The PhD Degree and Weber's Concepts of Rationality

The decision to pursue a PhD degree is attended by considerable uncertainty over career outcomes. This is becoming increasingly so, as the gap between the demand for full time academics in the university workforce and the supply of PhD recipients continues to widen in many countries. No longer does a PhD guarantee secure employment. Add to this the large amount of time and student fees invested in a PhD, and it raises the question of why would anyone undertake a PhD?

Using Weber’s concepts of rationality, the paper will argue that attention must be given to the substantive rationality that is involved in the decision to pursue a PhD. The PhD degree has a dual character: as an institutionally based course in which successfully producing an original contribution to a field can result in the award of a certificate that serves as a gateway into a career; and as a powerful social symbol which is associated with certain myths, values, status and aspirations that can be personally rewarding.

As higher institutions increasingly become subject to neoliberal trends that are transforming the way that PhDs are conceived and structured (such as the growing preference towards theses-by-publication over traditional monographs, alignment of research topics with institutional research priorities and a tightening of candidature time limits), the relationship of substantive rationalities of PhD students to more formal rationalities of higher education institutions is becoming increasingly problematic. As pressures grow on PhD students to align their studies with institutional expectations and also those of a competitive career market, this paper will examine the ways in which students and institutions are negotiating the risks and uncertainties surrounding PhD degrees in light of the push and pull of multiple rationalities.