Systems engineering professional doctorate to educate defence engineering leadership

Doctoral degrees have been structured, traditionally, as PhDs with emphasis on training the candidate to perform research into topics relevant to the discipline. Professional doctorates were developed to provide doctoral level education to enable their graduates to practice in their field with exceptional competence. In engineering the idea of professional doctorates is relatively new, and has been heavily influenced by the concept of the research embodied in engineering PhDs, with the degree structure modified to include substantial coursework. This paper describes the professional doctorate in engineering offered at the University of South Australia, in particular showing the application of an approach to professional practice which is itself research.