A brief review of PhDs in Creative and Performing Arts in Australia

This paper reports on an aspect of a pilot project in 2003 by the authors comprising a bibliographic analysis of all (42,000+) Australian PhDs. The pilot work is both a data and methodological basis for a larger project that investigates the nature and development of PhDs in Australia as they evolved in the context of economic, social and educational changes. This paper reviews the evidence from the bibliographic data held in library catalogues of PhDs in each Australian university. It provides an overview of the first instances, locations and frequencies of PhDs in the creative and performing arts in Australia, fields which are relatively new to doctoral study and which pose challenges in terms of doctoral pedagogy and scholarship. This is contextualised in terms of the rise of the modern university and the new professional doctorates in the creative arts.