Graduate
Training
The
Essay on
Graduate
Training
in Volume 3 of this Report discusses issues concerning postgraduate research
training in the Humanities at some length. Here we formulate Recommendations
based on the most important of the issues on this topic that have arisen out of
our Review.
(i) Honours
Degrees
.
Postgraduate research by Australian students in Australia is normally
predicated on the fourth year Honours degree (which has no counterpart in
either England or the United States). Whilst this serves the requirements of
the ablest undergraduates regardless of whether they go on to higher studies or
not, for those preparing for research training it provides the crucial basic
disciplinary training which is quite essential before postgraduate research can
be embarked upon. Any diminution in it will have serious consequences for
postgraduate research in this country and for the high standard to which
Honours students are now trained in their Fourth, specialist year.
Recommendation
2
- That
the provision of Honours Degrees continues to be strongly supported as the
primary gateway to postgraduate research training throughout the Australian
tertiary sector.
[Universities;
AVCC; PVCs Research; ARC; DEETYA; HEC]
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(ii) Postgraduate
Student and Staff Numbers
.
In Chapter 2 above, in the section entitled 'Research Students in the
Humanities' and Figures 2.19-2.21, we have provided as extensive
details as at this stage we can on changes in research student numbers over the
period 1990 to 1996. Figure 2.19 shows the substantial increase in postgraduate
EFTSU in the Australian tertiary sector between 1990 and 1996. It also shows
that the Sciences (in particular) and the Humanities and Social Sciences are
the strongest AOUs in terms of postgraduate numbers and in terms of percentage
increase in those numbers in the period surveyed.
In
the early 1990s there was some concern that there were too few students
undertaking PhDs to provide a sufficient supply of new entrants to the academic
profession. Because of the increase in PhD numbers that took place thereafter
(which has now levelled out) and the low level of academic job opportunities
consequent upon cuts to government funding of the tertiary sector, this has
proved not to be the case.
Some
suggestions have been made that there may now be too many PhD students. That,
however, is a very debatable conclusion. It is of great importance that there
should be significant fields of candidates for the academic posts which need to
be filled. The training which PhD research entails is, moreover, of increasing
importance for non-academic life too. Many former research students who have
not gone on to an academic career have greatly valued the opportunity in the
course of their maturation process to have learnt how to master a large and
complex subject, bring some order to its understanding, and explore the
intellectual frontiers which it confronts -- and in the process to have had
close contact with a significant scholar in the field and the comments of two
or more leading scholars on their eventual research work. We accordingly see no
reason why the numbers of postgraduates should be arbitrarily curtailed; though
in view of the likelihood that numbers of them will go on to non-academic
careers, Universities need to attend to the general benefits of research
training much more deliberately.
It
needs to be noted too that the present number of research students contributes
very substantially to the research culture which is vital to the health of
Humanities research in Universities, and which, in an era of worsening
student-staff ratios and increased administrative burdens, is under such
threat. Their person-years' contribution can be illustrated by the
following tables.
Figure 3.1: Total: Type of Research Employee (by person years), All Australia

Source: ABS Catalogue No. 8111.0, titled Research and Experimental Development, Higher
Education Organisations, Australia
Figure 3.2: Comparison of Social Sciences vs Humanities: Type of Employees by Field of Research (cf all Australia)

Source:
Fields of Research, Table 11 Human Resources Devoted to R&D by Higher
Education Organisations, Australia, by field of Research, 1994 (person years)
It
is significant that, if one compares Figure 3.2 showing the ratios of
postgraduate students to staff for the Humanities and Social Sciences with
Figure 3.1 for the Universities generally, there is a strong representation of
the larger numbers of postgraduate students per Humanities academic staff
available to supervise them (22 per cent: 8 per cent) than is the case with all
other fields (average 54 per cent: 26 per cent) including Social Sciences. The
proportion of support staff available for the Humanities research training
enterprise is much lower, too, than for all other disciplines. The imbalance of
Humanities postgraduate students to staff needs to be rectified by the greater
allocation of staff to Humanities disciplines in recognition of their
postgraduate load. And, as has been explained both in the Essay on
Graduate
Training
in Volume 3 and in Volume 1, Chapter 1 (iv), the nature of postgraduate
supervision in the Humanities does not generally boost the supervisor's
own research output nearly as directly as the supervision of postgraduates
tends to do in science-based disciplines. It is thus more expensive of the
Humanities academic's time and less directly productive in terms of his
or her own research.
The
Review has given consideration to the question of whether there are likely to
be long-term problems from some present shortfall in the number of research
students in a particular field. With two exceptions, this is not seen to be a
matter for concern. The situation is especially good in the newer disciplines
which have benefited by their recruitment of practitioners from a variety of
fields. Indeed, in view of the spread of interdisciplinary interests across
many Humanities fields, scholarly mobility from one to another, or rather, very
often, the development of expertise in more than one, or at all events in the
borderlands between them, is very common. What is important is the total
quantum of research students in the Humanities, and this at present seems on an
appropriate scale.
The
two general exceptions where enrolment levels in research degrees leave
something to be desired are certain fields of The Arts (especially dance) and
in Languages other than English and in the Area Studies associated with these.
Whilst English now constitutes the principal international language, it gives
little or no direct
access
either to the overwhelming proportion of the peoples of non-English speaking
countries, or to the great majority of topics which research about them and
their cultures calls for. There can be no doubt that Australia requires
substantial expertise in foreign societies, their languages and cultures. It is
essential therefore that we produce language, cultural and other specialists
who have the necessary advanced language skills to study topics in a wide range
of Asian, European, Middle Eastern, Pacific and indigenous Australian fields
through appropriate postgraduate programs in an appropriate number of
institutions, and in particular that there are substantial language learning
opportunities available to them. These provisions need to cover not only
research students specialising in languages and civilisation, but also those in
historical, anthropological, archaeological, art historical, musical and
linguistic scholarship who require advanced language skills. Whilst distributed
diversity over a number of institutions is highly desirable from both an access
and equity point of view, a concentration of strength in a few Universities
with strong language offerings has considerable advantages for research
training, especially in the case of area studies projects. (For Recommendations
on this issue, see Recommendation 14 below).
Recommendation
3
- That
Universities inform students and potential employers of the transferable skills
of Humanities studies and take steps to facilitate the career paths of research
students who will move into non-academic professions.
[Universities;
HEC; DOGS; DASSH Deans]
- That
Universities review their mechanisms for the crediting of research supervision
in the Humanities and make funding adjustments to provide improved
staff-postgraduate student ratios in the Humanities.
[Universities;
AVCC; DEETYA]
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(iii) Best
Practice and Minimum Working Conditions for Graduate Studies in the Humanities
.
The
Graduate
Training
essay in Volume 3 draws attention to the proliferation of Guides concerning
postgraduate studies -- to students, supervisors, examiners, etc. Whilst it
would be destructive of the collegial relationships that are crucial in this
area to turn these into contracts, a major contribution to the improvement of
research training in the Humanities would be the promotion and adoption by all
Universities of best practice in these matters.
We
draw attention to the issues canvassed in that Essay on these matters, and to
one other issue in particular. In many instances the facilities and room space
made available to research students in the Humanities as compared with research
students in other fields is quite inadequate. It is inappropriate that
postgraduate researchers should not be assured of the necessary minimum
facilities for their work.
Recommendation
4
- That
Universities and the Australian Research Council through the agency of
Directors of Graduate Schools take steps to promote best practice in
Universities in their Graduate programs through the adoption of Guides to the
various parties concerned with it.
[Universities;
ARC; DOGS]
- That
Universities review their provision of rooms and facilities for research
students in the Humanities, and where these are inadequate bring them up to a
standard comparable with what is available to postgraduates in other Academic
Organisational Units.
[Universities;
PVCs Research; DASSH Deans; DOGS; CAPA]
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(iv)Changes
in the nature of the PhD. The strongly favoured nature of research over
coursework postgraduate degrees in terms of student fees, scholarships and
internal university funding indices has led to some rapid changes in the nature
of research degree requirements, and in particular PhD requirements. Originally
intended as a research degree assessed solely by submission of a major thesis,
the disciplinary PhD has in many instances, however, now attracted substantial
accretions of coursework -- sometimes compulsory, sometimes optional. The
nature of the thesis has also been broadened, particularly in The Arts, to
include submissions of folios of compositions, art works or creative writing,
in most cases with a substantial related written commentary, but in some
instances, without. Performances too may now form at least part of PhD
requirements in Performing Arts disciplines. While both a substantial component
of coursework may be highly desirable and doctoral study in creative areas is
obviously necessary, the nature of PhD requirements, both generally and
specifically in the Humanities, needs to be clarified nationally to ensure a
uniformly high standard among PhD graduates, and a clear and commonly
understood demarcation established between coursework, research and
professional postgraduate studies.
In
particular, since there has in recent years been an exponential growth, as the
Graduate Training essay
notes, in professional as distinct from disciplinary PhDs., these need to be
considered too. Although they have not yet proliferated in the Humanities to
the extent they have in other fields, there are already Doctorates of Creative
Arts, and it is readily conceivable that Doctorates in subjects such as
Heritage and Media Management will follow soon.
Recommendation
5
- That
Directors of Graduate Schools review the variations which have been introduced
into the thesis-only PhD in the Humanities and advise on any steps to be taken
to ensure a uniformly high standard.
- That
Directors of Graduate Schools review the distinction between disciplinary and
professional doctorates and advise Universities about best practice with regard
to both.
[Universities;
PVCs Research; HEC; DOGS]
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(v) Masters Degrees. It seems as if at present the requirement that Masters' programs
should be either 'course-work' or 'research' is not
working. Many Masters programs are both, and are only arbitrarily allocated to
one or the other category, although with very different fee consequences for
students. As developments in countries comparable in this respect to Australia
suggest that there is likely to be an increase in course-work cum (smaller)
thesis Masters degrees, particularly so that students having been at one
University can experience the expertise available at another, there now needs
to be a positive stance taken towards such joint course-work and research
Masters degrees.
Recommendation
6
- That
Masters degrees by course-work and minor thesis be recognised in future by
Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs as a distinct
(and sometimes much to be preferred) category of Masters degree, alongside
those by thesis or by course-work only.
[DEETYA;
DOGS; HEC]
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(vi) Australian Postgraduate Awards. The Review has given some consideration to the present
system for the distribution of Australian Postgraduate Awards and APAs without
stipend. Whilst it has been pleased to learn that the national system of
allocation is not generally replicated within Universities, where almost
invariably there is open competition between applicants from different fields,
it is nonetheless open to question whether the present system for the
allocation of scholarships to Universities based largely on their success in
procuring Commonwealth competitive research grants is either equitable or
efficient.
The
present practice of allocation can severely disadvantage such fields as the
Humanities when they are strong in research within Universities without
Faculties such as Medicine and Engineering, which traditionally attract the
largest external research grants. The present system also rates the
fund-raising capacity of Universities above the scholarly merit of individuals.
It calls, moreover, for the unnecessary proliferation of applications by
intending students, and it takes insufficient account of the distribution of
the most appropriate supervisors. We think consideration now needs to be given
to a system whereby scholarships should be awarded to individual candidates
solely on the basis of their own merits, and that they should be free to seek
entry to a postgraduate program at any University of their own choice, and
wherever feasible under a supervisor of their own choice as well.
Alternatively, if there are still thought to be advantages in the present
system, we believe that consideration should be given in any event to an
adjustment of the present formula that would take account of the research
performance of Humanities Faculties in individual Universities, which, as we
are at pains to emphasise elsewhere, is in no way properly measured by the size
and extent of the competitive external research funding the institutions
receive.
Recommendation
7
- That
the Australian Research Council review the present arrangements for the
nationwide allocation of Australian Postgraduate Awards and Australian
Postgraduate Awards without stipend so as to allow students more choice and
introduce a more equitable and efficient system for the distribution of awards
than the present one.
[ARC;
AVCC; Universities; DEETYA; HEC]
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