Understanding Doctoral Communities in Practice-Based Research

Summary Practice can be the mode, method, tool, object, subject and/or embodiment of research in a doctorate. This changes the traditional assumptions of a written text as the thesis and of doctoral education as being designed to support the production of text, how can institutions develop doctoral provision that supports practice-based research? To address this question, this chapter draws on the findings from semi-structured interviews with centre directors and coordinators of doctoral education in a number of institutions worldwide that represent a diversity of approaches to doctoral education in the broad fields of art, design and performance. As there is a growing emphasis on cohort-based approaches to doctoral education, particularly in the UK, the chapter includes an exemplar of how a multi-institution Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) has supported practice-based research. My focus is on lived-experience of supporting doctoral researchers engaging in practice-based research.