Title: SEMINAR FOR BOLOGNA AND HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM EXPERTS Organisation and Profile of Doctoral Studies
1SEMINAR FOR BOLOGNA AND HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM
EXPERTS Organisation and Profile of Doctoral
Studies
- Salzburg Principles
- Chafic Mokbel, University of Balamand, Research
Council, HER Expert Lebanon - Mazen El Khatib, HER Expert Lebanon, Pierre
Gedeon, HER Expert Lebanon, - Amer Helwani, NTO Lebanon, Aref Soufi, NTO
Lebanon - Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, USEK, 11-12
March 2013
2Outline
- History, Context and Motivation
- Some Challenges Facing Doctoral Studies
- Salzburg Principles and Excellence in Doctoral
Studies - Discussions and Perspectives
3History, Context and Motivation
- March 2005 The European Charter for Researchers
The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of
Researchers - Defines general principles and requirements to
specify the roles, responsibilities and
entitlements of researchers as well as of
employers and research funders - February 2005 Bologna Seminar yields to the
Salzburg Principles - Seminar set to discuss the new action line EHEA
and ERA two pillars of Knowledge-based Society - Organizers
- Austrian federal ministry of education. Science
and culture - German federal ministry of education and research
- European University Association
- 300 participants, 48 universities and 25
countries gt Large interest to contribute to
policy debate - Seminar discussed the European Charter for
Researchers - June 2010 Salzburg II Recommendations
- EUA-CDE (Council for Doctoral Education) annual
meeting - Free University in Berlin
- Intensive Consultation
- 220 participants, 165 institutions and 36
countries - Recommendations in 3 categories
- Research as the basis and the difference
- Cues for success
- Clearing the obstacles
4History, Context and Motivation
- Few Numbers (2008)
- 1.5 Millions FTE researchers in Europe
- Researchers share of the total labour market 6
in Europe, 9 in USA and, 11 in Japan - Share of Researchers in Business Sector 46 in
Europe, 68 in Japan, 79 in USA - RD intensity (percentage of GDP) 1.9 in
Europe, 2.8 in USA, 3.4 in Japan - 600,000 doctoral candidates in Europe 110,000
graduating every year - Need for more researchers and therefore to
further develop the high quality doctoral studies
and training
5History, Context and Motivation
- This reflected in the Europe 2020 flagship
- 1. By the end of 2011, Member States should have
strategies in place to train enough researchers
to meet their national RD targets and to promote
attractive employment conditions in public
research institutions. Gender and dual career
considerations should be fully taken into account
in these strategies - 4. In 2012, the Commission will propose on the
basis of the provisions on ERA in the New Lisbon
Treaty a European Research Area framework and
supporting measures to remove obstacles to
mobility and cross-border cooperation, aiming for
them to be in force by end 2014. They will
notably seek to ensure through a common approach - - quality of doctoral training, attractive
employment conditions and gender balance in
research careers - - mobility of researchers across countries and
sectors, including through open recruitment in
public research institutions and comparable
research career structures and by facilitating
the creation of European supplementary pension
funds
6History, Context and Motivation
- Key stakeholders working on Doctoral Studies and
Training - EUA - CDE
- LERE (League of European Research Universities)
- Coimbra group
- Thematic Inititiatives
- The ten Salzburg principles are set to guide the
development of relevant and high quality doctoral
studies and training
7Outline
- History, Context and Motivation
- Some Challenges Facing Doctoral Studies
- Salzburg Principles and Excellence in Doctoral
Studies - Discussions and Perspectives
8Some Challenges Facing Doctoral Studies
- Rapid Development of Science and Technology
Duration of PhD preparation and originality?
What to include in the 3rd cycle?
Third Cycle
Where to place the boundaries?
Second Cycle
First Cycle
Three Cycle System
Development of Science and Technology
9Some Challenges Facing Doctoral Studies
- Knowledge based society (economy)
- Central role to higher education and especially
Doctoral Studies - Balance to find between long-term and short-term
research - Demand for more PhD holders
Applied Research
Theoretical Research
Short-term Research
Long-term Research
Number of Researchers? Bandwidth of doctoral
programmes?
10Some Challenges Facing Doctoral Studies
- Globalisation
- Originality and competitiveness to be shown at
wider scale - Relevance to be sought at the international level
- Recognition a more crucial issue
- PhD candidates and researchers to be more dynamic
- Other Challenges
- Local levels of knowledge and skills
- Socioeconomic levels
- Resources allocated to research
11Outline
- History, Context and Motivation
- Some Challenges Facing Doctoral Studies
- Salzburg Principles and Excellence in Doctoral
Studies - Discussions and Perspectives
12Salzburg Principles
- i/ The core component of doctoral training is the
advancement of knowledge through original
research - However, meet the increasing needs of employment
market - Training by research
- Provide candidates with core skills
- problem solving innovative, creative and
critical thinking analyzing and synthesizing
knowledge developing strategies - Training in transferable, generic skills and
competences should become an integral part of all
doctoral programmes in order to meet the
challenges of the global labour market - ii/ Embedding in institutional strategies and
policies - The university is responsible for design,
structure and organisation of its doctoral
programmes with regulations covering
recruitment, supervision, exams, evaluations and
monitoring, and defence of the thesis throughout
the university - Orientation
- Tutoring and Advising
13Salzburg Principles
- iii/ The importance of diversity
- Diversity at all levels throughout the European
space should be seen as a strength - Diversity needs transparency and quality
- Discipline differences require more different
approaches than institutional or system
differences - iv/ Doctoral candidates as early stage
researchers - In the European Charter for Researchers Early
stage researchers are professionals who are
trained through research in the conception or
creation of new knowledge, products, processes,
methods and systems, and in the management of the
projects concerned - Doctoral stage should be recognised as the first
part in a professional career - Doctoral candidates to participate at all levels
in the University governance process
14Salzburg Principles
- v/ The crucial role of supervision and assessment
- Arrangements for supervision and assessment
should be based on a transparent contractual
framework of shared responsibilities between
doctoral candidates, supervisors and the
institution - Who can be a supervisor?
- How often she/he meets with the candidate?
- How many candidates the supervisor can manage and
how the research progress is monitored? - vi/ Achieving critical mass
- Crucial to have an impact
- Bilateral and multilateral collaboration at
local, national and international levels - Virtual research networks
15Salzburg Principles
- vii/ Duration
- Between 3 to 4 years
- Flexibility in the duration is needed for
discipline differences, gender issues, - Full-time and part-time doctoral studies?
- viii/ The promotion of innovative structures
- To meet the challenge of interdisciplinary
training and the development of transferable
skills - Transferable (generic professional and
personal) skills and competences to ensure wider
employability of doctoral candidates in different
sectors of the economy and society communication
and presentation skills, writing skills, project
and time management, human resources management,
financial resources management, teamwork, risk
and failure management, etc - Transferable skills and competences facilitate
multidisciplinarity - ECTS to be used in structured course-part of
doctoral programmes and not for measuring
research progress
16Salzburg Principles
- ix/ Increasing mobility
- Doctoral programmes should seek to offer
geographical as well as interdisciplinary and
intersectoral mobility and international
collaboration within an integrated framework of
cooperation between universities and other
partners - Several support programmes exist Marie-Curie,
Joint doctoral programmes, Co-tutelle - Classical obstacles exist
- Inter-diciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility
exist - No consensus on doctoral label
- x/ Ensuring appropriate funding
- The development of quality doctoral programmes
and the successful completion by doctoral
candidates requires appropriate and sustainable
funding
17Outline
- History, Context and Motivation
- Some Challenges Facing Doctoral Studies
- Salzburg Principles and Excellence in Doctoral
Studies - Discussions and Perspectives
18Discussions and perspectives
- The Salzburg ten Principles aim at fostering
formal and recognized(ii) doctoral training
models and their well defined supervision and
assessment processes(v) that prepare good young
researchers(i) formally recognized as such(iv)
with transferable skills and competences(viii)
in an appropriate period of time(vii) and with
an adequate financial support scheme(x) in
fields with recognized critical mass(vi) while
making good use of mobility(ix) and preserving
diversity(iii)
19Discussions and perspectives
20Discussions and perspectives
- This copes with nearly all the challenges and
clearly point out that, with the present
socioeconomic context and with the fast
development of science and technology, although
research is first an individual effort, a formal
and well thought setting is needed to make the
best out of the doctoral studies
21Discussions and perspectives
- The optimal balance is to be found between the
Salzburg principles
22Discussions and perspectives
Core RD Skills
Transferable competences
23Discussions and perspectives
- While the 10 Salzburg principles are suitable,
the good balance is still to be found - Depending on the context system, institution
- But also sector, discipline
- Is it relevant and appropriate to integrate the
postgraduate within the third cycle? - Is it the good timing?
24