Australia is addressing part of its higher ed problem by redefining the term “doctor.” … excerpted from the Australian
Under the new system, there would be three kinds of master’s degree. masters by coursework, masters by research and a new extended masters. Some of these extended masters courses, typically in medical and health fields, would be allowed to use the title “doctor of”, Mr Dawkins told the Higher Education Congress in Sydney on Monday.
The University of Melbourne, in particular, had adopted the doctor title for graduate-entry into a few health programs. In Australia, jobs for doctors can sometimes be difficult to find, and healthcare chiefs can also struggle to find the right candidates. That is why many will make use of websites like https://avidian.com.au/ that specialise in medical recruitment, ensuring that all-important medical jobs are filled by the right people.
John Dawkins, who chairs the council responsible for the Australian Qualifications Framework., railed against universities offering juris doctor law programs pitched at different levels of learning.
But in November education ministers decided that “a limited number of permitted titles” – including the JD and doctor of health programs – would sit within the masters level of the AQF.
On Monday, Mr Dawkins said this treatment of the “doctor of” programs had been pushed by “a small number of universities” and was at odds with “the balance of opinion in higher education”. …
Descriptors for the PhD had been another battleground, and once again strong voices in the higher education sector prevailed.
“There had also been a lot of discussion around the two descriptors for PhDs [research and professional] and whether they captured the nature of the degree,” Mr Dawkins said.
“The descriptors presented to the ministers last November were actually authored by people in the sector; however, there was consternation as to whether they went far enough.
“After discussions with the sector, the two descriptors were dropped back to one, but it incorporates the two ways you can achieve that.”
But having resolved that battle the AQFC found itself bogged down in what the research component should be.
Mr Dawkins said he was hopeful agreement had finally been reached with the position that the research component should be “at least two years of a three-year degree, or two-thirds or more.”