Abstract:

The workplace practice of graduates serves as a core carrier to test the effectiveness of professional doctoral education. Through semi-structured interviews with 17 professional doctoral graduates and qualitative analysis using NVivo 12, this study examines the impact of professional doctoral education on work practice. The findings reveal three main effects. First, it opens up a two-way cycle between academia and practice, yielding practically valuable outcomes. Second, it breaks away from utilitarian interpersonal interactions and constructs new relational modes and institutional norms oriented toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. Third, it helps graduates build personal professional brands by drawing on institutional, supervisory, and disciplinary resources, further expanding cross-boundary effects. Accordingly, three optimization strategies for training are proposed: adopting a creation-oriented training philosophy, balancing explicit curricula and implicit literacy cultivation in training programs, and adding experiential academic training targeted at real workplace scenarios.

Key words: professional doctoral degree, educational experience, products, work relationships, cross-boundary