What about the future of the academy? – Some remarks on the looming colonisation of doctoral education

In this paper we highlight key challenges which arise due to a transition of doctoral education in accounting towards the US model in the German-speaking area. We identify two main changes in PhD education, firstly the introduction of graduate schools and/or mandatory course programmes and secondly a focus on highly ranked academic journals as outlets for research. We reflect on how these changes affect the attitude of doctoral students towards the research and publication process. In particular we show how and why this setting fosters a focus on a common, narrow notion of knowledge leading to short-term tangible outcomes (e.g. a ‘hit’ in a ‘top’ journal), and elucidate what may be gained and lost by the changes with respect to the longer-term sustainability of the academy.