Achieving your Professional Doctorate

"Achieving your Professional Doctorate is a stimulating and very useful book for professional doctorate students, their tutors, researchers and practitioners interested in this form of doctorate and all those with an interest in doctorate education. Nancy-Jane Lee manages to combine a deeply scholarly approach with a highly readable text, setting professional doctorates in their historical context, and seeing the doctoral project from the point of view of the student. She has identified some of the strengths and challenges of professional doctorate study, such as the nature of professional knowledge, the importance of a reflective approach to practitioner research and some of the ethical challenges. Professional doctorate students from all professional backgrounds will find this a useful and reassuring text at whatever stage of their doctorate. I would also suggest that it has a wider audience of doctoral students and that PhD students in professional domains would find considerable interest in the book. I welcome the publication of this book as an important addition to the growing literature in this area of higher education."
Ingrid Lunt, Professor of Educational Studies, University of Oxford


- What is the difference between a professional doctorate and a PhD?
- How would a professional doctorate help my career?
- When and where can I start?
If these are the questions you have been asking, then help is at hand. This comprehensive text is designed to meet the needs of professional doctorate students from diverse subject disciplines. It contains analysis of the issues that may be encountered when developing research in a professional practice setting as well as outlining the process of doctoral study for professionals.
Practical activities and exercises are used throughout to help students plan the professional doctorate journey. Snippets from actual student experiences as well as case studies are used to illustrate the rewards and challenges of professional doctorate study.
The text also draws on the author’s experience of leading a professional doctorate programme and supervising professional doctorate and PhD students. In particular, it explores:

- The origins and characteristics of professional doctorates
- Expectations of professional doctorate study
- Advanced study skills; managing time, good writing style, personal and professional development planning
- Balancing the roles of professional practitioner and researcher
- Leading research in professional practice
- The ethics of practitioner research
- Tips for successful writing and completion of studies
- Career options following completion of a professional doctorate
Achieving Your Professional Doctorate is key reading for professional doctorate students as well as PhD, DPhil, MRes and other master’s students who may be considering current or future study options.