Discourses on Research and the PhD in Design

Durling's other main scholarly interest is in PhD studies for designers, and in developing the quality of doctoral supervision, training, and resources.
This output relates to an invited paper on doctoral studies in design, located in an education journal. The paper gives an overview of the beginnings of doctoral studies in design, especially in the UK, and deals with the nature of PhD research and issues of doctoral standards arising from practice-based PhDs and their supervision. It draws upon and references international debates around these issues, concluding with a case study for design PhD process which was adopted as a university model of best practice.
Durling has had a long association with addressing standards in doctoral studies. He has organised 2 of the conferences 'Doctoral Education in Design' (La Clusaz 2000, and Tsukuba 2003), spoken on the subject by invitation at many symposia (for example: Brazil 2001; IDSA 2002; AHRB 2002; NAFAE 2004; MIRIAD 2004; DRS 'Rising Stars' 2005; 'In Theory' 2007), and edited special editions of peer reviewed journals on the subject. He has helped foster an international debate by founding the PHD-DESIGN discussion list http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
For several years he has organised doctoral training events culminating in the Design Advanced Research Training (DART) collaborative training scheme, together with building resources for doctoral students in design.