Offering a doctoral program internationally: Tensions and congruities

Abstract

The article begins by setting out a confluence of events that initiated a proposal to attract students from Taiwan to a new EdD program in Australia, and then explores the tensions and congruities that ensue from this scenario. The main tensions and congruities revolved around issues of standards, quality, English-language levels, profit motives, visa requirements, and the nature and uses of postdoctoral programs. These issues are brought into greater relief in a globalizing university sector in which time and space are reconfigured and local/global tensions are raised. We offer a program internationally that allows us to be 'respectful' of the students, i.e. the course work and research output is based upon student interest derived from data developed in context. The model allows for the development of national interest (through nationals' interests), crossing over boundaries in process and framework. In a sense we have internationalized our program through this 'respectful' model.