Advancing doctoral education through web-based initiatives

Doctoral education in Australia, and elsewhere, is no longer the preserve of young, full-time, on-campus students. The average age of Australian doctoral candidates is late-30s and nearly half of doctoral candidates are part-time, and often studying off-campus. Many are undertaking their research in professional fields of study, rather than in the basic disciplines. These changes have been accompanied by the multiple effects of the Web, and ICTs more generally, into many aspects of scholarly, research, public and personal life. This paper describes the background to doctoral education in Australia and its international comparators. It discusses the possibilities and implications for increasing the use of Web-based approaches in doctoral education, including its examination and dissemination. It deals with the tensions between traditional doctoral pedagogy and web-based pedagogies.