The role of the professional doctorate in Ireland from the student perspective

Abstract

Similar to many other advanced capitalist societies, Irish higher education policy is in the process of constructing a new role and identity for doctoral students which has at its core the desire to produce what have been referred to by the Irish Universities Association as ‘knowledge entrepreneurs’. This conception of doctoral education meshes with, at least in policy terms, the desire for a knowledge-led economy, in which all forms of knowledge can potentially become commodified. This study examines interview data from 27 professional doctoral students regarding the relationship between their motivations to undertake advanced study and their conceptions of and purposes for academic and professional knowledge. The authors argue that current Irish policy is underpinned by a restrictive and narrow understanding of doctoral education, as it marginalises those students who in their professional practice neither wish to view themselves or be positioned as knowledge entrepreneurs.