What's It Like to Do An Informtion Systems PhD in Europe? Diversity in Practice of IS Research

This paper is based on a panel presented at ECIS 2003 that sought to explore the extent of diversity in practice in PhD programmes within AIS region 2. It presents respondents from six European countries: Germany, Norway, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. The participants address questions about the nature of their PhD programme in terms of such factors as admission, funding, style of dissertation, format of examination, employment prospects. Whilst some patterns exist amongst the experiences, diversity is still considerable. The paper concludes with a discussion of the impact of this evidence for the global field of information systems.