Doctoral degrees must be awarded by universities and not by universities of applied sciences
The government wants to grant universities of applied sciences the right to award doctoral degrees, so that a doctoral degree can also be obtained within higher professional education. UvA Professor Jan Bouwens believes it would be far better to hold universities to account for the practical value of their work.
The government wants to grant universities of applied sciences the right to award PhDs (NRC, in Dutch), so that a doctoral degree can also be obtained within higher professional education. The following subject areas are envisaged: energy & sustainability; health & well-being; arts & creativity; leisure, tourism & hospitality; learning & professional development; maritime; technology & digitalisation.
All these subject areas are taught and studied at Dutch universities. The question then is: what are the universities missing? Minister for Education, Culture and Science Rianne Letschert (D66) is striving for the accelerated introduction of the right to award doctorates at universities of applied sciences, because, in her view, this is “a missing element in the recognition of practice-oriented research”—where “practice-oriented” stands for “relevant”. Do universities, then, conduct research that is irrelevant?
Critical mass
In reality, there is only one type of research that is relevant: research that is conducted using the best available methods and techniques and, at the same time, contributes to the expansion of our knowledge. Universities have a long tradition in this regard. They have structured their organisations in such a way that the latest insights, methods and techniques are mastered and applied at the highest international level.
Research is therefore assessed by experts who know these methods in detail. It takes decades to reach such a level. For institutions outside the university, the greatest challenge lies in attracting and retaining sufficient talent to build up a solid, critical mass of research capacity.
PhD at the university
It therefore stands to reason that students from universities of applied sciences who wish to pursue a PhD should do so within a university environment, where they can demonstrate their ability to work with the most advanced methods and techniques. It is, after all, unlikely that universities of applied sciences will be able to achieve the necessary scale and quality of research in the short term to support fully-fledged PhD programmes. A (PhD-holding) lecturer could then be added to the PhD examination board.
A tried-and-tested solution
There is a tried-and-tested solution to the alleged shortage of practice-oriented research. When universities are explicitly steered towards societal relevance—such as in the United Kingdom, where institutions must demonstrate how their research contributes to practice—the likelihood increases that research will be both practically relevant and methodologically sound. After all, basing policy on outdated knowledge or flawed methods would be irresponsible. My solution is far cheaper than introducing research capacity at universities of applied sciences.
Furthermore, it is useful to hold universities to account for the practical value of their work. There is absolutely no harm in comparing the practical contribution with the investments made in research topics. This is likely to cause some pain for degree programmes and departments, but may provide greater direction for the allocation of scarce research resources. And yes, fundamental research must also be carried out. It may not be practically relevant now, but it does provide direction for our future.
Big questions
Society should also dare to ask big questions, such as: We want to become independent in our energy supply; what is needed to achieve that?, in order to stimulate innovation. The microwave would not have existed if the question had never been asked: We want to put people on the moon; what is needed to achieve that? I do not know whether it will help in that context if we introduce the role of the professional doctorate.
Jan Bouwens is full professor of accounting at the UvA and a research fellow at the University of Cambridge.
