DO ALL ACADEMICS NEED PhDs?
by Mark Poole
This article was first published on Screenhub, the online journal.
On Wednesday night 39 RMIT students received a prize, and the screen industry got a wake-up call: from now on, anyone applying for a job in academia will need a PhD – even Peter Weir.
At the annual School of Applied Communication Awards on Wednesday night, 39 students from RMIT received awards for excellence. The school covers students of communication, public relations, graphic design, editing and publishing and media, and the prizes, in the form of cash and in-kind support, were donated by industry figures such as Networks 9 and 10, Sensis and the RACV.
Amidst the hubbub of the congratulations a cautionary note sounded loud and clear. RMIT is one of many institutions insistently pushing the requirement for teachers in their hallowed halls to possess higher degrees.
On the surface this requirement sounds sensible, even laudable; after all, why shouldn’t our academic teachers demonstrate their prowess by earning a Masters or a PhD?
Upon closer scrutiny, though, this prescription, driven in part by Federal Government policy and the way they fund universities, could have far-reaching consequences, particularly for the screen industry.
This is especially true for institutions like RMIT, which began life as a “Working Men’s College,” supplying education to tradies. Even since, RMIT has maintained close links with industry, according to Head of School Lauren Murray.
“One of RMIT’s strengths has been the ability to teach through ‘learning by doing,’” she said at the Awards night. “Our graduates are sought after because of their practical knowledge and their ability to put theory into practice, and that fuels the demand for our courses.”
But now, with an insistence on higher degrees as a prerequisite to a teaching post, it seems as though the very industry expertise upon which these courses are founded could be in short supply. For example, Peter Weir couldn’t get a gig as a lecturer in film, and Chris Masters couldn’t teach journalism.
Industry professionals seeking a permanent lecturing post are being told they must enrol for a PhD, and spend the next agonizing five years or so conjuring up 80,000 closely picked-over words. Just so they can teach.
This is a problem both ways. It will deprive institutions like RMIT, as well as VCA, UTS, Latrobe and Griffith University from the benefit of practitioner expertise.
Conversely, industry people will no longer be able to recharge their batteries teaching the fresh-faced youngsters eager for a start in film, TV or print media.
As well, as the industry faces recede from view, the academics who do have PhDs, and therefore jobs, may find it more and more difficult to forge those close links with industry that is the lifeblood of courses like RMIT’s.
For Gillian Leahy, acclaimed filmmaker (My Life Without Steve, Our Park) and Associate Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), the issue is a two-edged sword. “A good practitioner whose work is strong, with an obvious intellectual focus should be capable of being accepted as a person qualified to teach. But on the other hand, much of the work of an academic involves supervising higher degrees, and there is an argument that teaching staff should therefore also be qualified with a higher degree.”
“Tertiary institutions are being pressed to improve the research credentials of their staff and also the quality of the research they undertake, in order to access funding,” Leahy explained. “Many staff teaching in media courses today don’t have higher degrees. In the 70s and 80s they were hired for their creative experience, and higher degrees involving creative practice weren’t on offer then.”
Leahy added that filmmakers have often considered teaching as a way of funding their creative work in part, and today’s filmmakers who aspire to teach are completing higher degrees to enable them to do this. “A filmmaker’s creative work should be able to count as their research,” she said. “But perhaps they also need to be able to reflect on their work in writing, and show in what way their creative work contributes to knowledge.”
Well-known television producer Ewan Burnett is Adjunct Professor at RMIT’s School of Communication. At the Awards Night, Ewan spoke about the two-way flow of information and ideas that can stimulate the industry as well as benefit students. Burnett said that academic institutions like RMIT can play a vital role in helping industry see the bigger picture. “So many of us in industry are too distracted to focus on the big picture – where we are going. We are all struggling to maintain viability and grappling with the 20-legged octopus that is the media industry. So I challenge the academic community to shake us up a bit.”
Reminding the audience that a career in the media industry is not for the faint-hearted, Burnett said that if people chose media as a soft option, they ought to think again. ”There’s very little glamour and a lot of hard work. But it can also be enormously rewarding,” he said.
Burnett told the students assembled that RMIT provides them with the opportunity to build a raft of very valuable skills to prepare them for careers within the industry. “But don’t expect the doors to just swing open and rose petals to be cast at your feet,” he said. “Initiative, energy and sheer bloody-minded determination are essential ingredients in taking you forward.”
Perhaps Ewan Burnett’s contribution demonstrates the need for a balance at academic instutitions between people with professional industry experience working alongside academics with higher degrees. Students, surely, need input from both.
The full list of RMIT School of Applied Communication Award winners and Ewan Burnett’s speech will be available shortly on the RMIT website: www.rmit.edu.au.
Mark Poole
www.markpoole.com.au
Mark Poole is a writer and director in drama and documentary.
|
