Corina Balaban talks about developments in doctoral education in Danish National newspaper
UNIKE PhD fellow Corina Balaban features in the Danish national newspaper Information, talking about the effects of the global knowledge economy on doctoral education.
The Danish newspaper Information published an article on April 11 2016 in which UNIKE PhD fellow Corina Balaban is cited. The article is about the current developments in doctoral education that increasingly focus on incorporating generalist competencies into the training.
Corina Balaban is currently doing research in which she compares models for doctoral education in Europe and the US. In her PhD project she is comparing two doctoral programmes: the European ITN and the American IGERT, which are financed by the European Commission and the American National Science Foundation, respectively.
In the article, Corina Balaban explains: "The common feature is that both programmes are very focused on preparing PhD students for all kinds of jobs, compared to more traditional PhD programmes that primarily prepare students for research careers in universities. The new PhD candidates are also prepared for working in private companies, NGOs and public institutions, therefore they are envisaged to learn many other skills besides research and teaching as a part of their training."
Corina Balaban further highlights: "Policy-makers have invested a lot in increasing the number of PhD students based on the idea that, in a global knowledge economy, we compete for knowledge (...) This has led to criticisms of an overproduction of people with PhD degrees."
(Citations are translated from Danish)