Why do a PhD in geography? A sympathetic response to ‘the career aspirations and expectations of geography students’

This article provides commentary on the changing nature of the geography PhD. Taking as a point of departure Rae Dufty-Jones's article on the career aspirations and expectations of geography doctoral students published in this journal earlier this year, we frame the paper around a series of propositions that prospective higher degree candidates may find useful. We buttress Dufty-Jones's argument with numerical evidence that the “supply” of Australian PhDs outstrips “demand” by any reasonable measure. This evidence brings to light the question of whether a PhD in geography is meant to serve its traditional function as a threshold for an academic career and whether those pursuing non-academic pathways should invest their time and effort in what may have become a “gladiatorial” pursuit. While the challenges facing PhD candidates are not insurmountable, they are not trivial. To optimise the experience and outcomes of a PhD, the needs and aspirations of candidates must be balanced, therefore, against the levels of support provided by universities. Candidates thus need to understand how such professional and personal aspirations fit in the contemporary higher education landscape and to appreciate what value a PhD holds—both to the individual and to society more broadly. We suggest two solutions to the pessimism of neoliberalisation and “massification”: greater emphasis on a terminal master's degree in geography and insistence that geographers promote disciplinary visibility to the greatest extent possible, with the hope that geographical approaches to problem-solving are increasingly recognised across industry and government