Since the early twentieth century the PhD has been the research degree of choice in the UK, but traditional ideas and practices relating to the degree are now being challenged. This paper sketches out the main drivers of change and explores the main challenges confronting doctoral study within the UK. It explains why there is a need for a…

The increasing interest in second language acquisition (SLA) has sharpened the focus on SLA research. While most university linguistic programs and departments offer at least a course in SLA, not all offer the opportunity to concentrate on SLA research. This article provides an overview of the programs/departments offering opportunities for SLA…

One of the most problematic issues in the field of social work is the gap between practice and research. This paper describes the roles of the social work clinical practitioner and the social work researcher, and explores the role discontinuity that occurs as social work doctoral students' transition between these roles. A model illustrating the…

Any discussion of Arthur M. Cohen's contributions to community colleges must include the students he taught and mentored during his 40 years as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Arthur Cohen and his colleague and spouse, Florence Brawer, had a huge impact on community colleges through the sheer number of former students who…

This article is based on a keynote address delivered at the 33rd annual Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference in Rochester, New York, on June 15, 2006. The audience for this address included faculty, executive educators from the profit and nonprofit sectors, and doctoral students in the organizational and management sciences who had gathered…

This article opens with an overview of the pressures that have led to heightened calls for accountability in higher education, both in the US and Europe. Noting that doctoral programmes have, to date, drawn minimal attention in the accountability debates, the authors note that these programmes cannot stay forever on the sidelines. Drawing on their…

This paper analyses three crucial research skills: problem identification, data collection and hypothesis formation. It concludes that science research students should be taught about the creative process as they are under pressures that can inhibit creative thought. They should also be taught the importance of tacit knowledge for learning how to…

Within academe, there is much interest in the workings of the academic marketplace. Efforts to understand how the process unfolds occupy both researchers and participants. Clearly, the search process is complex. This article contributes to one's understanding by systematically examining how teaching is valued and assessed by search committees. As…

A doctoral study is reported, of action research on the motivation of 12-14-year-old religious education pupils in England. An earlier master's dissertation gives the basis and cues a developed conceptual framework including adolescence, creativity, ethnography, pedagogy and iterativity. Four cycles of praxis are traced. The emergent factors in…

Continuing professional development (CPD) doctorate programmes may not be the only learning and development opportunities which universities and other organisations can provide for educational psychology practitioners (EPs). However, as Morris and Brightman pointed out in 2006, they are likely to continue as important sources for professional…

This study examined how graduate students enrolled in a university-based cohort community college leadership doctoral program perceived their leadership development experiences. A total of 50 doctoral students enrolled in the Morgan State University (MSU) doctoral program were surveyed. A separate group of students (20) participated in a focus…

The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) supports the concept that periodic evaluation entered into voluntarily by institutions and their peers enhances the quality of the educational process and demonstrates that self regulation of a profession is superior to outside regulation. The federal government, for purposes of…

The present report follows an ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) Workshop on Quality Assurance and Postgraduate Education, hosted by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS) in Brasov, Romania on 12-13 March 2009. The workshop was an excellent opportunity for ENQA members to exchange…

This study is one of only a few that attempts to examine simultaneously faculty productivity in teaching, research, and service. The research is guided by a conceptual model built from several branches of the literature on career stage theory, motivation theory, and previous studies of faculty productivity. The model hypothesizes that faculty…

Background/Context: The Research Training Grant (RTG) program at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education aimed to create strong research training experiences for predissertation fellows through generous financial aid, mentored research apprenticeships, and cocurricular experiences. Collectively these offerings sought to…