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Trends and Practices: The Literature Concerning Doctoral Education
This chapter draws on literature from across different countries to paint a general picture of the state of doctoral education, and highlights major themes and common issues in different higher education systems. The review covers, and as such is limited to, literature available in English. Also, as it sets out to scan literature across common themes, the review focuses less on in-depth, country-specific case studies.
The chapter begins by elaborating the centrality of doctoral education, followed by a discussion of its purposes. Labour market conditionsand quality are the next two themes that are discussed. Variations based on different considerations and major trends in contemporary doctoral education are also explored. Finally, common challenges across systems and possible prospects are discussed.