Changing conditions of academic and scientific labour markets, blurring boundaries between public and private and between basic and applied research, and the growing European dimension to scientific careers challenge the conceptual thinking about the research training function of the university. The paper explores these changes and addresses their significance for the nature, purpose and organization of doctoral training. The contours of a new regime in science and higher education are becoming apparent, which will affect the training-career trajectory of researches. More varied patterns of doctoral education as well as new institutional arrangements that will adopt different purposes as a multi-vocational training are emerging. The view taken here is that these variations will not replace the traditional concepts of scholarly work and training, but create a new knowledge regime that is partly vested within and partly next to the prevailing doctoral training context.