The 2016 EFMD Doctoral Programmes Conference: Innovation and Impact in Doctoral Education
The 2016 EFMD Doctoral Programmes Conference: Innovation and Impact in Doctoral Education was hosted by Erasmus Research Institute of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam (ERIM) 11-13 May. Regional doctoral programme, research directors and managers met to discuss strategic roles, the challenges, processes, and potential alternative modes for delivering high level doctoral education.
Marius van Dijke, Professor of Behavioural Ethics at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) and Director of Doctoral Education, ERIM, Erasmus University served as Conference Chair opening and offering closing remarks that highlighted the plenary topics throughout the conference.
Three key points that may strengthen doctoral education moving forward:
- Business connections and investment in research
- Producing research that is used
- Developing PhD candidates as autonomous intellectual risk takers
Marius summarised group sessions and said, “Doctoral programmes should explore bringing the practitioner experience into the faculty. The pathway to impact in doctoral education comes through engagement, dissemination, exploitation and evaluation. Many agreed that we have not realised our impact potential yet. This needs to be developed in the research community. In addition, it is best to improve the measurement and assessment of research impact as company relationships are institutionally developed and managed.” He emphasised the common agreement that there is nothing wrong with a focus on fundamental research and top tier publications for the PhD programme. Having a focus on developing individuals who can bring real expertise; to contribute to business, serves the purpose of doctoral education.
Lively conversations throughout the conference surfaced alternative ideas of delivering high level doctoral education; ideas which could advance the candidate model of the future. In these times, where the state is supplying less financial support to educational institutions, programmes are exploring innovative delivery models. One such model caught the attention of the group; a model in which a PhD candidates is hired by a company, partly funded by the state and contracted with a research lab. There is value creation and income generation in a model of combining the logic of academia with the logic of society. Recommendations were made for this model to be assessed and discussed further through EFMD in the months ahead.
The article is published on the EFMD site here.
About EFMD
EFMD – The Management Development Network is an international not-for-profit membership organisation, based in Brussels, Belgium with over 800 member organizations from academia, business, public service and consultancy in 81 countries. It provides a unique forum for information, research, networking and debate on innovation and best practice in management development. EFMD is recognized globally as an accreditation body of quality in management education with established accreditation services for business schools and business school programmes, corporate universities and technology-enhanced learning programmes. EFMD acts as a catalyst to promote and enhance excellence in management development internationally.
About ERIM
The Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) is the Research School (Onderzoekschool) in the field of management of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The founding participants of ERIM are the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE). ERIM was founded in 1999 and is officially accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The research undertaken by ERIM is focused on the management of the firm in its environment, its intra-and inter firm relations, and its business processes in their interdependent connections.
The objective of ERIM is to carry out first rate research in management, and to offer an advanced doctoral programme in Research in Management. Within ERIM, over three hundred senior researchers and PhD Candidates are active in the different research programmes. From a variety of academic backgrounds and expertise, the ERIM community is united in striving for excellence and working at the forefront of creating new business knowledge.
