PhD: Indian Dilemma

Dr. P H Waghodekar,

Advisor (HR) IBS & PME (PG),

Marathwada Institute of Technology,

Aurangabad: 431028 (Maharashtra)

E-mail: waghodekar@rediffmail.com

1.0 Preamble

In the present information era, future belongs to the “survival of the wisest” and not to the “survival of the fittest”. Wisdom is that knowledge that nurtures life in all its dimensions not only for the present generation; but also of the future. Doing PhD is one of the formal ways to gain knowledge.

On MTCG Forum, a thought provoking discussion in respect of PhD is going on since the last 3-4 weeks. Thanks to Professor Dr. Appalayya Meesala who initiated this discussion with the followings piece of advice

ü  Don’t ever attempt to do Ph.D. in Business Management if you satisfy all or any one of the following conditions.

1.       You don’t know what topic you should do your research on;

2.       You have not read 30-40 research articles till now, and you cannot distinguish between an ordinary article and a research articles;

3.       You don’t know what comprises literature review;

4.       After reading 50 research articles also, you have not got an idea about research gaps, and likely hypotheses;

5.       You did not get an idea about what a hypothesis means;

6.       You don’t have an idea about published valid scales and measures;

7.       You don’t know the calculation of descriptive statistics, chi-square, t-test, anova, correlation, regression coefficients;

8.       You are under the impression that Ph.D. is about writing a voluminous book with a lot of distantly related material.

The converse of the above means a green signal to go for PhD.  

2.0 The basic queries

Some of the basic queries for PhD can be as:

1. What is meant by PhD?

PhD, a formal research degree, stands for Doctor of Philosophy, one of the coveted peak degrees, not necessarily a terminal degree, in academics, hopefully leading to some value addition or contribution to the knowledge. Research can be undertaken in any area, in any faculty. Sky is the limit to choose research areas/topics. Types of research and suitable related research methodologies are almost standardized and being improved day in and day out [1].

 

2. Who should opt for PhD?

Anyone who aspires for creation of knowledge is most welcomed, especially those who are involved in academics, R & D and such other developmental areas.

 

3. What are the goals of PhD?

PhD means crossing the borders of present knowledge or know-how entering into advanced areas contributing to the prosperity, well-fare and well-being, comfort and happiness of individual, society, nation and humanity at large.\

4. Cannot we look at PhD like other degrees?

As we consider other degrees like BCA or BE as the license/permit to enter into the world of calling,  career growth, however, is fully dependent upon how one is performing on the task. Similarly, PhD can be considered as a mere certification that so and so is now capable to carryout research work independently in his future career in the areas of one’s choice. PhD, therefore, does not indicate full stop to research work, in fact real career growth in academics and R & D organizations starts after obtaining PhD.

5. Whether PhD is a means to accomplish the final goal (end) or not?

It is crystal clear that PhD is a means to achieve the goal of service to humanity; a lucky few are destined to perform this task by virtue of their intelligence, innovation and creative mind-set. And so they (researchers) are respected by one and all!

6. Whether PhD is to be obtained through toil or earned?

For obtaining PhD, heavy effort, toil and patience is a must, success is one step ahead of several failures.  However, there also lays a rare phenomenon “Those who can, earn the PhD degree”.

3.0 The 5Rs.  

Humans are strange creatures. Many of them often prefer/adapt short-cuts, through such means in academics as cut-n-paste, plagiarism, money and political power, gender harassment, etc.,  in self-interests (rarely for community/nation), avoiding efforts, toil, and pains.

As I recollect UG Final year project started in mid-70s, since the last 3-5 years several PG programmes in engineering, management, computer application have been started in several UG colleges and some of them are approved as PhD research centers. We need to diagnosis such reformations in the light of 5Rs: Rights, Rules, Routine, Responsibility and Relationship (see the slide presented below).

Let us investigate the status of these 5Rs.

1.      Rules:

Universities through their Acts, Statutes and UGC through their directives have formulated Ph D  rules like right from  no third class graduate will be allowed to register for PhD, the faculty of PhD will be the same as that of PG, to present day online PET, fees structure, course work, supervisor’s eligibility, progress review, award of degree, etc.

2.      Rights

The university, institute, supervisor and the PhD candidate enjoy certain rights like grant of funds, promotion, compensation including scholarship or assistance ship to candidate, etc.

3.      Routine

This includes all routine procedural matters right from the stage of admission to the award of PhD degree. This mechanism is almost uniform in all universities with a minor difference here and there, a matter of autonomy.

4.      Responsibility

This is the very crucial part that, to be emphasized, plays a significant role either to make or mar the system. The degree of the PhD quality outturn is dependent upon the extent to which these responsibilities are met with on the part of each stakeholder, right from MHRD to researcher. Some queries are:

        i.            How many supervisors float the would-be areas/topics of research of their choice before the commencement of a programme?

      ii.            How many hours/week supervisors are interacting with candidates?

    iii.            How about the interaction among candidate, supervisor and the world of work?

    iv.            How many supervisors float own courses for PhD programme?

      v.            Are we submitting 6 monthly progress review reports to host and sponsoring institute?

    vi.            How many international articles are sent for publication?

  vii.            Whether lab/literature and other resources including ITC tools are intact or not?

viii.            Are academic interests are mingled with personal favor, etc?

    ix.            How many times the thesis write-up edited before the final submission?

      x.            Are we following fairness at the time of admission and of defense as well?

    xi.            What is about the relationship between candidate and supervisor?

  xii.            Are they in contact even after award of PhD? How long?

Responsibility is the outcome of the role one has to play, the result of Rules, Rights and Routines. When it comes to the point of executing responsibility either one can shoulder it in a negative or positive way (see the slide above). For instance, how many UG project guides or PG supervisors do undertake editing and revisions of project write-up? Does this practice is strengthened or diluted over the period from, say, 1970 to 2012?  Is it so the case of PhD works also?

5.      Relationship

Relationship significantly influences the outcome- in terms of quality of work- of what is happening on  the shop floor, a result of  deviations or no deviations from rules, adherence or violation of rules, or positive or negative choices of everyone involved in the process. Deviations or negative choices normally meet long term catastrophic outcome. Thus, unless we clean our house, the result will not be much different. Healthy relationships lead to desirable results to the benefit for humanity as a whole.

4.0 What is the global and Indian scenario today [1]?

 Ponder upon the following facts and figures:

1.      India perhaps is the only country where teaching-research, and institute-industry are considered separate, unrelated, un-concerned, nothing to do with each other, whereas, in developed countries, may be due to Industrial Revolutions-I and II, teaching-research and institute-industry are considered in-separable, they go hand in hand, one cannot survive without the other. 

2.      British started four prestigious engineering institutes in India during mid-1850s, first four engineering institutes in Asia [1]. 

3.      None of the Indian University is ranked within 100 World Top Universities.

4.      Save IITs and IIMs, hardly single digit Indian institutes could maintain international articles publication rate as one article/faculty.

5.      Self-financing institutes in India have been playing a dominant role since mid-1980s in Higher Education in India; over 90% graduates are turned by these institutes.

6.      During the period from mid-1980s to mid-2005, PG qualified teachers were usually appointed on nomination as Professors, HODs and Principals/Directors, including Govt. or Govt. aided colleges, save a very few universities, like, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, violating the provisions in this matter prescribed by University Act 1974 or later versions, AICTE/UGC norms, etc.

7.      In recent years, it is reported, Australia turned over 10,000 PhDs in engineering, 20% being women, the country that turned first 3 PhDs in 1948 and first PhD in engineering in 1951 [2].

8.       In developed countries, research is a joint venture of Government, industry and academics. R & D spending in terms of per capita basis is [3]:

a)      India (Rank: 65): 0.0006% per 1 million people

b)      US (Rank: 56): 0.0279%

c)      Japan (Rank: 44): 0.0220 %

d)      Germany (Rank: 41): 0.2190%

e)      Togo (Rank: 2): 1.5556%

f)       Iceland (Rank: 1): 7.0769%

9.      In India, a mere 157 personnel per million populations are engaged in R & D, whereas in China it is 587 [4].   

10.  During 1980-2000 the number of scientific papers from India included in the Science Citation Index fell from 14,987 to 12,227, whereas, China’s grew from 924 to 22,061[4].

11.  PhD has become mandatory for the posts of Associate Professor, Professor and above posts after the recent intervention of the Court.

12.  It is a matter of investigation and to worry that to what extent the research done in Indian Universities, IITs/IIMs, etc., is contributing to the development of society or nation.

13.  Most of the researchers do PhDs for promotion, pay rise.  Over 95% PhDs become stagnant (dead literally), i.e.,  they neither remain alive in their areas nor  add any value to the institute/society for, barring a few institutes like IITs, post-PhD performance is not linked with compensation, nor it is mandatory to be alive in post-PhD research work.

14.  There is no provision for severe punishment enacted for plagiarism or errant or fake PhD. Moreover, the provisions of the existing laws are hardy followed. This has resulted into wide open doors for miscreants. Such cases did exist in the past and also do exist today, an open secret. On plugging these loopholes, PhD’s quality can certainly be arrested.

15.  The present status of Indian PhDs in terms of quality, quantity and utility is the outcome of both human nature and the Indian environment, where the executive bodies hardly execute, no robust national education policy, scams and corruption and Court has to give directives in academic matters, etc. This transition phase can certainly be turned into an opportunity by such ways as (see also Reference [1]):

a)      Have a robust national minded and nation making National Educational Policy.

b)      Be plan-full and achievers.

c)      Enforcement of Law.

d)      Reward and punishment system.

e)      In academics quality is first, no compromise with quality.

f)       Strict laying down procedures (procedure manual) and their on-line control.

g)      Recruitment of faculty, nominations of VC and PVC: fair, unbiased and merit based.

h)      One can adopt any research methodology but the outcome must be some contribution to industry, society and nation.

i)        Adapt brain-back policy, get international faculty, ties with top universities.

j)        Provide more research funding through state, temples, industry, donors, etc., and faculty to generate revenue through R & D, an essential component for rise in pay or promotion.

  5.0 Conclusions      

In the present information era the future belongs to the “survival of the wisest” and not to the “survival of the fittest”.  Wisdom is the outcome of knowledge. Knowledge can be enhanced through informal ways like abstract thinking or through formal ways like acquiring research degrees like PhD. This knowledge, however, needs to nurture all dimensions of life. This short article has presented some aspects related with PhD like goals of PhD, 5Rs, Indian PhD status in context with global scenario, etc. A few suggestions have also been made.

References

[1] Waghodekar P H, 2012, Research Focused Engineering College Education: From Here 2012 to Where 2050, Industrial Engineering Journal, Vol. V, No. 10, October, pp. 16-23.

[2] Dobson Ian R, 2008, Engineering PhDs: how many has Australia produced? University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.

[3]Website:http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_res_and_dev_spe_percap-research-development -sending-per-capita

[4] Mehta Anita, 2004, Science Research In India: Universities, Research Institutes and Everything In-between, website: http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/oct/edu-science.htm

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<Aurangabad, 28/5/2013 PHW>