Abstract:
In this paper I examine the impact of the new 'knowledge economy' on contemporary doctoral
education. I argue that the knowledge economy promotes a view of knowledge and knowledge
workers that fundamentally challenges the idea of a university as a community of autonomous
scholars transmitting and adding to society's 'stock of knowledge'. The paper examines and then
dismisses the proposition that professional doctorates are the principal vehicle through which
'working knowledge' is incorporated into doctoral education. While professional doctorates may
have been tactically useful for universities, there are broader transformations in doctoral education
that transcend the professional doctorate/Ph.D. distinction. I argue that as doctoral education
adopts the practices of 'self pertinent to the knowledge economy, the 'subject' of doctoral
education shifts from that of the 'autonomous student' to that of the 'enterprising self'.
