Page 57 - A Handbook for Academia, Industry and Policymakers: Reinforcing the Innovation-Employability Nexus in the Mediterranean

56 REINFORCING THE INNOVATION-EMPLOYABILITY NEXUS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REINFORCING THE INNOVATION-EMPLOYABILITY NEXUS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 57

Provisions and approaches

The rising popularity of innovative, collaborative
doctoral programmes is due, in part, to the growing
demand for research-related skills and hybrid
skills as industry increasingly combines theory
and practice to solve problems and innovate .
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Research skills bring rigour to industrial
Collaborative Doctoral processes and with hybrid skills, the researcher Collaborative Doctorates Explained
has the capacity to manage the organisational
Programmes process and the soft skills to communicate and
collaborate effectively with both the university
and the company. An example of integrating
research skills into industrial processes is the COLLABORATIVE DOCTORAL TRAINING
BlueSkills initiative which provides multi-lateral Generic term to cover doctoral degrees that involve research
scholarships for PhD students that are hosted by projects in collaboration or partnership with non-higher
a project partner creating a productive exchange education organisations or business. These occur across all
between academia and industry. Collaborative disciplines.
PhD programmes are an essential component INDUSTRIAL PHDS/DOCTORATES
octoral training has evolved over past two decades to of these new business patterns because they
emphasise close cooperation with industry. These new combine work experience, learning, research, Differ not only from traditional PhDs, but also from
professional doctorates (widespread in the United Kingdom
D forms of doctorates come in many different shapes and and planning activities by generating high and Australia) and from professional practice doctorates in
added value and enabling constant innovation in
sizes, Industrial PhDs being the most common. The aim of these production processes and in the way of delivering the United States. The notion of ‘industrial’ should be given
the widest possible interpretation as the term ‘industry’ is
programmes is to integrate both professional and academic services. used broadly to include all fields of workplace and public

knowledge, allowing doctoral students to make an original The ‘skills for employability’ agenda has recently engagement, from industry to business, government, NGOs,
charities and cultural institutions.
increased its focus to include employability of
contribution to both theory and practice in their field, while also PhD graduates to ensure that they can succeed PROFESSIONAL DOCTORATES
developing their professional skills. However, as to their diffusion, both in industry and academia. As a result,

collaborative doctorates are still mostly limited to EU countries. gaining transferable skills (e.g. leadership, Directed at mid-career senior professionals. They aim to
make a contribution to practice, and are organisation-specific
teamwork, communication and networking) and generally ‘in-service’, mostly undertaken by people who
is getting more attention. However, while the
concept of transferable skills is well established have already entered the labour market.
in countries with a strong tradition of industry- PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE DOCTORATES
academic cooperation, it is not yet a reality in
many countries. For more information (see Have become increasingly widespread in the United States,
differ from professional doctorates in that they are generally
Chapter 3: Skills).
Background and context ‘pre-service’ – increasingly required by professional
associations and agencies to enter professional practice.
They differ across countries, and in Europe, there They are geared towards a specific profession and, unlike
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With the emerging knowledge economy and is no European-level regulation governing them . Only professional doctorates in the UK or Australia, they are not
increasing pressure on academia to make Common examples include industrial PhDs or considered equivalent to PhDs.
contributions to innovation systems , doctoral doctorates, collaborative doctorates, practice-
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education has moved into the focus of policy and based doctorates, company-based doctorates, 56% TRADITIONAL PHDS/DOCTORATES
strategy discourse at the institutional, national, work-based doctorate and professional or Generally prepare graduates to pursue a career in academia.
and transnational levels. Yet, as many as 40% of professional-practice doctorates. They all draw of PhDs They are discipline-specific, and they aim to make a
PhD graduates worldwide do not pursue a career on the notion of ‘doctorateness’, which implies contribution to knowledge.
in research . This has led to the development of that candidates specialise in a disciplinary field INTERSECTORAL MOBILITY SCHEMES
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hybrid doctoral degrees that combine academic and gain skills in applying scientific research around the world
research with elements of practice through close methods with the aim of contributing to want to stay The physical mobility of researchers from one sector
cooperation with industry (private, public and knowledge. The growing number of models and (academia in particular) to another (industry in the first place,
third sector ). These new types of so-called changing terminology demonstrates that the field in academia 55 but other sectors of employment as well).
collaborative doctorates come in many shapes of doctoral education is currently undergoing a
and sizes with varying concepts and terminology. paradigm shift.