Much has been written in this site about British research doctorates. I notice that 23 universities now offer "new route" PH.Ds that more closely resemble the USA model; courses plus disertation. Can anybody provide info on the background of this "innovation"?
Quite easy to understand the reason! A committee was set up several years ago to look at recruiting more students overseas doctoral students whose educational background is more geared to the US system - that is, structured programmes with clear end results rather than a lengthy research thesis. The consultative committee (chaired by the former director of the then Oxford Polytechnic) determined that the UK was missing out on recruiting many students from the Middle East who wanted the prestige of a UK doctorate. Thus, PhD (mode 2: my designation not the committee's!) was born and 23 universities are taking part in this experiment. Personaly, I think it is a mistake and not required with the birth of so many professional doctorate programmes (EdD, DBA, etc) in the UK during the past ten years. The PhD is/was in need of reform in terms of teaching formal research method courses (in the past students were just thrown in at the deep-end and expected to learn these by themselves) but I think it should have been left as a pure extended research degree. However, because the PhD is seen as the 'top' doctoral award many potential students from the Middle East and SE Asia are being wooed to these new PhD programems. According to many of my colleagues in academia they will be viewed as a 'second tier' PhD! 'telfax'
