Autotelic and instrumental value of doctoral studies in the opinion of managers and participants in doctoral studies

Abstract

The discussed in the article issues of the significance of doctoral studies are becoming part of a wider economic, political and social international context. A particularly important factor here is the expectations of the labour market determined by contemporary developmental processes and a need to accommodate to challenges of the global competition, the growth in importance of new technologies, as well as growing classification and competence requirements. The purpose of the article is a reconstruction of the role of doctoral studies in Poland, both from the perspective of doctoral faculty advisors, and doctoral students. The authors are answering the question how much the value of doctoral studies is determined as autotelic, and how much as instrumental. Reconstructing the role and the significance of doctoral studies, the authors are using the results of their own research, including, among others, the analysis of motives for starting doctoral studies, as well as the evaluation of their usefulness. On the basis of this research a typology of doctoral students, in which attitudes towards doctoral studies were taken into account, was established. First, the authors are presenting the results of individual, deepened interviews, conducted with managers of doctoral studies at three leading Warsaw universities, next - with doctoral students. The comparison of statements of persons representing universities with views of doctoral students allowed to determine whether the visions of doctoral studies of these two groups representing the supply side (managers) and the demand side (doctoral students) are similar.