Doctoral education in this field fails when it becomes a collection of ed-tech evaluations with no theory of the award. This PhD starts with dual-pathway parity as a researchable object: assessment, library licences, identity checking, storm continuity, and the political economy of tuition-free online beside a campus in a capital city.
Candidates may be campus-based in Warsaw or primarily remote; the doctorate itself must exemplify the standard it studies. Vivas are online-capable and recorded under published rules. Faculty will not accept a thesis that treats ‘online’ as automatically inferior or automatically innovative.
The award is a research PhD. It is not QAA employment, not OfS, not GTCS. Capstone is the thesis and viva, aligned with stated faculty areas: dual-pathway quality, digital assessment integrity, Polish HE policy, and related inquiries. Dual-pathway candidature logistics must not become a lighter doctorate: the viva standard is one standard. Mada University for Science & Technology will not use QAA logos or promise a quality-agency post. Candidates study library parity, identity-checked assessment, storm continuity, and the political economy of tuition-free online beside an Warsaw campus, with ethics that refuse covert student surveillance as a method.
PhD Digital and Dual-Pathway Higher Education is taught as one award, not a list of unrelated modules. The published length is 3–4 years, and the credit total is 60. Students move from The Award as Object: Dual-Pathway Theory through The Award as Object: Dual-Pathway Theory; UK and Polish HE Policy Literacy for Researchers; Research Ethics, Identity, and Remote Participation; Qualitative Inquiry in Universities as Organisations; Quantitative and Mixed Evidence of Parity; Document, Legal, and Policy Analysis, and finish on Confirmation and Progression.
Each course has a question, a method, and a submission. In this field, students design a short sequence for a named group of learners and the criteria that would mark it fairly. Reading is a curriculum extract, an assessment specification, and an evaluation summary. The artefact a marker expects is a plan with outcomes, a task, criteria, and a note on bias.
The award is built so that a graduate can do the following in practice: Produce an original thesis on digital and/or dual-pathway higher education Defend methods in a timezone-aware viva Situate Polish and UK policy without claiming agency staff status
Teaching assumes the student can read a source, attempt a problem before the seminar, and revise after feedback. Attendance at live seminars is part of the design. The capstone or final course must use the methods of the earlier courses; a project that ignores them does not pass.
This course does not confer a teaching licence, QTS, or equivalent registration.
The pages for each course name the topics that are examined. Those topics are the syllabus. A brochure line is not a substitute for them.
Sixty credits as published for this doctoral structure, three to four years: research training modules plus supervised thesis. Exam fee 80. Dual pathway for candidature logistics; one examination standard. No QAA logos.
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