KAR06860 The Success of Doctoral Education in a Changing Society. Estonian Case. Anita Kärner (University of Tartu) Hasso Kukemelk (University of Tartu) Ulla Preeden (University of Tartu) Abstract In the 19 th century, drawing upon the German tradition of grounding the study process to scientific research, training based on research degree education became very important in the university system. During the Soviet period (1945 1990), degree education, for the most part, was moved from the universities to research institutions and was organised on two levels Candidate level (equal to PhD now) and Doctoral level. After Estonian independence in the 1990s, a new system was introduced Master studies and Doctoral studies (four year program). That organisational change took degree education back into the universities. The paper reviews statistical data of doctoral studies in Estonia during different periods and provides an analysis of the reasons why doctoral studies had varying success outcomes during these different times. It is possible to state that big changes in society are overloading people and therefore students success in degree education (number of graduates) is low. This changeable society often necessitates the need for multiple defence dissertations by authors already in the scientific sphere, as well as those who need a degree by the new system, (often second defence of updated dissertation). Therefore, the real base of successful degree education (large number of graduates) is in a stable society. Introduction People with scientific degrees are forming the core of researchers and university professors, but they still are in low proportion to the general society. To have 100 PhD defences per year per one million inhabitants is the short-term target for Estonia. In the recent past there have been many fewer PhD defences. Political power games have influence on the universities and research institutions determining through economical conditions and legislation what and how can be taught or studied (Puura & Preeden, 2005). Estonia has a complicated history it has been occupied several times during the last century. Each such occupation meant big changes in the society and certain human losses. Higher education institutions, professors and other top specialists suffered the most during complicated times in the 1940-s and 1950-s. Soviet occupation and loss of
independence for 50 years was very destructive to university professors. Doctoral studies have been especially sensitive to political changes. It took a long time to restart dissertation defences after such changes and/or prolonged periods of inactivity. Therefore a look back into Estonian history to see what was happening, when and why, will help us to understand today s situation and plan the future. German influences and Soviet time in doctoral studies - background Preparation of doctors was developed in Russian Imperia in the 19 th century according to the German model. Doctorates were chosen after an elaborate selection procedure. The apprenticeship model was used as the supervision method. All activities were targeted to successful research following the professor s lead on the scientific track. These principles remained in place virtually unchanged for a century. Soviet time degree education (1940 1991) largely separated doctoral students from the universities and attached them to research institutions. At the same time most contacts to western countries were cut off and collaboration was possible only with researchers from countries controlled by the Soviets. Dissertations were defended in different Soviet Union cities (in limited number of universities or research institutions) and even studies in mother tongue had to be written in Russian. Degree education itself was organized on two levels Candidate level (equal to PhD now) and Doctoral level (in some countries Doctor Habilitus). After revolutionary changes in the political system and economic principles in Eastern European countries over the past 15 years, new guidelines in higher education were needed. It is also well known that higher education systems are heavily influenced by the economic, political and social dimensions of society (Handbook, 1999). Therefore fast changes in the economic and political system caused the need to make changes in the university education, especially in degree education. Estonian and German universities had a similar starting position in the development of doctoral studies according to the higher education system of that time at the beginning of 1990 s (Taagepera, 2000). Peisert et al (1994) had the opinion that university education in the former Soviet Union, including Estonia, combined professional qualification with academic qualification like in Germany. The common characteristic in obtaining a doctoral degree was also the fact that there were not any formalized curricula for doctoral studies in use; a doctorate was mainly pursued on an individual basis. However, in the last 15 years, Estonian higher education system has made several reforms towards the Anglo-American system, e.g. changing the duration of basic (the first stage) higher educational studies from five years to four years. (Taagepera 1999). Similar changes are going on in German higher education on the basis of Bologna processes (Sadlak, Trends IV). The changed environment of scientific research and research education is characterized by development of a knowledge-based society where the international/national science
systems are transformed into international/global science networks and scientific knowledge will be transformed by industry into capital and academic labour is integrated into the industrial economy (Jacob & Hellström, 2000). As a result of these developments, requirements and expectations of highly educated PhD holders are changing (Kendall 2002). Doctoral education and preparation of PhDs and their supervision are also under pressure of changes (McWilliam et al 2002). In Estonia the three-tier system of higher education was established in 1995 (Kärner et al 2005) on BA (four years studies, changed after Bologna declaration to three year studies in 2002), MA (two years studies) and PhD (four years studies) levels. That was the result of collaboration of European universities working under the constructs of the Bologna processes discussing problems of doctoral studies and activities in cross- European networks Research reform in 1990-s took doctoral studies back to the universities. As borders were opened, a number of youngsters went to western universities to apply for the doctoral degree. Knowledge, experience, skills and contacts acquired abroad became excellent bases for further studies and doctoral education in home university. The target of modern doctoral studies is intensive study and research work to achieve the dissertation defence in four-five years. The main aims of doctoral schools (situated in 2005) in Estonia are to strengthen theoretical studies, to organise (stay consistent with British spelling you started in beginning)seminars and lectures by well-known foreign professors, to improve international contacts between researchers and between research institutions. The quality of research work on doctoral level depends much on infrastructure and study environment. Doctoral studies are understood in modern society as future master s first study research but not the master s life work. Estonia has now stabile government and fast developing economy. There have past enough time to make preliminary conclusions in success of doctoral education in changing society. Method Document analyses and comparative statistical data analyses are the main study methods. The study recorded statistical data of doctoral students at the beginning of their studies and graduates by fields and universities (six public universities have doctoral programs in Estonia) between re-independence (1991) and the present. Economic and political changes are taken into account as key factors to analyse the statistical data.
Data and Discussion The data shows an increase in the number of doctoral students starting their studies during the last 15 years on figure 1. doctoral students intake 600 500 400 300 200 doctoral students intake 100 0 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 Figure 1. The change of doctoral students intake into Estonian public universities between 1991 2005. (Data from Estonian State Statistics). It can be clearly identified that the number of doctoral students started to dramatically increase in 1998. At the beginning of the period the change of students number is pretty incremental, then for a few years it is almost flat. The pattern reflects the unclear definitions of different degrees. At the beginning of 1990-s several researchers did their candidate dissertations to obtain the Master degree. People thought that if in Soviet system there were two scientific degrees Candidate of Science degree and Doctor of Science degree and in new system there are two scientific degrees also Master degree and Doctor degree then Candidate and Master should be the same. However, it was explained in a few years that Candidate degree is actually equal to Doctor degree. The result was that student candidates started to apply for doctoral studies and almost everybody stopped going with the Candidate level dissertation for Master defence procedure. Figure 2 is visualizing the picture of dissertation defences at the university institutes and departments. Here we can see that during complicated times a very small number of doctoral dissertations were taken to the defence procedure and even in those cases almost every one was an external defence. It means that people who were nearly ready with their research at the end of Soviet times simply designed their dissertation per the doctoral requirements and defence procedure without first passing doctoral studies.
160 140 120 100 80 Doctoral students defenses External defenses 60 40 Total number of defenses 20 0 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 Figure 2. Number of Doctoral defences in Estonia in 1991 2005. (Data from Estonian State Statistics). Analysing figure 2 we can see that starting from1997 the number of defences started to rise rapidly and the primary reason for that was success of doctoral studies. If at the beginning of 90-s most of dissertation defenders were external persons then in 1997 majority doctoral defences were done by doctoral students. This reflects the fact that political and economic life started to normalize, people s annual income was rising and there was a certain feeling of safety beginning to permeate everyday life. At the beginning of 2000-s the Ministry of Education started to pay much more attention to efficiency of doctoral studies and the number of graduates was directly linked to the finances. This in turn resulted in the universities also paying much more attention to efficiency of doctoral studies and influenced them to expand their resources and financial support (e.g. various support systems, annual doctoral students attestations, additional finances for doctoral studies, creation interdisciplinary doctoral schools etc.) to produce more successful programs and graduates. The Ministry of Education also began paying a higher stipend for doctoral students We can see from figure 2 that these additional approaches raised the total number of defences almost 50% (compare 88 defences in 2002 to 138 defences in 2005). Analysing efficiency of doctoral studies (see figure 3) we can see that total number of defences is more or less following the pattern of doctoral students intake. It is important to take into account that normal length of doctoral studies is 4 years. However, the demand of publication of the research results (i.e. three peer reviewed articles in international journals) is making the real time from starting doctoral studies until defence of the dissertation often much longer. Sometimes doctorates are waiting for needed publications a year or more to fulfil the criteria of defence procedure. Average efficiency of doctoral studies in Estonia is 60% but this number is varying from field to field. In soft
sciences very often doctorates are developing their dissertation while doing their everyday job. It means that they need more time and more support to reach the target. Therefore in the figure we can see that increase of defences is taking longer than just normal time (4 years) for studies. There are also a number of students breaking their studies (doctoral dissertation needs commitment, much time, family understanding and outside support). 600 500 400 300 200 doctoral students intake Total number of defenses 100 0 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 Figure 3. Numbers of doctoral students intake and defences in Estonia. (Data from Estonian State Statistics). All these developments in doctoral education changed the goal of the education. If in the 1980-s it was clearly targeted to train experienced and skilled researcher or university professor then now the main aim of doctoral studies is high level output in the labour market. Well-developed technology demands more professionals on doctoral level. So main target of doctoral studies to educate researchers and university professors 20 years ago has clearly changed today there is a high need for Doctors expertise outside research institutions and universities. Conclusion Estonia s joint universities conference on PhD education statement is mostly supporting the general conclusions of current study (Joint, 2006). Universities consider it their duty to support meeting the goals set by the Estonian state in its movement towards the innovative and sustainable society and economy. The doctoral studies cannot meet the self-demand of the academic sector (including in a number of research fields directed towards R&D and innovation as well as in health and education sciences relevant for the sustainability of the nation). Doctoral schools should take into account from year to year potentially emerging needs of enterprises and public administration.
Five important aspects are indicated as playing an important role in developing modern doctoral schools meeting society s needs: 1. Establishment of knowledge-based society needs the valuation of top specialists with a doctoral degree in all the fields across society. The doctoral degree can be valued by creating a flexible career path, i.e. the possibility of a favourable career switching between academic sector, public sector and industry. 2. The increase in doctoral studies can only base on the increase of research activities. In order to quadruple the number of new PhDs, it is necessary at least to double the volume of research activities by involving the support from the state, from the future employers of the new PhDs as well as from the support foundations 3. The foremost task of universities is to make the doctoral studies environment more yielding, i.e. more conducive to producing more successful doctorates. To achieve this, capacities have to be amassed in units already possessing a critical mass for research activities, to create new opportunities and structures for widening the spectrum of specialities, to develop cooperation activities with research, development, and industrial etc entities outside universities. 4. It is necessary to widen and diversify the basis and paths to PhD degrees by creating the possibility to obtain a PhD degree via part-time studies, by recruiting talented PhD students from abroad, by increasing the popularity of research-based studies and by teaching the basics of research activities during bachelor and master s studies. 5. To guarantee the quality of increasing and diversifying doctoral studies, it is important to monitor the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and skills necessary for research activities as well as the level of research papers and PhD dissertations. Involvement of these aspects in doctoral schools activities is possible only after finishing revolutionary changes in the society. Rapid changes in the society create many other interests and a lot of confusion and under such conditions gifted people are paying much more attention to the surrounding social environment than to doctoral studies. The last statement can be proved by the statistical data of defences where growing stability in the society is increasing the annual number of doctoral defences.
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