DTPs can work for the arts

Training PhDs in cohorts has been a steep learning curve in the arts and humanities. James Brooks reports.

The creation of doctoral training partnerships by the Arts and Humanities Research Council heralded a change more dramatic than for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to DTP directors. The partnerships, which took in their first student cohorts at the start of this academic year, have forced researchers to rethink the way their subjects work.

“In arts and humanities, we are still essentially lone researchers,” says James Clark, the director of the South, West and Wales DTP. “There isn’t much of a research-group mentality, whereas asking STEM researchers to form multi-institution collaborations is just scaling up what they already do.”