Simpson, Renate

Renate Simpson, graduate of the London School of Economics, has authored published research on postgraduate education since the 1960s, first with Ernest Rudd in the Unit for Research into Higher Education at the University of Essex, and then in Cuba and the Philippines. The Society for Research into Higher Education published her monograph How the PhD came to Britain in 1983, and she provided the historical section of the Winfield Report The Social Science PhD in 1987.

The Development of the PhD Degree in Britain, 1917-1959 and Since: An Evolutionary and Statistical History in Higher Education

2009 0-7734-4827-6
Examines the first half-century of the British PhD. The work begins with a study of the development of the new degree from the point of view of the decision-making bodies of the Universities - Senates, Faculty Boards, the teaching staff and the administrators. The second part provides detailed statistics and analysis on Faculties, Departments, overseas students, year of admission, gender, age, completion rates and duration of studies, part-time study and staff candidates, with more than 200 Tables and Figures.