DOCTORAL STUDIES IN EUROPE
The essays collected in this volume, the outcome of a research carried out by some of the most distinguished scholars in the field of Comparative Education in Europe, present an in depth analysis of changes and trends in doctoral studies in five European countries - France, England, Denmark, Spain and Italy. The trends to be found in recent years in each of these countries can be read as the result of the interaction between the Bologna Process impulse toward the creation of a European Research Area and a European Higher Education Area, with the social, political and educational meaning that the Doctorate has in different countries, following their individual history and culture. The volume fills a gap in an area in which academic research and publications have been up to now singularly limited. Despite the indisputable increase of studies about higher education, issues related to the "third level" have been discussed and addressed mainly in policy documents, while an indepth academic reflection on the dynamics underlying the evolution of the policies at European and national level is still lacking. The volume, therefore, offers a study of great interest to scholars and academics, as well as to thosemore directly involved in the development and governance of third cycle studies in the higher education system.
