From product to process. The reform of doctoral education in Europe and China

Abstract

This contribution is based on an analysis of recent changes in doctoral education that can be observed in Europe and China. It traces the policies having led to these changes and discusses related policy transfer. The contribution is divided into five parts. It begins by sketching recent changes in doctoral education in the framework of the European Bologna Process and the framework of Chinese higher education reforms looking at similarities and differences in the underlying rationales. The second part will elaborate on the extended policy field for doctoral education which is no longer regarded as an exclusively academic affair but has become an object of institutional management, national policy-making and – at least in Europe – supra-national agenda setting. The third part will take a closer look at the multiplication of purposes and models for doctoral education. While in Europe, altogether, nine different types of doctoral education and training can be identified, China has just started to diversify its doctoral training by adding professional degrees and (in engineering) joint doctoral programmes to the traditional pathway. The fourth part will discuss two overarching issues which are equally in the centre of debates and policy-making in Europe and in China-quality management and internationalisation of doctoral education. In the last and concluding part, we will reflect on the implications of the extended policy field and the diversification of doctoral education models in terms of the question of how this reflects on quality assurance mechanisms, who is qualified to convey the extended skills set and whether academic careers remain sufficiently attractive to attract the best and the brightest talent.