Passed your PhD? It’s time to scale a new academic Everest

You will probably receive some puzzled looks if you mention “higher doctorates” to most academics. Surely the pinnacle of scholarly achievement is the PhD, awarded after years of intellectual endeavour that push candidates to their limits?

In the UK, however, the higher doctorate is a degree that stands above the much-exalted doctorate – according to some institutions, at least. Yet it remains so little known that only a handful of PhD graduates pursue it. I was one.

Why bother? In my case, after my PhD viva at Northumbria University, I was ready for a new challenge. While working at my local high school, I embarked on a period of intense research and writing, targeting my papers at scholarly journals, then later professional periodicals. I kept track of where my work appeared and was cited, and maintained a record of developments and events that arose from my research and publishing. These included appreciative book reviews, awards, translations of my work into other languages, surveys highlighting my productivity or influence, requests for interviews and invitations to serve as a referee.

All my publications and activities were incorporated into a portfolio assessed by examiners for the higher doctorate. Put differently, the prospect of a higher doctorate encouraged me to strive beyond the PhD and build a body of research, as well as trace its wider impact. As the Australian scholar Tara Brabazon argues, graduating with a PhD is not an ending – it is a beginning, which, in my case, led to a higher doctorate.

So why is the DLitt that I pursued so little known in academia? A lack of clarity over what it is hasn’t helped. Some qualifications frameworks position higher doctorates and doctorates at the same level, others ignore higher doctorates entirely. There are also cases where universities use the DLitt mostly for honorary degrees.

Literature is sparse. In 2008, higher doctorates elicited sufficient interest for a UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) report by Stuart Powell and Nicola Crouch. Yet, aside from a shorter 2013 UKCGE follow-up by Tina Barnes, further studies have been almost completely absent.

Barnes notes that the degrees lack a significant strategic role in universities and the qualification is not a prerequisite for an academic’s promotion – unlike the “habilitation”, a postdoctoral degree needed by those hoping to become a professor in Germany. It assesses both teaching and research capabilities.

Some have argued that the UK higher doctorate should be redesigned as a qualification for senior academics. But replacing the existing higher doctorate with a qualification for only professors or scholars with serious professorial ambitions immediately rules out candidates who would otherwise, as ex-students of their university, be entitled to follow an alumni route. At a time when universities are expected to prioritise widening access and extending participation, such an elitist stance is anachronistic. Limiting a qualification so it is attainable only by a select few, irrespective of the ability and achievements of others, is unnecessary and unfair.

We see proposals for an “integrated higher doctorate” combining core and optional units (somewhat like a traditional master’s course), a personal development plan (rather reminiscent of that required of many practitioners studying for professional qualifications) and a portfolio of publications.

This dilutes the research focus of the higher doctorate. Of the three ingredients, the third is most recognisably “higher doctorish”, yet the overall structure would seem to exclude the chance to demonstrate the impact of published work which I found very useful. At the end of my higher doctorate journey, I concluded that impact was as important as the quality of the research itself.

Maybe it would be wiser to raise the profile of such degrees in doctoral training programmes as part of a wider institutional commitment to supporting a research culture. It would be entirely logical to introduce a training session entitled something like, “I have my PhD…So what’s next?” and led by the academic responsible for the qualification, with input from one or more successful candidates.

Attendees of the higher doctorate seminar/lecture might be encouraged to draft a rough development plan, broad in terms of indicating potential goals and how these might be achieved, and comparable to that advocated by proponents of the integrated higher doctorate, although here the concentration would lie purely on research and writing. It would culminate in submission for a higher doctorate.

There would have to be scope for flexibility in the plan, as it is often impossible to predict both where planned research will lead and what opportunities for investigation might emerge in the future. Such a plan may be constructed simply for the individual’s own benefit – to guide and add structure to their efforts to come; it would not necessarily be included as part of their submission for the degree. Ongoing support during the research/writing work could be provided by a contact at the university.

This proposal would not, however, immediately rectify the current and persistent problem that uptake of higher doctorates is low. Clearly, it would take time to embed what is needed in university practice but it would ensure that the qualification occupies a proper niche in the academic world.

I secured my higher doctorate while employed part-time in a secondary school. The qualification allowed my university to acknowledge the achievements of its own, rather than merely serving as a way to aid academics in their professional progress. There should be other structures in place for that.

Some universities, such as Oxford, have paused their higher doctorate programmes or in effect mothballed them. Maybe they are regarded as an anachronism from an era when academics had to be encouraged to publish. Nevertheless, in certain ways they are forward-thinking and progressive – they can be awarded on the strength of the individual’s record in research regardless of their current role and status with respect to their job. Long may this continue.

Andrew Shenton was awarded a DLitt by Northumbria University in 2014, becoming the first person to receive four degrees from the institution. He also holds a BA, MSc and PhD.