Abstract:

Universities are being called upon to be more relevant embracing new sites of learning and knowledge production beyond the academy through forging relationships with industry and government. In this climate new forms of doctoral research have arisen that reposition what have been long-held assumptions about the purpose, location and outcomes of doctoral study. In the last decade the professional doctorate has emerged in Australia and in Europe as a work-based doctorate aimed at producing 'researching professionals' rather than 'professional researchers' for high level careers beyond the academy. Potentially, this type of doctorate is an exemplar of university-industry collaboration providing doctoral candidates with the opportunity to successfully integrate academic and workplace cultures to inform and transform their field of practice.

This paper reports on a longitudinal research study tracing the profile and experiences of doctoral candidates in one professional doctoral program. The Professional Doctorate in Applied Public Health (DrPH) is a three-year work-based doctorate for emerging health leaders offered within an Australian university in collaboration with health workplaces. The concept is an immersive experience where candidates define critical problems in the workplace and conduct applied research around these questions. Workplaces are partners in the program and sign a contract to offer their support for the candidate. Effective collaboration with workplace partners is understood and promoted as integral to the program: each industry partner provides the nomination, support and location where the selected employee as a DrPH candidate undertakes their doctoral research. As the research projects are embedded within the complexities of real-world health systems candidates develop professional capacities as a health leader and practitioner-researcher with highly valued capacities for the organisation and health sector.

This concept of the program has evolved since it commenced in 2009 as an innovative collaboration between a university and a state health system. Its purpose was to foster a cadre of advanced public health professionals who could generate applied research for contributing to evidence-informed practice in the health system and take up leadership roles. The DrPH was designed with work placements as its central pedagogical feature so that the main location for candidates' learning and undertaking applied research was in the health service. In 2013 the DrPH was opened up to other health services shifting the nature of the program from a university-enterprise partnership in one geographical location, to a highly complex arrangement of multiple partnerships by the university with a diversity of health services. This year there are over thirty concurrent candidates and their respective health-related organisations in diverse geographical locations from WHO in Geneva to Shanghai in China to Darwin in Australia. It is within this changing environment that the meaning of "university-industry partnerships" will be explored and the implications for program provision and for the candidate experience. In particular, the paper will discuss the shifting perspectives of the DrPH candidates who have participated in the longitudinal research study and their meaning-making within the broader context of the changing institutional configuration of this particular work based doctoral research program.

Keywords:

University-industry partnerships, health leadership, professional doctorate.