Evans, L orcid.org/0000-0003-2348-694X (2015) Enhancing the Quality of Research in Europe: Theoretical Perspectives on and Guiding Principles for Researcher Development. In: Curaj, A, Matei, L, Pricopie, R, Salmi, J and Scott, P, (eds.) The European Higher Education Area: Between critical reflections and future policies: Part II. Springer , pp. 573-591. ISBN 978-3319187679
Abstract
‘Europe does not perform particularly well in terms of truly outstanding research’ the European Commission Directorate General for Research observed in 2005. Ten years on, the same observation could justifiably be made, with expectations that the combined forces of the European Higher Education Area and the European Research Area would prove a match for the research superpower status of the USA remaining largely unfulfilled. What, then, should Europe be doing to address this problem? What it has done is focus on doctoral education, perceiving it as the cornerstone upon which will be built Europe’s future world class research excellence. Yet this chapter argues that measures to improve European doctoral education do not go far enough; they barely scratch the surface of what needs to be addressed if ‘the new academic generation may be trained to become creative, critical and autonomous intellectual risk takers, pushing the boundaries of frontier research’. The chapter’s overarching message is that whilst structures and systems may support researchers during and after their doctoral programmes, these alone will not achieve high quality research and, by extension, high quality researchers. Doctoral training, it is argued, must incorporate consideration of how researcher development occurs, and the author’s original conceptual model of researcher development is presented as a basis of recommendations for developing policy and practice, not only for developing early career European researchers working for their doctorates and at post-doctoral level, but for developing all researchers working in Europe, and enhancing the quality of European research.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Authors/Creators: | |
Editors: |
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Keywords: | Researcher professionalism; European Research Area; Professional development; Research leadership; Academic acculturation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Education (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 29 Jun 2015 09:44 |
Last Modified: | 18 Nov 2016 15:41 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20877-0_37 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/978-3-319-20877-0_37 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:84770 |