Introduction to 'Doctoral Education and Professional Practice: The Next Generation?': New Opportunities in Doctoral Education and Professional Practice

The last decade has seen momentous shifts and changes in the university sector, certainly in Australia but elsewhere as well, in countries such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and in territories such as North America and Europe. This concerns as much as anything else what has been called the 'idea' of the University, although it has unquestionably been realised also in quite profoundly material ways - in the sheer proliferation of institutions, in overcrowded lecture theatres and classrooms, in new demands of accountability and performativity, in contracting budgets, in changing student populations... the list could well go on. The university itself is increasingly a site of radical and major re-assessment. New alignments between universities, industry and government are already under consideration and indeed active negotiation, just as new settlements and forms of exchange are emerging between universities, workplaces and the professions. The system is cracking and straining, as it seeks to transform itself, responding as it must to an increasingly volatile and proactive cultural and economic environment.