Analysis Of the Dimensions of The Profile of Law Doctorate Graduates from Peruvian Universities

Introduction

Universities fulfill main roles: training, social projection and research. In this scenario, postgraduate schools train highly specialized professionals in a specific area, encourage the development of science and social projection in order to know about and solve environmental problems based on research, as well as to strengthen the “university-society” link (Rueda, Acosta and Cueva, 2020). This relationship must generate a social impact in order to meet the needs of the communities (Alzate, Gutiérrez and Orozco, 2018). Universities boost the education of highly trained researchers in a specific discipline (Angarita and Mateo, 2011). They train professionals not only on the understanding of theories, but also on their creation and application in the development of various activities: teaching, research or project management, advisory or consultancy, etc.

Programs are developed based on a syllabus that responds to university purposes and specifies the skills defined in the doctoral profiles (admission, graduation), which are carried out through a teaching-learning process by means of active teaching strategies and relevant assessment systems for this process. In this context, research courses are the most relevant due to the nature of the PhD, which involves developing high-quality research.

The profile of law graduates from doctoral programs by Peruvian Universities that have been licensed by the National Superintendency of Higher University Education (Superintendencia Nacional de Educación Superior Universitaria, Sunedu) is analyzed within this framework. The skills or capacities that are proposed in the professional training profile are construed with an emphasis on the research, which must be relevant and genuine. These scientific imperatives are also legal as established by the European system for the level of a PhD in Law (Llopis, 2019), which

is in accordance with Peruvian University Law no. 30220 where it is established that the said studies are based on research and are intended to develop the scientific knowledge of the highest level (Art. 43.3).

The Article systematizes the profile’s components or capacities of PhD graduates in law, since there are no previous investigations that have systematized such information. In the development of the research, the following questions are formulated: which categories have the greatest presence and relevance in the graduation profile of graduate law schools in Peruvian Universities? Is there any articulation between the studied categories of the graduates’ profiles? Which competencies need to be strengthened or developed in the Law doctoral programs at Peruvian Universities?

Background and Rationale

Previous Contributions

The profile and professional competencies are planned and made explicit in a syllabus that responds to a certain context, time, society type, purposes of the institution or university; and didactic, pedagogical, philosophical, as well as sociological principles that have been promoted since the 1960s (Vila and Hernández, 20113.)

The professional profile is not only studied in the legal field, but in other specialties or branches as well. For example, the professional doctoral profile (in physical education) has been investigated, where it has been concluded that graduates have greater possibilities of entering higher levels of education and participating in scientific research (Manta, Sandreschi, Cardoso, Benedetti, Farias, Resende and Nascimento, 2019). Other studies emphasize the capacities that PhD graduates or PhD students with research skills (research competencies) must develop, transfer knowledge and internationalize the training of these programs (Jiménez-Ramírez, 2017). An element that corresponds to these approaches is research capacity as a transversal axis that encourages scientific knowledge.

Teaching competencies are specified within the profile, and in postgraduate studies, it is considered that their quality depends on the quality of the professors who teach (Kleck and Mims, 2017). Teachers of postgraduate degrees are required to certify or possess “a PhD title” (Hermida, 2018, p. 197). Likewise, a high percentage of postgraduates (85%) are engaged in teaching and/or research (Fiftal, 2016). These areas are relevant to postgraduate programs because they aim to maintain the quality of this level.

In Latin America, the dogmatic legal model continues to prevail in the postgraduate legal research, which has made the development of legal research impossible. In this sense, it is urgent to consider the contributions of traditional research, taking into consideration contemporary conceptions that include the complexity of reality and its interrelation with the other social sciences (Pavo, 2015).

In this scenario, legal research, apart from prioritizing the development of the positivist conception, also distances itself from other social sciences, which prevents it from obtaining a global or general understanding of legal phenomena. It has also segmented or isolated the legal study from its socio-cultural context (Witker, 2008).

Fundamentals of the profile

The professional profile is defined as “a model, an idealization of the characteristics, knowledge, and skills that a graduate must possess” (Vila and Hernández, 2013, p. 127). It describes the graduate’s characteristics or competences in order to respond to a certain social context according to the university or institution that proposes it. It is a bridge or link between the university and society.

In law, the competencies of a lawyer consist of three components: conceptual, procedural and attitudinal (Zolezzi, 2017). A proposal that matches those components was established by the UNESCO, through Delors (1996) who considers that the competencies are developed into types of knowledge: cognitive, action, coexistence and the know-how.

The key axes in the training of the PhD graduate focus on research competences, the practice of interdisciplinarity, internationalization, as well as development or interaction with companies (Jiménez-Ramírez, 2017). It implies that doctoral training is based on training and research requirements, and on the performance or interaction with the business or work environment.

In Latin America, the key competences in the training of lawyers have been specified as: the interpretation, argumentation, and knowledge of social problems with the application of theories, norms, and axioms for the understanding of law in line with work, cultural and social aspects (Sanromán and Morales, 2016).

The competences of the PhD

Changes in education, which have also operated in doctoral programs (in Europe), focused on research in various branches of knowledge with interdisciplinary aspects, with the collaboration of other entities (national and international) that carry out research activities, and establish specific lines for research in doctoral theses, their contribution to society; as well as the organization or structure for the organization of the research lines. In this process, those who direct and guide doctoral research play an important role. Since this research must be related to the companies’ participation, a particular role is performed by directors, tutors or thesis advisers who must prove a research focus. The same applies for those who teach. This is in addition to the mobility of PhD graduates and their internationalization, exchanges, and stays in other countries (Jiménez and Sevillano, 2017). These actions allow for coordination between the universities, the company, and the State for the planning and execution of research projects that respond to national and international social demands.

What has been previously described about the European system is related to the Chilean context in Latin America, where a series of changes has been identified in the consolidation of the university system, consistent with what happens in other aspects regarding legal training: “competition in the market, the appearance of rankings, specialized research due to the demands of doctoral training, the recruitment of the best professors and researchers from law schools and access to accreditation as a mechanism to ensure teaching quality” (Muñoz, 2014, p.10). This process improves the quality of postgraduate education because “it judges the value and merit, as well as the correct suitability of the peer evaluators” (Bozzo and Remeseiro, 2017, p.3) which allows an objective evaluation of the criteria that certify the quality of these programs.

The schools that are in “the best ranking require candidates who have a postgraduate degree, preferably a PhD” (Solari, 2012, p. 711). In this sense, legal education adapts to the demands of legal markets and globalization the same as in “American and foreign” contexts (Manley, 2019, p. 399). This same case is established regarding teachers who have a PhD in a science other than law, apart from the degree in a legal discipline (Pérez, 2018), an aspect that enriches teacher training to respond to a competitive market and to educate graduate students efficiently.

Doctoral competences focus their interest on the development of research, for example, the European system establishes, by means of regulations, the understanding and mastery of skills and research methods related to an area or discipline; likewise, the realization of original research, the practice of effective communication with the scientific community, the development of science and technology that responds to the knowledge society (Jiménez, 2017).

Research in the PhD

Doctoral training in law emphasizes the development of research in various contexts. For example, in the German system, the “program consists of the completion of a doctoral thesis under the supervision of a professor for two or three years. During this time and for a maximum of six years, the candidate can receive a temporary contract as an academic employee or junior research assistant” (Pérez Hurtado, 2018, p. 280). A similar situation occurs in the United States, where “the most advanced academic degree is aimed at those interested in a teaching or research career” (Vides, Gómez & Pérez, 2011, p. 363). The European system takes into consideration specialization in research (Jiménez-Ramírez, 2017).

The scientific competences in a PhD program include: disciplinary sciences that develop quality research with an international impact to contribute to the scientific community; methodological sciences with an efficient mastery of the quantitative and qualitative to carry out high-level research; as well as instrumental competences that involve evaluating and applying mixed research techniques (quantitative and qualitative) to improve the understanding of the phenomena being investigated (Núñez-Valdés and González, 2019).

Likewise, general and specific competences must be considered in national and international legal training (Clavijo, 2014). The former develops teamwork, mastery of ICT, the ability to adapt, the practice of ethics, etc. They are transversal to all specialties. The specific ones require the domain of specific capacities such as argumentation and legal writing, oral litigation, resolution of judicial conflicts, etc.

The specific legal competencies for Latin American Tuning comprise an average of 24 competencies (Clavijo, 2014), including: legal reasoning and argumentation, defense of people’s interests, legal ethics, and legal decision-making. Other competences are related to the application of legal scientific research criteria, work in interdisciplinary teams, and command of a foreign language.

Competencies must be developed through the teaching of integrative research for a holistic training that integrates the legal phenomenon with the regulations, social facts and context (Witker, 2008). This proposal has been systematized in the PhD in a specific subject (Legal Situation of the Entrepreneur of the Division of Postgraduate Studies of the UNAM) that includes the following elements: problem, main aspects, what has been studied, relationships between the main elements, legislation (national and international), and legal solution. It was developed through the virtual platform, where the generation of products or argumentative texts investigation (Cázares, 2017) that allow the development of investigative, argumentative and creative capacities is evidenced.

From the assumption of the competences, the development of the doctoral thesis is established, which must be an original work and contribute to the field of science (Angarita and Mateo, 2011). In this sense, “the thesis must give an account of originality and deep analysis of existing and generated knowledge. The PhD student must demonstrate capacities for the scientific research, and have a good structure and organization. The research needs to be sustained and socialized” (Grarcés-Prettel and Santoya-Montes, 2013, pp. 290-291).

In Peru, there are some studies on doctoral theses. However, in the case of education, the production of theses from 2009-2013 have been investigated, where a prevalence for themes regarding “teaching-learning methods and the curriculum with more emphasis on higher education through quantitative work” has been found (Díaz and Sime, 2016, p. 6). In the medical field, the scientific activities of doctors in medical sciences and health were studied, concluding that only one in four graduates is a researcher or has published scientific manuscripts, and two out of ten have published their doctoral research work (Herrera-Añazgo and Alhuay -Quispe, 2020). In this regard, a study was carried out on research in graduate law schools and it was found that there is no homogeneity in the research courses; there is a greater predominance of thesis seminars and less emphasis on the preparation and publication of scientific articles (González, 2018).

From the legal field, a new University Law was approved in 2014 where it is specified that PhDs “are academic studies based on research. They are intended to develop knowledge at the highest level. A minimum of sixty-four (64) credits must be completed, with mastery of two (2) foreign languages, one of which can be substituted for a native language” (University Law, 2014, p. 22). Also, article No. 45.5 establishes that in order to obtain the degree, a thesis of excellent academic and original rigor must be defended. These legal approaches have made it possible to improve the development of research in Peru because they have met the basic conditions, including research.

In this context, the profiles also take into consideration critical thinking, and humanistic training. The first involves some domains such as “to analyze, organize, reason, argue, question, ask, evaluate, make decisions, act and commit” (Bezanilla, Poblete, Fernández, Arranz and Campo, 2018, p. 111). It also involves comprehensive university education as a human being. While humanistic training “provides the essential cognitive elements to better understand the world, to obtain an aesthetic education together with the refinement of sensitivity, and the elevation of moral and ethical qualities” (Sánchez and Pérez, 2017, p. 267). Humanistic and critical training avoid mechanization in educational training, since it allows the student to criticize, and evaluate reality with responsibility, sensitivity and integration among individuals.

Method

The graduation profile of PhD programs in law, licensed by Sunedu, has been considered for this analysis. A qualitative analysis by categories has been carried out through Atlas ti on the texts that have been published on its websites. The source was consulted from February to April 2020.

The study is carried out based on the following categories: research, critical thinking, alliances, humanistic education, counseling, teaching, legal training, legal project management, and social projection.

The programs were consulted on the Sunedu portal where 25 PhD programs in law were identified, but only 15 that have made their profiles explicit through the portal have been analyzed.

Table 1: Graduate profile of PhD programs in law

Note. Prepared by the author based on data from Sunedu, 2020.

The table above shows that out of the 25 graduate PhDs that have been consulted on the Sunedu website, only 15 universities have specified their graduation profile from February to April of this year.

Results

Figure 1: Categories of the graduation profile of graduate law schools in Peruvian Universities

Prepared by the author based on the information analyzed

Figure 1 shows the categories identified in the graduation profiles: counseling, teaching, legal education, management of legal projects, social projection, research, critical thinking, alliances, and humanistic education. Research has a higher prevalence.