Practice, profession and project in interdisciplinary doctorates of design: new responses

The recent emergence of doctorates of design has generated debate about appropriate doctoral curriculum and submission formats. In response to the professional and practice-oriented dimensions of design, doctoral programs including project work, reduced text requirements, and purported industry relevance have developed in several countries. Often recruiting a distinct student cohort, such doctorates are a significant phenomenon in the UK and Australia, while limited in number in North America. Compared to traditional PhD submissions such doctorates purport to address professional and practice values deemed important to design. However, the concept of doctorates addressing professional development, practice and creative project work is still contentious for many fields including design. This paper examines the use of the terms profession, practice, and project work in alternative doctorates of design in three countries – Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There is some discussion of the characteristics of these programs and the paper includes some examples of current and completed student projects in such doctorates. The paper concludes with some questions regarding the discourse of professionalism employed to describe doctorates of design.