I don't think it "dilutes" the purpose of a PhD to add courses in business and writing. I worked for two companies founded by PhDs. The specialized knowledge poised them well to be more than a cog in industry, but take the lead in enterprises related to their expertise. It's one of the competitive advantages of PhDs over other degrees. A BS and some work experience doesn't prepare you, for example, to get a job building groundbreaking computer vision systems. A PhD is a real value-add for that. That's not dilution. That's recognizing that the degree has value outside the traditional niche of academia.
The 'dilution' isn't the first course, but once you open the door to mandatory courses that people think could come in handy suddenly you have a bunch of them.
It starts with writing and business. And of course you'll need a course on teaching as you'll be teaching. A course in research tools like statistics and designing surveys will help you avoid some potholes. You'll need to reference things properly and avoid plagiarism, better have some training for that. Everyone in this field uses (Matlab/Excel/Latex/MS Word/SPSS/R/NumPy/Fortran/EndNote/BibTeX) so we'd better train you to use that. Effective study strategies will be vital, as will effective note-taking skills. You'll need to know about time and project management, better have a course on that. Of course you'll need to know how to use the library, research databases, and how to make document supply requests. Writing papers and working out which journals and conferences to target is important of course. Presentation skills and public speaking are vital in all manner of jobs. Not to mention career planning, networking and professional development. And you can't be a public academic these days without managing your online presence. Oh, your project involves spending money? You'll need training in managing a budget and working the purchasing procedure...
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I don't think it "dilutes" the purpose of a PhD to add courses in business and writing. I worked for two companies founded by PhDs. The specialized knowledge poised them well to be more than a cog in industry, but take the lead in enterprises related to their expertise. It's one of the competitive advantages of PhDs over other degrees. A BS and some work experience doesn't prepare you, for example, to get a job building groundbreaking computer vision systems. A PhD is a real value-add for that. That's not dilution. That's recognizing that the degree has value outside the traditional niche of academia.
The 'dilution' isn't the first course, but once you open the door to mandatory courses that people think could come in handy suddenly you have a bunch of them.
It starts with writing and business. And of course you'll need a course on teaching as you'll be teaching. A course in research tools like statistics and designing surveys will help you avoid some potholes. You'll need to reference things properly and avoid plagiarism, better have some training for that. Everyone in this field uses (Matlab/Excel/Latex/MS Word/SPSS/R/NumPy/Fortran/EndNote/BibTeX) so we'd better train you to use that. Effective study strategies will be vital, as will effective note-taking skills. You'll need to know about time and project management, better have a course on that. Of course you'll need to know how to use the library, research databases, and how to make document supply requests. Writing papers and working out which journals and conferences to target is important of course. Presentation skills and public speaking are vital in all manner of jobs. Not to mention career planning, networking and professional development. And you can't be a public academic these days without managing your online presence. Oh, your project involves spending money? You'll need training in managing a budget and working the purchasing procedure...
Actually, mandatory courses in statistics and Latex would be a great idea. You have no idea how much time is wasted getting those wrong!