ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the criteria that are used implicitly and explicitly in the assessment of doctorates. In the previous chapter we considered the expansion and evolution of the doctorate. With these changes and the growth of diversity, the capture of a single, common concept of ‘doctorateness’ becomes more and more elusive. The key question for this and subsequent chapters is: when reading a doctoral dissertation and delving into it, and then later during an oral examination, how exactly do we judge whether it is worthy of a doctorate? And how can we make the criteria for this judgement explicit? What is the meaning of ‘doctorateness’?
