Report 2008:16 R
Evaluation of sixteen national doctoral schools
- To what degree have the doctoral schools contributed to improved doctoral programmes in comparison with traditional doctoral studies?
- Has there been an improvement in collaboration between the participating higher education institutions (HEIs)?
The doctoral schools that started new interdisciplinary disciplines, where the expertise in the different subject areas is spread throughout the country have been, for the most part, successful. This process has been assisted partly by the funding available and partly by the collaboration between several HEIs. The evaluation demonstrates that the system of doctoral schools ought to be advantageous for such disciplines as Pedagogy or Didactics where the academic competence is spread throughout the country.
However, incentives to develop the system of doctoral schools are missing. This is particularly the case for host HEIs with strong research disciplines where the partner HEIs have been unable to inject any new expertise. As no new demands have been placed on the host HEIs to allocate funds to doctoral programmes after 2007, there is a risk that the new expertise built up in the partner HEIs will disappear.
The evaluation shows that the doctoral schools have not taken the opportunity to develop a system for supervision. In most cases, there is no support for supervisors from management and no insight into the process of supervision.
The evaluation has shown some innovative processes, e.g. where doctoral students from different HEIs collaborate in the form of pair projects or networks. This shows that the potential exists to develop doctoral programmes within doctoral schools if the optimal prerequisites exist for funding and collaboration.
Contact person: Eric Lindesjöö, e-mail: forename.surname@hsv.se
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Phone: 08-563 085 00 Fax: 08-563 085 50 Email: hsv@hsv.se
