Skip to content
CIRGE

Category: Networks of Doctorate and Higher Education Scholars

CIRGE hosted the first Webinar of the Series “Committing ourselves to Social Justice: Doctoral Education for Complex Times”

 

Dr. Amy Scott Metcalfe (University of British Columbia) invited us to question the possibilities of the promise of social justice in the current higher education scenario, rooted in colonial relationships. She explains “The title of my talk, “Viewing the landscape of doctoral education against the horizon of policy: Placing ourselves in the academic arboretum,” emphasizes educational purpose and place, but also the colonial underpinnings of Western science. The “horizon of policy” references the spatializing sensibility of being located in a particular spot and turning around to view the encircling horizon. This is a planetary standpoint. The metaphor of a 360 degree “policy horizon” takes into consideration that we must move our entire beings to realize what is all around us, instead of facing in one direction and only seeing what is straight ahead.

Check the video of her talk and text here

More about the webinar

The webinar gathered around 50 people of all over the world interested in discussing how doctorate education plays a role in questioning and making visible the structures of oppression in society.

Why CIRGE is talking about social justice in Doctorate Education?

Doctoral education is the most advanced level of education that individuals can achieve and one of the spaces where different types of knowledge are discovered, passed on from one generation of scholars to the next, and re-interpreted in the process. These functions give doctoral education unique access to individuals and institutions that are in positions of authority in different nations, and consequently, an extra responsibility to work toward democracy, inclusion, diversity, and equity; in short, social justice.

Interested in getting involved?

Email Roxana Chiappa – rox.chiappa@ru.ac.za

Learn more about CIRGE webinar series Committing Ourselves to Social Justice: Doctoral Education for Complex Times 

Academics gathered to discusses the major societal forces that are shaping doctorate education

Maresi Nerad, founder of CIRGE, kicked off the fifth conference “Forces and Forms of Doctoral Education” this morning in Hanover-Germany. This initiative was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and co-organized by the Bremen Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSS), the University of Bremen, conjointly with CIRGE. Quite unique in its format, the conference sought to gather experts from the five continents to identify the major societal, economic and cultural forces that are changing the forms of doctorate education worldwide.

In the inauguration speech, Dr. Nerad invited the participants to work together on policy recommendations for doctoral education across our diverse continents and across diverse doctoral system, without attempting to homogenize our differences, but actively learning from each other to create a future that prepares a next generation of leaders, scholars, engaged citizens, and funders of doctoral education”.

See more details about the conference here

 

Conference: Forces and Forms of Doctoral Education

When: September 5 – 6, 2019

Where: Herrenhausen Castle | Hannover, Germany

Organized  by CIRGE and the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Science

Sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation

See Preliminary Program here

 

Conference background

During the last decade there have been significant changes in doctoral education worldwide: In many countries, the numbers of doctoral candidates and doctoral granting institutions have increased to help drive both national innovation and research performance of individual institutions, especially in Asia. Worldwide, there is a greater focus on diverse employment prospects and
transferable skills of doctorate holders and postdocs. At the same time, the world is changing faster than ever.  Seemingly adverse developments with yet unknown effects, namely digitization as potential driver of progress as well as increased insecurity and the simultaneous deterioration of democracies aligned with the rise of populist or fundamentalist movements characterize the second decade of the 21st century. Training doctoral candidates to become the next generation of creative, critical, autonomous and responsible intellectual risk takers is more essential than ever in these times of epochal challenges and unsettling changes.

Now is the time to review the changes in doctoral education, their successes and failures, and to explore ways forward for training new generations of researchers to become future leaders in developing and developed societies.

Conference objectives

  • discuss, enhance, and disseminate future oriented advancement of doctoral education and related policies
  • assessing where we stand on core values of doctoral education and research
  • taking stock of ongoing developments and changes in doctoral education worldwide
  • looking forward and setting a policy agenda on how we can best shape doctoral education in a socially responsible way, not only in our own national systems, but at a globalscale for driving innovation in public and private sectors.

More details

The event will be opened by the Secretary General of the  VW Foundation, Dr. Wilhelm Krull and a keynote address by Professor Jonathan Jansen from South Africa, University of Stellenbosch, former Vice chancellor of the University of the Free State, during tumultuous times, and also former chair of the evidence-based study of PhD education by the Academy of Science of South Africa.

A special reception hosted by the VW Foundation will take place on Thursday after the first conference day.

Panel discussions and work in small groups will investigate major topics pertinent for doctoral education at our times and will critically discuss policy recommendations resulting from a preparatory workshop from a group of experts from all continents. Among them are:

  • Prof. Ahmed Bawa (Physics), Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Universities of South Africa,
  • Prof. Roshada Hashim (Biochemistry) Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation, Universiti Sains Islam, Malaysia,
  • Prof. Reinhard Jahn (Biology), Director, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany,
  • Prof. Suzanne Ortega (Sociology) President of the Council of Graduate Schools (USA/North America),
  • Prof. Richard Strugnell (Epidemiology) former Pro Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Studies, The University of Melbourne.

A call for travel grants for Early Career Researchers will be launched in October 2018.
Registration will begin March 2019.

CIRGE researchers participate in the conference “Universities in the Knowledge Economy”: Perspectives from Asia-Pacific and Europe

Universities-in-knowledge-economyWhat is the place of universities in the emerging ‘ecology’ of higher education systems that straddle industry, government and the public sphere? The conference “Universities in the Knowledge economy: Perspective from Asia-Pacific and Europe” will gather a selected group of researchers since 10th-13th of February in Auckland – New Zealand. Scholars from Asia, Europe and the USA will deeply elucidate the implications of the knowledge economy in the transformation of the universities. 

 

CIRGE researchers will contribute to this academic discussion analyzing the transformation of the doctoral education and public universities. Dr. Maresi Nerad, director of CIRGE, will present her paper “Prestige gaining through new doctoral programs”. This research examines the strategies and mechanisms used by teaching intensive universities to gain prestige through the development of interdisciplinary doctoral training.  Roxana Chiappa, research assistant at CIRGE, will analyze the role of the Chilean public universities after the Chilean government implemented a new framework of scientific and innovation policies. Corina Balaban, one of the UNIKE fellows and CIRGE visiting scholar, will present a paper on the ““Shifting Models of Doctoral Education: Governance and Transformations in the Knowledge Economy”.

This conference is supported by the EU-funded project UNIKE (unike.au.dk) – Universities in the Knowledge Economy and the University of Auckland, and funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.  

Registration 

More information

 

Recent Publications on Doctoral Education

List of latest publications on the various aspects of doctoral education around the world.

           

 The metaphors we study by: the doctorate as a journey and/or as work

Hughes, Christina; Tight, Malcolm – Higher Education Research Development – 2013

 

PhD capacity-building, from aid to innovation: the SANPAD-SANTRUST experience

Smit, B, Williamson, C.; Padayachee, A.  – Studies in Higher Education – 2013

 

Mentorship, supervision and learning experience in PhD education

Linden, J., Ohlin, M., Brodin, E. M.  – Studies in Higher Education – 2013

 

 Performance-based assessment of graduate student research skills: timing, trajectory, and potential thresholds

Timmerman, B. C., Feldon, D., Maher, M.; Strickland, D.; Gilmore, J. – Studies in Higher Education – 2013

 

Completing a PhD by publication: a review of Australian policy and implications for practice

Jackson, D. – Higher Education Research Development – 2013

 

‘Becoming molecular girl’: transforming subjectivities in collaborative doctoral research studies as micro-politics in the academy

Lenz Taguchi,  H.  – International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education – 2013

 

Peer relationships and the biomedical doctorate: a key component of the contemporary learning environment

 Kemp,  M.W., Molloy,  T., Pajic, M., Chapman, E. – Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management – 2013

 

 The Routledge doctoral students’ companion: getting to grips with research in education and the social sciences/The Routledge doctoral supervisors’ companion: supporting effective research in education and the social sciences

Hopwood, N.  – Studies in Continuing Education – 2013

 

Developing early stage researchers: Employability perceptions of social science doctoral candidates

Golovushkina, E., Milligan, C. – International Journal for Researcher Development – 2013

 

Science and Practice in Clinical Psychology Doctoral Training

 Bjornsson,  A. S. – Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice – 2013

 

Developing doctoral scientists for drug discovery: pluridimensional education required

Janero,  D. R. – Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery – 2013

 

What are the major impact factors on research performance of young doctorate holders in science in China: a USTC survey

Jibao G., Yu L., Doug V.,Wen, T. – Higher Education – 2013

 

Dissertations at a Distance: Students’ Perceptions of Online Mentoring in a Doctoral Program

Kumar, S., Johnson, M., Hardemon, T. – The Journal of Distance Education – 2013

 

Changing Schools of Education Through Grassroots Faculty-led Change

Perry, J.A. – Innovative Higher Education –  2013

 

The Quest for the PhD: A Better Metaphor for Doctoral Education

McCulloch, A. – International Journal for Researcher Development – 2013

 

Career goals, pathways and competencies of geography graduate students in the USA

Solem, M.,  Kollasch, A.,  Lee, J. – 2012

… 2006. Envisioning the future of Doctoral Education: Preparing stewards of the discipline, San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass. … 2006. The assessment of Doctoral Education: Emerging criteria and new models for improving outcomes , Sterling, VA : Stylus. …

 

Graduate Students’ Perceptions of Their Advisors: Is There Systematic Disadvantage in Mentorship?

Noy, S.  Ray, R. – The Journal of Higher Education – 2012

… Our findings speak to the utility of the intersectionality framework for examining interpersonal relations in higher education and suggest that advisor support in doctoral education is raced and gendered. …Advisors and advisee issues in doctoral education…

 

 Coping with loneliness: A netnographic study of doctoral students

Janta, H.,  Lugosi, P., & Brown, L. –  2012

… International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy , 23(1/2): 4–32. [CrossRef] View all references) study examines this further by comparing perceptions of doctoral students in chemistry and education across a number of UK departments…

 

The path to graduation: A model interactive web site design supporting doctoral students

Simmons-Johnson, N. –  2012

… Objective. This 2-phase mixed method study assessed 2nd-year doctoral students’ and dissertation students’ perceptions of the current Graduate School of Education dissertation support web site, with implications for designing a model dissertation support web site.

 

Jorge Balan launches book about Latin America higher education institutions in the knowledge economy

Jorge Balan, member of the Form and Forces network, has recently edited Latin Americas New Knowledge Economy: Higher Education, Government and International Collaboration. This is the seventh in the Global Education Research Reports series jointly published by the Institute for International Education and the American Institute for Foreign Study Foundation. Previous books have examined higher education initiatives and exchanges in China, India, and the Middle East, as well as new developments in global mobility.

The book reviews the policies, institutions, and programs that helped bring about these changes, as well as their outcomes in terms of access, workforce training, and research. In this piece, leading scholars from Latin America in the U.S. explore key issues, including higher education’s role in advanced workforce development, trends in academic mobility and outcomes for brain circulation, and investment in the region by U.S. universities and corporations.

Author

Dr. Jorge Balan is an Argentine sociologist who has published extensively on comparative higher education policy, academic and labor mobility, rural-to-urban and international migration, and regional development in Latin America.

He has been involved with CIRGE since 2007 in topics related to doctoral education in Latin America.

He contributes regularly to International Higher Education, a leading newsletter, and has published with Philip G. Altbach a book on World-Class Worldwide: Transforming Research Universities in Asia and Latin America (Johns Hopkins University Press), with translations published in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. His most recent paper on research universities in Latin America was published in Social Research: An International Quarterly, volume 79, number 3, 2012.

He is currently a Senior Research Scholar and Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, where he teaches a graduate course on Higher Education Policy in Developing Countries. Dr. Balan has responsibilities within the Institute of Latin American Studies and the Global Centers program, and is an external researcher with the Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad, a leading Argentine think tank based in Buenos Aires. 

International Doctoral Education Research Network (IDERN)

See latest publications

In a world that is no longer able to maintain or sustain social or cultural enclaves, free from impact of global flows of capital, technologies and bodies, our lives have become more complex. People, events, governments and institutions such as education are increasingly interconnected. In universities, where the presence and influence of an ever-expanding world are particularly keenly recognized, ideas, information and knowledge increasingly cross national boundaries, enabled by digital media and geographical mobility for academics and students. Those of us concerned with doctoral education are increasingly involved in developments that allow and indeed require an international consciousness and an active reaching out to connect programs, knowledge and understanding about pedagogy, and knowledge production. Research and research education become primary sites for shaping the world.

The International Doctoral Education Research Network (IDERN) was formed in this context, to provide an avenue for researchers on doctoral education from around the globe to generate dialogue on knowledge creation and doctoral pedagogy. The aim of the network was to generate a collaborative, international research agenda for doctoral education; to build a research field in this most advanced form of educational provision, and to connect researchers from different national settings, as well as different disciplines and research perspectives. The network has been operating since 2007 and aims to meet for a research forum once every three years, as well as to use online technologies to share and disseminate information and research on the doctorate. A listserv, run by Dr. Mark Connolly, University of Wisconsin–Madison, is, outside of the triennial meetings, the primary means of keeping this research community connected. 

To join the IDERN, please contact Mark at mrconnolly@wisc.edu.

 

Thoko Mayekiso

Professor Thoko Mayekiso  is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor:  Research and Engagement at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) with effect from 1 May 2009.   She obtained her BA, BA Honours and MA in Psychology from the University of Fort Hare. She then obtained a D Phil (Cum laude) from the Free University of Berlin, Germany. She is registered as a Clinical Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).  

Professor Mayekiso has served in the following capacities at the then University of Transkei (now Walter Sisulu University): Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology, and thereafter as Vice Dean of Arts.  In 2001 she joined the University of the Witwatersrand in the capacity of Head of School of Human & Community Development, and subsequently became Deputy Dean and Acting Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities in 2006. She proceeded to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) where she was appointed as Executive Dean: Faculty of Arts in 2007.

Her academic Scholarships include a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Scholarship), a Commonwealth Scholarship tenable at Leicester General Hospital and Greenwood Institute of Child Health in the United Kingdom and the South African Universities’ Vice Chancellors Association/American Council of Education fellowship tenable at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.  She serves as the Board Member of the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town, Emthonjeni Centre at the University of Witwatersran,  the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and  the Institute for Co-operatives Development.  She has a track record both as a researcher and a mentor especially in the areas of HIV/AIDS, poverty, adolescent adjustment problems and child abuse and neglect. She has supervised many postgraduate students especially at Masters and Doctoral levels.

She has served on review panels of research entities and programmes at a number of universities and science councils.  She also serves as external examiner for several universities, examining Masters dissertations and Doctoral theses. Furthermore, she has written a number of articles in accredited journals nationally and internationally, presented papers at national and international conferences, and contributed to the writing of book chapters.

Armando Alcantara

Dr.  Armando Alcantara is Professor of Higher Education at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in the Institute for University and Education Studies, and Research Fellow at Mexico’s National System of Researchers (level I). He is a regular member of the Mexican Academy of Science.

He earned a B. A. in Psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (1985); a M. A. in education (International Development Education) at Stanford University (1992), and a Ph. D. (Social Sciences and Comparative Education) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (1999). He was also Visiting Scholar Boston College (2000-2001), and Visiting Professor at Brazil’s Federal University of Goiás (2006). His main areas of inquiry include politics and policies of higher education, values in education, and comparative education.

Dr. Alcantara has been awarded several scholarships from the Fulbright Program (for the M. A. Program at Stanford University), UNAM (for the M. A. Program at Stanford University and the doctoral program at UCLA). He was also recipient of a scholarship from the Argentinean government to conduct doctoral field work in 1996.

He has delivered papers in conferences of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and the Mexican Council for Educational Research (COMIE), among many others in Mexico, Latin America and the United States. He has served as Secretary General of the Mexican Council of Educational Research (2001-2003), vice president and founding member of the Mexican Society of Comparative Education, and is currently a member of UNAM´s Higher Education Seminar. Dr. Alcantara is also columnist of Campus Milenio, a weekly supplement of Milenio, a Mexican newspaper. He is currently a member of the editorial board of Revista de la Educación Superior (Mexican Journal of Higher Education), and Reseñas Educativas/Education Review.

Dr. Alcantara most recent publications include the following:

  •  Alcántara, Armando. (2011). “Three Decades of Educational Policies in Mexico”, in Carlos Alberto Torres, Liliana Olmos and Richard Van Heertum (eds.)
  • Educating the Global Citizen: In the Shadows of Neoliberalism. Twenty-Five Years of Educational Reform in North America. Bentham Science [ISBN 978-1-60805-268-4] [www.benthem.org/ebooks/htm] [Chapter in electronic book]].
  • Alcantara, Armando and Margaret M. Clements. (2009). “Globalisation, Intellectual Property and the Cultural Aspects of Collaboration: Comparisons between Mexico and the United States”, in Zajda, Joseph y Val Rust (editors). Globalisation, Policy and Comparative Research: Discourses of Globalisation. Series: Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research. Vol. 5, Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands; pp. 125-138. (ISBN: 978-1-4020-9546-7).
  • (2003) Rodríguez Gómez, Roberto and Armando Alcántara. “Towards a Unified Agenda for Change in Latin American Higher Education”, en Ball, Stephen, Gustavo E. Fischman and Silvina Gvirtz (editors). Crisis and Hope: The Educational Hopscotch of Latin America. New York and London. Routledge-Falmer Press; pp. 19-43.
  • Entre Prometeo y Sísifo: Ciencia, Tecnología y Universidad en México y Argentina. (2005). Barcelona: Ediciones Pomares. (ISBN 84-87682-56-1). Reviewed by Pilar Mendoza in Reseñas Educativas/Education Review, 08/30/ 2006 URL: http://www.edrev.info/reviews/revs125index.html

Sandra Elman

Sandra Elman is the President of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) in Redmond, Washington. From 2003-2006, Dr. Elman served as Chair of the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (CRAC) that is comprised of the directors and chairs of the seven regional accrediting commissions. Prior to assuming the position of the President of NWCCU in 1996, Dr. Elman was the Associate Director of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Before joining regional accreditation, Dr. Elman held a variety of administrative and faculty positions at the John McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts; the University of Maryland and the University of California, Berkeley. She has published extensively in the fields of public policy and higher education and is coauthor of New Priorities for the University: Educating Competent Individuals for Applied Knowledge and Societal Needs.

She has lectured nationally and internationally on issues related to quality assurance; institutional finance and governance; and the roles of government and business/industry. She is an adjunct faculty member at Oregon State University. Dr. Elman serves as an evaluator for international quality assurance agencies including for the Center for Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Swiss Universities. She is a past Chair of the Board of Trustees of Unity College in Unity, Maine, which is an environmentally focused liberal arts institution. Her academic areas of interest include: accreditation/federal/institutional relations; quality assurance in the U.S. and Europe; governance of public and private higher education institutions; and conflict resolution and international peace. Sandra Elman received her B.A. degree in history and political science from Hunter College in New York and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in policy, planning and administration from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a 2005 graduate of the Department of Defense National Security Seminar, U.S. Army War College.