About Doctor of Education (Professional Doctorate), Other Doctorate - at Cardiff University

The professional doctorate is a part-time doctoral research degree. It is fully equivalent to the PhD, but substantially different from it in that it is strongly professionally oriented, focussing on ‘applied’ rather than ‘pure’ research.

While the PhD generally prepares candidates for a research-based career, the professional doctorate is a more in-service orientated degree, addressing the career needs of practising professionals, particularly those in or who aspire to senior positions within their professions. The linkages between research-based knowledge and its application in a wide range of professional settings are central to this doctorate.

We offer an integrated professional doctorate scheme within which education, health, social work and social policy professionals engage together in integrated learning for some of the taught modules. This unique inter-professional learning allows you to reflect on what is shared across professional boundaries and what is distinctive to their own occupational traditions.

Above all, a professional doctorate is an opportunity to examine contemporary leading theories and research evidence, and to apply these within the professional context.

The EdD taught modules enable experienced students to reflect on their own identity and practice based on contemporary educational issues and their interaction with the wider framework of educational systems and social, cultural and political contexts. Underlying this approach is a commitment to exploring how public, political and personal orientations to teaching and learning are intrinsically connected to educational practice. Particular attention is paid to theoretical frameworks relevant questions of power; professional identity; leadership and governance; and equality in the context of educational practices and organisations.

The other distinctive pathways within the professional doctorate scheme are:

• Doctor of Health Studies (DHS)
• Doctor of Social Work (DSW)
• Doctor of Social and Public Policy (SPPD).

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Entry requirements for this course

Contact Cardiff University to find course entry requirements.

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