Framing research on doctoral education in Australia in a global context

Abstract

The scope of doctoral education scholarship continues to broaden to include such issues as the complex interactions of higher education and research policy and practice, changes in knowledge production, and the status of research students, among others. However in this article I argue for framing this scholarship and research within a comparative approach that links more rigorously and critically developments in Australia with what is happening worldwide. To establish this case I explore dominant narratives current in doctoral education scholarship in Australia to challenge some myths and assumptions about the historical record; and to problematise the nature of government and institutional policy development, the ways in which the changing research environment connects with research education, and our connections with international and increasingly global educational systems. To conclude I introduce some current approaches to rethinking higher education theory and research that have potential for framing research on doctoral education in ways that acknowledge the complexity and the significance of multi‐actor, multi‐level local, national, international and global interactions.