Research degrees as professional education?

There is an increasing trend within higher education and, more specifically, in higher degrees by research, to treat a professional skills set as a desirable graduate outcome. The increasing value that is being placed on a professional skills set in large part reflects growing interest around the world in the role of research degrees in labour markets and economic prosperity. Some have seen this shift as an opportunity to re-situate higher degrees by research as a form of professional education in the practices of research and scholarship. This raises a number of important issues for research education, which this article aims to identify. While a number of scholars has previously noted several of these issues, this article draws together key issues for interrogating the notion of research degrees as a form of professional education. In doing so, it points to ambiguities in expectations about what is produced through higher degrees by research programs.