leaders who will be able to confront a complex set of social, political, technical, and health issues within a global setting. There are many issues associated with globalization and doctoral education such as the ways in which technology enables a new level of international research and policy networks, the renewed interest in and commitment to understanding the changing labor market for highly educated professionals, and the production of PhD recipients as they represent the leading labor force for knowledge-based economies. Taken together these issues create a powerful motivation to share information about how to educate these new leaders.
To facilitate the understanding of forces and forms that shape doctoral education worldwide and interpret the emerging trends, the Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education proposes to bring together no more than thirty key players (policy makers, graduate education researchers, university administrators, industry representatives, and funders) from around the world in a three-day conference. Issues to be discussed include, needs of a highly educated labor forced for the 21st century, and the characteristics of this labor force, the impact of technology on research and education, the content and the pedagogy of doctoral education, the transition from doctoral education or postdoctoral appointment to stable employment, the changing demographics of the doctoral student body (i.e., gender, socio-economic class, race, and ethnicity), and financing graduate education, including the privatization of education throughout the world. Differences and commonalities among nations will be explicitly mapped out.
We will commission a paper from each participating country describing the current state of doctoral education according to a common set of issues. The initial goal of these papers will be to create a common language and understanding of each country.s system of doctoral education. On this basis potential shared forces that drive doctoral education can be identified and categorized. And, the group will work together to investigate if the various reforms in doctoral education are converging toward a similar model as a result of global forces.
Broader Impacts: This series of conferences will have a number of important impacts. First, it will move a broad coalition of scholars, policy makers, funders, and administrators toward a better grasp of the issues of doctoral education across nations. Second, it will share among participants information on innovations and best practices currently shaping doctoral programs. Third, it will work toward establishing greater inclusiveness within in the realm of doctoral education of underrepresented groups. Fourth, it will work to develop of a comprehensive research agenda on doctoral education internationally. And, fourth, it will examine ways in which issues can be addressed in policy to foster the education and training of leadership for a knowledge-based society in a global economy.
Intellectual Merits: The intellectual merits of this series of conferences will include (1) furthering the research and training opportunities and international collaboration in doctoral education; (2) establishing an ongoing formal network of key players in doctoral education so that forces (political, economic, technological) can be responded to in a manner most conducive to furthering the high quality and inclusiveness of doctoral education worldwide; and (3) providing a comprehensive foundation for setting research agendas in doctoral education through systematic knowledge exchange.
