Los estudios de doctorado en el proceso de Bolonia. Las antinomias de una universidad que va a cambiarvisiones, políticas y estrategias

Resumen

Since 2003, the Bologna Process has included the third cycle of higher education within its agenda. Doctoral studies are now intended as a link between the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and European Research Area (ERA). So, doctoral studies are characterized as a symbolic space of convergence between the goals of the Bologna Process and the Lisbon agenda. In this framework, the doctorate acquires new strategic value and should be structured in a comparable, measurable programme; it should be open to links with industry and non-academic research; and it should be able to provide both a solid research training and transferable skills. These changes have profound consequences, not only educational and organizational in nature: in fact, they require a thoughtful rethinking of the traditional vision of the doctorate, rooted in European universities, as a breeding academic site. For these reasons, the aim of this research is to propose a reflection on changes in contemporary University in Europe, by reading them through the lens of the doctorate. Among Bologna Process participants, specific attention is devoted to ways in which Denmark, Spain, United Kingdom and Italy shape instances related to the professionalization of the doctorate. The work, qualitative in nature, is conducted through a historical-critical approach, based on analysis of legal, political, institutional and quasi-institutional documents, integrated by use of primary sources through some interviews with experts. This work presents a comparative historical reconstruction based on writing national case reports, which aim is to present, in a perspective view, the variety of trajectories that changes in doctoral education assume, by placing them in key-developments which have characterized University policy in the last 30-40 years. Spaces of realization of such a policy goal and spaces of irreducibility of the academic nature of the doctorate are shown. The results show that the professionalization of the Ph.D is a complex political goal: each country has its own national trajectories, its resistances linked to its own history and its social model. Initiatives identified in order to support the development of professionalism in doctoral studies are sporadic or carried out without regularity; the statutory responsibility of Universities remains low; furthermore, Ph.D seems to be even stronger characterized by an academic profile, as it changes to accommodate the international scientific scene. This trend, however, seems to confirm the academic nature and identity of doctoral studies.