AUTH

(Re)searching Architecture in Doctoral Education

School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

1. The experience2. The prospects of doctoral studies

Prof. G. Papakostas, Prof. V. Hastaoglou-Martinidis,

Ass.Prof. C. Spyridonidis

Structure of the School of Architecture and its postgraduate programs

• Undergraduate 5-year program leading to the degree of Architecture

• Three cross-disciplinary Graduate Programs, of a 3-semester duration (with written thesis): 1. Conservation-Restoration2. Landscape Architecture 3. Museology(which carry out Doctoral programs as well)

• Doctoral program of a 3 to 6 year duration

Since 2004, the School of Architecture ratified its own Internal Regulation of DS, which specifies the following steps:

I. Candidate evaluation and approval • Candidate’s qualifications: a 5-year degree of Architecture or of a relevant discipline, a Master degree or scientific

publications or a documented research activity. • Candidates submit their application to the Postgraduate Studies Committee (PGSC) of the School, and identify in

length their topic and the supervising professor. • Supervisor has to submit to the PGSC a statement of whether the candidate is accepted or not, and recommend two

more members of the Advisory Board of the Dissertation (ABD). • All necessary legal documents, after having been verified by the School’s Secretariat, are submitted to the School

Assembly for final approval.

II. Elaboration and Completion of the dissertation • The ABD in cooperation with the candidate defines the topic and title of the dissertation: Within one year after the

admission, candidates must present their detailed research plan, including a literature review, objectives, methodology and chronogram to the ABD, in a session open to all faculty members and postgraduate students.

• Once the definitive title of the dissertation is established, candidates have a period of 3 years minimum to 6 years maximum to complete their work. An additional year may be only granted after a fully-justified proposal of the ABD.

• The ABD supervises the work at all stages. Candidates must present an annual work report to the ABD, who will further submit its well-documented annual reports of progress to the PGSC Secretariat.

III. Examination – Evaluation of the dissertation• Candidates will write their doctoral dissertation only after the ABD has granted their consent. • The final draft of the dissertation, accompanied by the ABD concluding report is submitted to the Head of the School. • An Examination Committee (Jury) consisting of seven members is appointed by the Special School Assembly (3

external faculty members, 4 of them full professors). • Within two months after appointment, the Jury schedules the defense of the dissertation. • Candidates must give an oral presentation of their dissertation within 45 minutes, after which the Jury poses

questions to the candidates. Subsequently the Jury formulates the final decision in closed session. The Jury asses the degree of originality and the contribution of the dissertation to the progress and evolution of the discipline as well as the candidate’s responses to the questions raised.

IV. Safeguard of the Doctoral Dissertation quality

• The text of the doctoral dissertations includes the title of the dissertation and an extensive summary in both Greek and English. The captions of all tables, drawings, figures and photographs of the dissertation must also be in both languages.

• Hard copies of the doctoral dissertation together with digital ones must be submitted to the Library of the School and to the Central Library of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

• Members of the teaching staff are allowed to supervise up to five [5] doctoral dissertations each. Lecturers are not allowed to act as supervisors.

• The supervisor should specialize in the proposed field of study. The two other members of the ABD should also be relevant to the topic of the dissertation.

Capacity and duration of the Doctoral Program

c. 20 Doctoral Dissertations completed before 1984

80 Doctoral Dissertations completed in the period 1984 – 2010

96 Doctoral Dissertations under preparation in the period 2001 – 2011

Number of Doctoral Dissertations completed (8) and under preparation (19) in the 3 Postgraduate Schools, in the period 2001–2011

Fields completed Doctorates

under preparation

Conservation-Restoration 8 13

Landscape Architecture 4

Museology 2

total 8 19

Years Number of years

between application and Dissertation’s title

definition

Number of years between Dissertation’s title definition and final

presentation of the Dissertation

Total number of years for the preparation of

the Dissertation

Average Number 3.51 6.71 10.22

Maximum number 13 25 27Minimum number 0 2 4

Standard Deviation 3.04 4.38 4.89

Duration of Doctoral Studies, 1984-2010in the School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Doctorates completed since 2000

Total number of Doctorates 44Average number per year 3,7Max number per year 6Minimum number per year 1

Number of Doctorates per year (period 2001-2011)that have their Dissertation’s title define and are under preparation

Thematic fields of Doctorates submitted between 1984-2010

Thematic fields of Doctorates under preparation between 2001-11

retreating fields

rising fields

emerging fields

Our school is actually elaborating a new strategy for doctoral educationevaluating where we are and defining where we want to go

To (re) search the content of doctoral studies

the system of doctoral studies

Academic context (local and international)Institutional context (local and international)

Parameters

we have to consider in order to develop and implement a new strategy for doctoral education

conditions, data, references, constraints, institutional frameworks, dynamics and tendencies in national and international level

1. Shift in the conception of the role of architectural research in the academic identity of a School

Even if traditionally the University was a place to generate/produce and to deliver/disseminate knowledge

• In 2006 only 50% of schools of architecture supported doctoral education.• Schools supporting doctoral programs do not have significant contribution in the production of

architectural innovation.• Architectural innovation is produced mainly by the practice and is imported by the schools (not

always without resistance)• Architectural academia, as a recognition of its incapacity to generate architectural innovation,

gives academic recognition credits (equivalent to doctorate) to the professional practice.

• With the Bologna framework, doctoral education becomes the focal point of the EE policies for Higher education and as such a decisive factor for the academic identity and the attractiveness of a School of Architecture.

Academic Context

2. Shift in the conception of the nature of architectural research

From an architectural research generating knowledge about Architecture To an architectural research generating knowledge for architecture

This shift follows a relevant shift in the conception of the University from a University conceived as an autonomous institutionto a University conceived as institution open to the society

knowledge produced by academic research must have a strong impact on society

Knowledge produced by architectural research must have a direct impact on architectural production

Academic Context

3. Shift in the conception of architectural knowledge

If architecture is ideas and material forms…

the quality of architecture can be enhanced by enhancing the knowledge on material forms architecture under the scope of engineering

the quality of architecture can be enhanced by enhancing the knowledge on ideas architecture under the scope of humanities

the quality of architecture can be enhanced by enhancing the knowledge on the process of creation of material forms as manifestations of ideas. architecture under the scope of creative and performing disciplines

Academic Context

4. Emerging demand for research on the creative action

A big number of our graduates is oriented to post gradate studies on architectural design with two main directions: algorithmic design and environmental design.

Research on creative action (observing the actor)Architectural research as scientific research, objective investigation of 'problems'. The research for better design has to be based on the observation of the designers’ behaviors, strategies and manipulations in order to create objective statements on the observed activity and elaborate useful conclusions. The observer must remain distant from the subject of observation to avoid any influence on the observed action.

Research through creative action (involvement of the researcher in the observed action)The generation of knowledge for creative practice it is not enough to observe the actor. It is necessary to delve into the development of the creative practice. While scientific observation and reflection wishes to reveal and describe something that is already there creative practice deals with something, which does not exist outside the creative imagination of design practitioners. So its external consideration can only describe a part of its reality, leaving its most significant part unrevealed. Involvement of the researcher in the creative act in order to make this act subject to observation and reflection. This necessity introduces a new ethos into the scientific research tradition. The researcher not only observes but also acts on the reality under observation. A doctorate under this approach should have a written part, which adheres to the rules of scientific research and also another part, which will be the researcher’s own involvement in the observed act of creation.

Research by creative action (creative practice as research activity)Creative practice is by itself an investigation, which can be considered as a research activity and as such could be recognized as a legitimate form of doctoral research. By equating research to practice this position requests clarifications concerning the differences between design practice in academia and in the profession.

Academic Context

The European Approach to Doctorates

Bologna Process and harmonisation. •Doctorates as educational activity.•The quality of doctoral education, the main objective of European policies for Higher education as it can assure competitiveness with other continents.•Mobility as a tool for quality.•Centers of excellence and the competition between schools of architecture.

The qualifications frameworks (European and Sectoral) The level 8 descriptors and the significance of input and output (knowledge, skills, competences)

The doctorate taut courses•The necessity of existence of taut courses in doctoral education. •New structures of doctoral education.•Introduction of the researcher’s time dimension with the ECTS

The Joint DoctoratePolicies for joint initiatives to develop in common with other partners doctorate education programs

Institutional Context

Main axes of the new strategy

•To (re) consider the spectrum of research areas•To (re) establish creative synergies between the achievements and the innovations•To (re) construct new focuses of doctoral education•To (re) formulate the system (processes and the structure) of doctoral education•To (re) evaluate the impact of outcome of doctoral education in education and practice•To (re) articulate the profile of the graduate of doctoral education

•To (re) define the quality and ethos of the doctoral education

The school is actually elaborating a new strategy for doctoral education.