Some people pursuing a doctorate in mathematics education are interested in specializing in a specific area within mathematics education. In addition, people considering postdoctoral appointments often choose institutions that have niches or specializations aligned with their long-term career goals. These specialty areas are typically the result…

Stock, Finegan, and Siegfried establish that completion times in U.S. economics PhD programs have been on the rise, with the median steadily approaching six years. Do European programs experience the same trend? The authors of this article present new hand-collected data on job market candidates from the top European PhD programs in economics. In…

This short address by Hunter McEwan provides a background to what a professional practice degree is and discusses some of the accomplishments of the very first group of graduates of the new EdD--the Doctorate in Professional Educational Practice--at the College of Education (COE) at the University of Hawai'i. The COE aimed at building a…

Within the New Zealand university context, there has been a dramatic shift in the demographics of doctoral programs. Moving from an elitist educational environment to one that includes a variety of students from different cultures and educational and linguistic backgrounds has meant that "traditional" doctoral study, in which a student…

The nontraditional doctorate is a relatively recent development in the long history of the doctoral degree. Understanding what makes a doctoral degree "nontraditional" requires describing its key features in relation to those of the traditional doctorate and embedding this analysis in a historical context. In this article, the author provides a…

The road to a new degree program is rarely smooth. The author describes the lengthy and bumpy path to the successful creation of and approval for the first nontraditional doctorate offered at Georgetown University, the Doctor of Liberal Studies Degree (DLS). The new Doctor in Liberal Studies (DLS) required applicants to have a master's degree or…

Graduate students and post-doctoral scholars at research universities will shape the future of undergraduate education in the natural and social sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (the STEM disciplines) in the United States. In 2009 alone, more than 41,000 doctorates were awarded in STEM fields, and if employment trends hold,…

In this chapter, the authors identify and review a number of key features in the successful development and maintenance of a PhD program delivered at a distance. The University of Oklahoma's PhD program in organizational leadership was developed in the early 1990s and delivered (primarily, but not completely) to military personnel and families…

What type of individual pursues a nontraditional doctoral degree? Although answering this question is the main purpose of this chapter, there is an underlying story that provides context for how and why these individuals came to pursue a doctoral degree. The tremendous growth in the number of doctoral students and doctoral degree-granting…

The umbrella of Australian research higher degree (RHD) offerings has broadened from the traditional MPhil/PhD programmes to include a range of professional masters and doctoral degrees. This article reports on the experiences of three PhD students, engaged in an informally managed industry partnered research programme, described in this article…

Career development for full-time Health Sciences academics through to doctoral studies is a monumental task. Many academics have difficulty completing their studies in the minimum time as well as publishing after obtaining their degree. As this problem is particularly acute in the Health Sciences, the PhD Acceleration Programme in Health Sciences…

This monograph seeks to inform faculty, staff, administrators, and students about the nature of and structure in doctoral programs that lead to doctoral student development. It is accomplished through succeeding chapters, focusing first on an overview of existing student development theory and then on the structure of doctoral education and its…

Survey responses from 48 of 78 doctoral programs in nursing show an increasing shift away from clinical to research emphasis and few differences in terms of admission criteria, curriculum, Carnegie classification, or length of time the program has existed. Only 12% still offer doctorates in nursing science; most have moved to Ph.D.s (SK)

A summary of the development of doctoral education in nursing is provided. The question of "doctoral preparation for what?" is posed. Arguing that nurses with doctoral preparation are needed in a variety of leadership roles within the profession, a variety of program models for doctoral education is suggested. (Author/MLW)

In a discussion of many of the problems related to the doctoral world, author describes a program now in its third year of operation: the Union Graduate School of the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities. (MB)