IHD: Interdisciplinary Higher Degrees Scheme

In October 1968, a scheme was launched at the University of Aston in Birmingham called the Interdisciplinary Higher Degrees Scheme (IHD). It pioneered a new concept of postgraduate training in industry, commerce and public service. The basic idea was to recruit students with a good first degree and marry them to various companies or organisations with a problem to solve. With Science Research Council support at (in some cases) nominal cost to the firm, projects evolved whereby the student could spend three years mainly with the company (who would take him on as a temporary employee), solving the problem and submitting the written‐up result as a thesis for a degree of Doctor of Philosophy.