The traditional role of a PhD supervisor as an academic ¡°sparring partner¡± is under threat from a new business-led model of doctoral education in which students are viewed as ¡°employees¡±, a study claims.

As universities seek closer links with industry, many PhD supervisors are abandoning their former mentoring roles to become project leaders, with doctoral students seen as a ¡°work resource¡­expected to contribute with his or her own creativity and ideas within the given framework¡±, according to Pia B?gelund, assistant professor in the department of development and planning at Aalborg 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ in Denmark.

Using interviews with PhD supervisors at Aalborg, Dr B?gelund identifies three distinct identities among supervisors in a paper published in the International Journal of Doctoral Studies.

These are: the traditional academic, whose primary aim is to educate graduates; the market-driven scholar, whose work centres on producing useful ideas that generate profit; and the social idealist, who sees knowledge production as a way to effect societal change, often overseas.

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One academically oriented supervisor explains how his main focus was to establish a student¡¯s ¡°critical perspective¡­and to watch someone [turn] into an academic¡±.

¡°Passion and a professional, critical sense are of the utmost importance¡± for this type of supervisor, whose teaching style would be characterised by ¡°long, open discussions without suggestions for research questions¡±, writes Dr B?gelund.

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In contrast, a business-minded supervisor was more concerned with ¡°profitability, entrepreneurship and innovation¡± and how ¡°ideas and inventions lead to the development of new products, which, in the end, generate profit¡±, she says.

To this end, the focus of their PhD students is to produce ¡°useful results¡± overseen by an ¡°actively controlling¡± supervisor, with several candidates often working on similar projects ¡°directed towards fulfilling market¡­demands¡±. The ¡°relation to the PhD student may contain certain similarities to the relation between an employer and an employee¡±, says Dr B?gelund.

¡°People in industry typically don¡¯t have the time to go into detail with anything¡­and that¡¯s where PhD students come in handy,¡± says one market-oriented supervisor interviewed for the study.

Meanwhile, the socially engaged supervisor might typically focus on research that impacts on an international student¡¯s homeland, the paper explains.

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One supervisor explains that the aim was ¡°producing people who can be innovative in their systems¡±, adding that ¡°we try to make them a little more democratic, a little less prejudiced, a little more Danish¡±.

But Dr B?gelund contends that the market-driven supervision model is becoming ¡°dominant¡­to some extent at the expense of the two other agendas¡±.

This pressure for more useful results and publications, rather than a focus on doctoral training in a discipline, had infuriated many academically focused supervisors, who perceived a risk to quality, she says.

¡°That a PhD should be granted for writing three articles¡± was ¡°foolishness¡±, insists one supervisor who claims the ¡°basics are neglected¡± in the push to make PhD students take part in making ¡°deliverables¡±.

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¡°Everything is about writing publications¡­before they spend time constructing an understanding of literature,¡± says another supervisor.

The move towards a market-led system ¡°implies a more leading and visible role for the supervisor, even in terms of what to study¡±, believes Dr B?gelund, who claims it is now ¡°more complex to be a PhD supervisor¡±.

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¡°The university has several legitimate agendas, which the supervisors are asked to balance, not necessarily in a single PhD project, but at least at a more aggregated level,¡± she says.

?jack.grove@tesglobal.com