Supervision of engineering doctorates in australian universities: A review of key issues

The changing environment in doctoral education in Australian universities has led to the emergence of new challenges, which need to be identified, researched and perhaps mitigated. These changes, mostly associated with the increasingly diversified student cohort and the focus on developing Australia's knowledge economy, have spread across the different disciplines, including engineering. This article deals with significant issues affecting doctoral supervision in engineering covering various aspects. The presentation is divided conceptually into four distinct but interrelating elements, based on a meta-level approach: the student profile (cohort); the programme options (framework); the educational process and the educational output. Particular emphasis is given to the interaction between industry and engineering education, as industry is considered to have a substantial impact as a source of research funding and employment prospects for doctoral programme graduates.