This conference has been convened to discuss practice-based research in art and design, and the relationship of doctoral degrees to professional practice in the discipline. Back in the 1980s conference delegates were thirsting for completed examples of doctoral degrees in art and design to use as models of research. In the last couple of years there have been conferences using completed degrees as models on which to base the philosophy and methodology of art and design research. This development has been very welcome, and I thank the London Institute "Matrix" conferences, for example, for their contribution in this area. But this approach brings with it a number of disadvantages: