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The Politicization of the PhD and the Employability of Doctoral Graduates: An Australian Case Study in a Global Context

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Technology and Workplace Skills for the Twenty-First Century

Part of the book series: International and Development Education ((INTDE))

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, a confluence of factors has directed unprecedented political attention globally toward doctoral education and the serviceability of the PhD to economic, specifically—knowledge economy— imperatives (Enders 2002; Nerad 2009; Siganos 2009; Go8 2013). We refer to this phenomenon of concerted policy focus on—and sometimes, political intervention into—PhD education as the politicization of the PhD. A key driver of this politicization has been the rise to prominence, and the global reach, of knowledge economy (KE) discourses traceable to, among other things, the influence of several key publications by global policy agents, the OECD (1996) and the World Bank (1999 and 2000).

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Authors

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Deane E. Neubauer Kamila Ghazali

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© 2015 Deane E. Neubauer and Kamila Ghazali

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Cuthbert, D., Molla, T. (2015). The Politicization of the PhD and the Employability of Doctoral Graduates: An Australian Case Study in a Global Context. In: Neubauer, D.E., Ghazali, K. (eds) Technology and Workplace Skills for the Twenty-First Century. International and Development Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137491923_8

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