Making PhD degrees relevant for the ‘real world’

by Professor Max King

Around the globe, the future of the PhD degree and the changes it needs to respond to today’s employment challenges are being debated. While there is no doubt that research excellence and high quality supervision should be the cornerstone of all doctoral degrees, today’s PhD graduates need to be better equipped for the range of career pathways available to them.

Compared to many other countries, Australia is in danger of falling behind when it comes to producing well-rounded PhD graduates. Monash is one of the first Australian universities to respond to this challenge with the new ‘Monash PhD’ to be rolled out in 2013.

It is a necessary transition. Our current system is very thesis-centric and unlike the majority of the world, we don’t require our PhD students to complete an oral examination. Australian PhD students spend around four years researching and writing their thesis, and in the process, become an expert in their chosen field. By this stage, most PhD graduates have spent at least eight years at university, but during this entire time, they rarely have access to any training that will prepare them for work in the ‘real world.’ The graduate may have excelled in their research and be well prepared for academic life, but have few professional skills to help them take the next step into the workforce.

Surveys conducted by the Group of Eight, give some indication of the changes needed. A 2007 survey of PhD graduates who had been working for around six years found significant gaps between the skills acquired during their PhD and the skills they felt were needed in the workforce.  The survey found graduates believed they were adequately skilled in problem solving, thinking critically and taking initiative. However, there were significant skills gaps in oral communication, team work, project management, leadership and financial management.

Australian universities are not alone in recognising that the thesis-centric nature of current doctoral programs is disadvantaging graduates. In Europe, the League of European Research Universities (LERU) believes that skills development should be a key element of the doctorate. The UK Vitae organisation champions personal, professional and career development for researchers, and doctoral training centres have now been established at Oxford, Nottingham and Warwick Universities.

The Australian Government’s Research Workforce Strategy Reference Group has also confirmed the need for better alignment between professional skills acquired through training and industry needs.

The ‘Monash PhD’ will address this identified training shortfall by requiring new PhD students to complete at least three months of professional development in addition to producing a thesis. PhD students will be able to choose from a variety of training and coursework. Some topics will provide generic, transferable skills that will enhance students’ employability, such as communication skills, personal effectiveness, teamwork and networking, career management, and financial management. Other topics will be related to the student’s particular field of study and cover technical, research and teaching skills. These discipline-specific topics will be designed by academics who have a thorough understanding of their discipline and related industry. 

Further to this, in response to Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency calls for “academics who are the primary supervisors of students are actively carrying out research and publishing in the relevant discipline area, ” we have created the Monash University Institute of Graduate Research (MIGR), of which supervisors must qualify as members.

To gain membership, supervisors must be ‘research active,’ so that they are directly involved in the latest ideas, innovations and investigations in their field. They must also complete an accreditation program that gives them the skills needed to supervise, guide and monitor students throughout their PhD. Our students make an enormous intellectual and emotional investment in their degree so they deserve to be supervised by academics with a proven track record.

Through these changes, we will deliver PhD graduates who are primed to become Australia’s next generation of not only academic, but government, industry and community leaders. It is with the help of these outstanding individuals that our country will continue to thrive.

Emeritus Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor Max King was the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and Research Training at Monash University from 2004 to 2012.