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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Doctoral Education and Doctoral Theses — Changing Assessment Practices

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Most European countries are today highly interested in the quality of doctoral education. Undoubtedly, the Bologna Process has also given impetus to a reassessment of national doctoral education systems. There is a need to find comparable indicators measuring the efficiency and quality of doctoral education systems and educational practices alike. At the centre of the doctoral education agenda are not only national research funding systems, research training and doctoral programmes but also issues involving international collaboration and mobility (Enders and de Weert 2004; Tomusk 2006). It is widely accepted that doctoral candidates and doctoral theses make a major contribution to the creation of new knowledge in their particular fields of academic study (Hakala 2005; Welle-Strand 2000). Additionally, doctoral candidates should be recognised as prospective researchers who will have an essential role in national research systems in the near future. In general, doctoral education faces a challenge stemming from the interplay between internal and external determinants of science and scholarship. Although there may be a universal consensus of some kind on the standards that a doctoral thesis should meet, the nature of theses can vary. That is, a doctoral thesis may be traditionally defined as a piece of pure academic research while at the same time more practice-oriented and vocational dissertations are also accepted (McAlpine and Norton 2006; Wallgren 2003). Moreover, the thesis assessment process, assessment methods and the role of preliminary thesis examiners vary according to national regulations (Morley et al. 2002). Traditionally doctoral degrees have been based on independent study. The Finnish graduate school system was established in 1995. The aim of the reform was to reorganize doctoral education to make it more systematic and efficient. Although the organisations and practices of the different programmes do vary, the evaluation of the Finnish doctoral education system as a whole (Dill et al. 2006) confirms that they provide high-quality research learning environment for their doctoral students.