I forgot to thank you for the information about Swansea. By the way, you were right about the doctorate being a level 8 qualification in England and Wales.

http://www.naric.org.uk/europass/documents/ds_chart.pdf

My expectation is that the trend towards STEM as the main epistemology will run its course eventually. Gibbons, Limoges, and Scott (2011) continue to promote the notion of Mode 2 knowledge, i.e. “knowledge production is carried out in a context of application … characterised by … by heterogeneity … is more heterarchical and transient … is more socially accountable and reflexive” (p. 362) than Mode 1 which can be summed up as “Problems defined by academic community, Disciplinary knowledge, Homogeneity: hierarchical and stable institutions, Research as objective, Quality control by ‘invisible colleges’” (from Bresnen & Burrell, 2012, p. 27).

A fundamental driver for Mode 2 knowledge and the “university-industry-government” triple helix model (Leydesdorff & Meyer, 2003) is the necessity to reposition the university and knowledge creation inside an unproblematic, productive framework that enables institutional longevity. Yet, Mode 2 has not attracted empirical acclaim (Hessels & van Lente, 2008), and my prediction is that a knowledge-based economy will have to recognise the ultimate weaknesses eventually. At least I hope this happens before the universal institutional destruction of those epistemic methodologies of critical reflection.

Jim

Bresnen, M., & Burrell, G. (2012). Journals a la mode? Twenty years of living alongside Mode 2 and the new production of knowledge. Organization, 20(1), 25–37. doi:10.1177/1350508412460992

Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., & Scott, P. (2011). Revisiting Mode 2 at Noors Slott. Prometheus, 29(4), 361–372. doi:10.1080/08109028.2011.641384

Hessels, L. K., & van Lente, H. (2008). Re-thinking new knowledge production: A literature review and a research agenda. Research Policy, 37(4), 740–760. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2008.01.008

Leydesdorff, L., & Meyer, M. (2003). The Triple Helix of university – industry – government relations. Scientometrics, 58(2), 191–203. doi:10.1023/A:1026276308287