EUA Council for Doctoral Education

EUA-CDE published a new report: Doctoral education in Europe today: approaches and institutional structures


28 January 2019

Survey

Authors: Alexander Hasgall, Bregt Saenen, Lidia Borrell-Damian. Co-authors: Freek Van Deynze, Marco Seeber, Jeroen Huisman

EUA-CDE just published a report presenting the results of an extensive and unique study on the state of play of doctoral education in Europe. Offering findings gathered from more than 300 institutions across Europe, it provides an overview of the deep transformation that has taken place in doctoral education over the past ten years.

The report focuses on the key results of years of doctoral education reform in Europe, which have been marked by the introduction of doctoral schools at many institutions and a significant increase of the number of doctoral candidates and doctoral graduates.

More specifically, it examines the balance between institutional responsibility and that of the individual supervisor, as well as the mechanisms that underpin the passage through the doctorate and towards future careers. It also assesses the degree of change, asking how the doctorate today is different from that of a decade or more ago. The funding of doctoral education and the strategic priorities of institutions are others line of questioning, among many others.

The survey questions were developed by a research team at the Centre for Higher Education Governance (CHEGG) of Ghent University in Belgium and further developed by EUA and the EUA-CDE Steering Committee.