Peak PhD and Lifelong Learning: Valuing Difference in Doctoral Programmes

This is the moment of the Peak PhD.  There are more students in international doctoral programmes than at any point in history.  Concurrently, there has never been a greater diversity of doctoral modes, spanning from the traditional doctorate and professional doctorates, to artefact and exegetical models, and PhDs by Publication and Prior Publication.  Yet the ideology of the degree – perpetuated through university marketing materials and perpetuated on Google Images – features young men, in lab coats, learning from an ageing – and usually male – professor.  This ideology is not real.  More women than men enrol in doctoral programmes in many nations, and the average age of students is increasing.  Noting this new reality for doctoral education, why are students drawn to this programme?  This article frames the PhD within the framework of lifelong learning, exploring why a senior and successful surgeon would enrol in a doctorate, and what this enrolment exemplifies about the future of the degree.