Valuing professional practice: the role of the university in professional doctorates

Professional doctorates in Australian universities have been a growing and controversial area recently. A major unresolved problem in seeking to understand and place the professional doctorates in the universities is their uncertain identity. In this paper it is argued that professional doctorates should be primarily concerned with advancing professional practice and that the research component of a professional doctorate program should be orientated towards making a contribution in the professional practice arena. In this way they can distinguish themselves from the PhD degree. To meet needs of the wider society in areas of professional practice education, universities will have to change. Professional doctorates are one aspect of such change. A professional doctorate should be a different type of doctorate to the PhD; there is no point in having it exist as a weaker version of the PhD. The central feature of that difference is that professional doctorates should value other types of knowledge, namely knowledge of and in professional practice. There is resistance to moving the university in the necessary direction to be overcome. For example, 'Guidelines for Professional Doctorates' were widely promulgated in Australia in 1998. If enforced in universities these would seriously impact negatively on the educational standing of professional doctorates.