Alternatives to the Traditional Doctoral Dissertation: A Research Literature and Policy Review

History And Evolution Of Doctoral Education

Unlike in Europe, early American higher education focused on undergraduate education (Archbald, 2011), and did not focus on graduate degrees with seriousness until the late 19^th century. The first doctorate was awarded in the United States in 1861 at Yale, which conferred three doctorates in that year (Storr, 1953). In 1876, influenced heavily by the German research universities, Johns Hopkins University was established and for the next 50 years changed higher education by influencing the formation of American graduate schools. Academic authority was placed with faculty and an Academic Senate, and administrative control distributed in academic departments (Horton, 1940). Johns Hopkins’ first graduate program by design required a thesis: to “show the candidate’s mastery of his subject, his powers of independent thought as well as careful research, and his ability to express, in clear and systematic order, and in the appropriate language, the results of his study.” (Johns Hopkins University, 1878, p. 27.)

By 1900, doctoral programs in America had developed in both private and public institutions including Hopkins, Chicago, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Cornell, California, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The main structural features of the doctoral program were established requiring full-time matriculation, two to three years of coursework, and several years writing a dissertation. Typically, doctoral funding subsidized students in apprentice-like research or teaching assistantships to cover costs of living. The traditional doctorate’s function was thought of as preparation for a research career (Archbald, 2011). This traditional structure remains little changed since its inception. The growth in the number of doctoral degrees granted in the United States alone reached 40,000 annually at beginning of the 21^st century (Golde & Walker, 2006).