Viewpoint

March 14, 2012

Ian Dobson* Sketches a Short History of the Australian PhD

How many PhDs have been awarded by Australian universities? Not that everyone is interested in the answer to that question, but if you are, the answer is 94,423, between 1948, when the degree was first awarded in Australia, until the end of 2009. The number will have increased by nearly 12,000 since then. The PhD is one of the three research degrees offered by Australian universities, the other two being the higher doctorate and the master's by research. The fascination some of us have for counting and measuring things is not shared by all, but having access to accurate and detailed statistics can prove useful for many purposes, such as for various aspects of social planning.

Not everyone would realise that the life of the Australian PhD has been such a short one, but until 1946, Australians wanting to undertake doctoral studies had to go abroad (most usually to Britain) to do so. The main push for the establishment of the Australian PhD came from science, and more specifically, the University of Melbourne’s science faculty. The first candidates enrolled in 1946, and the first three graduated in 1948, including two awarded to women. In fact, 1948 was the only year in which more women than men were awarded the degree -- until 2009. By 1949 all Australian universities were awarding PhDs, but the predominance of science declined over the years.

There have been several official sources of university course completion statistics over time, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics and its precursor, the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics (1948 to 1972), the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission (1976 – 1986), and the Commonwealth government’s ‘education’ ministry (in its various guises, 1987 to the present). The figure 94,423 is as accurate as any that can be produced from official statistical sources because the reference period for university graduation statistics has referred to the calendar year, August to July, and July to June. The figures for 1961 and 1962 were published in such a way that it is not possible to know exactly how many PhDs were awarded in each of those years, but we do know the total for both years, and a similar situation holds for 1985 and 1986.

There are other minor imprecisions because recipients’ gender was not reported in some years, nor whether they were overseas students (in the early years), and because the way the taxonomy of faculties and disciplines has changed over time. However, these things represent minor challenges only. The main changes over time have been a decline in the proportion of PhDs in science and the increase in the proportion of women (as noted above), the increasing proportion of overseas students, and the decline in the proportion of PhD graduates from Group of Eight universities. Or putting it the other way the increase in proportion of PhD graduates from the non-Group of  Eight universities.

Science: in the early years, science PhDs were about 60% of the total; by 2009 fewer than 30% of PhDs awarded were in science.

Women: were in the minority in all years from 1949 to 2008 inclusive. In 2009, women remained in the minority of PhD recipients in architecture (43%), business and commerce (41%), engineering (21%) and science (including IT) (44%), but in the majority in agriculture (51%), arts, creative arts and law (61%), education and health (64%).

Overseas students: have also increased in number and proportion. By 2009, they were about one-quarter of all PhD graduates. Nearly 1,500 of the 5,800 PhD graduates in 2009 were overseas students.

Group of Eight: these universities award the most PhDs, but the Go8 proportion has declined over the years. In 1989, 69% of PhDs were awarded by Go8 universities. By 2009, their share was 56%.

Finding comprehensive data sources for a study such as this was difficult for many of the early years, but from the late 1980s until just a few months ago, detailed information was available from government aggregated datasets that one could download from a website. The future will be less rosy, however: someone in the government has decided that students’ privacy is under threat, and the system of providing aggregated data sets has been replaced with an on-line data cube system that provides much less information. One wonders whose privacy was compromised with the information available. The mind boggles!

Fight on! We have no choice.

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*Ian R Dobson - Monash University, Australia and University of Helsinki, Finland

ian.dobson@monash,edu    ian.dobson@helsinki.fi

And read Ian Dobson’s paper from Australian Universities’ Review 54(1) in full;  click here