First of All, PhD is just a degree similar to a Bachelor's, Masters or even diploma. It just teaches a person how to look at things more anlytically and in-depth. The scope of PhD is very narrow and what a PhD degree holder does after it involves far more knowledge, study and skills. For example, I have done a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering involving soil testing. It is not even 2% of what Geotechnical Engineering is all about. Now, in my job, I have to use all the concepts of geotechnical engineering at some point or the other. Not only that, I need to use concepts from structural engineering, materials engineering and so on. How I grow in future and what I achieve depends on how I keep learning and upgrading myself. Someone, only with a Masters degree can also learn the same thing at same pace and can achieve the same success in his career. Regarding publication, hardly 5% of the publications are of any practical use, especially in a saturated research area like Civil Engineering. So you can not evaluate a person based on publications. Education or any degree is only a foundation stone. The talk of an expiry date for any degree is senseless and childish. Author is probably jealous of those who have PhDs and are in better position than him. If he looks around, he will find that there are millions of people equally or less qualified than him but are in a far better position than him. So, stop talking nonsense. Rediff should not put such articles in its headlines.
RE:A senseless article written by a person who does not know the purpose of education
by saraswathi ramachandran rama on Jan 19, 2008 09:34 AM Permalink
agree with you
RE:A senseless article written by a person who does not know the purpose of education
by on Jan 19, 2008 11:47 AM Permalink
You most possibly have no PhD. PhD is not at all similar to any other qualification, as there is a need to do original work, which in European and British system may take 4-5 years or more. American system is much easier, but even there it takes about 4 years. Only about 30 percent of the students get the final PhD, because most of them drop out in the process. There is an extreme chance factor as well. Because everything depends on two individuals: one is the supervisor and another is the examiner. Thus, any subjective matters can influence the outcome. Any small oinion can ruin the candidate. It is not thus at all the same as any other examinations, where there are many examiners who may not know the candidate at all. Normally those who get PhD spent their entire life in studies and research. There are of course exceptions like Man Mohan Singh and everyother economists who have joined the government or the World Bank or IMF or Newspapers; they need to wrote reports but they do not do any more research. That is the reason most PhD who are interested to pursue their scholarship do not join these services. Expiry period already exists in practice and it is about 3 years. After that one cannot claim any expertise on the same subject unless one would pursue further. However, expiry period does not exist for IAS, IFS, Engineer, Doctors accountants. They just get a degree and test for the rest of their life without increasing their knowledge.
Instead of having an expiry date on Phd, which to me is a completely absurd idea just because ppl or professors publish data in non peer reviewed or junk journal. Well i think the best way to approach the problem is have a competitive grant/funding options. When you sweat for every penny you get into your lab, you work harder on your projects hire the right ppl and do efforts in being innovative. Just like in the US.
Authors description of problems on the quality of PhDs from India is understandable. So, why not fix the system? Why not find out if we should close some depts/universities and establish good ones which are connected to the rest of the world and can have world class facilities. A PhD degree is a recognition of one's ability to do something innovative which is usually judged by the experts. If there is problem in there change composition of the 'experts'. Are the 'experts' really experts?. But putting an expiry date is simply ridiculous. Why cant we have a system of judging the research programs that are run by various depats in India? It is possible and is often done in the West.
The degree or diploma is just an insignia recognized for the purpose of employment per se. These do not measure the intrinsic worth or calibre of a person. Acquisition of knowledge and updating is a continuous process for all creations in the world but not for humans alone. It is high time that diplomas or degrees are delinked for the purpose of employment in which case number of persons who would acquire diploma or degree becomes insignificant. Also, there is no universal recognition of diploma or degree acquired in a given country. Thefore it is a futile exercise to think of fixing an expiry date for any diploma or degree or similar distinction.
PhD means %u2018Doctors of Philosophy%u2019. It simply not about a degree but validating an individual%u2019s intellectual capability which simply means ability to fathom, analyse, validate, execute and revalidate about virtually any subject. So it is just not about an individual's competence in his chosen field but his very intellectual capability which founding fathers felt will only increase with experience and worldly wisdom. There may be fake PhDs but simply suggesting to periodical revalidation of PhD means, to put simply, expressing ones ignorance. What we need in PhD is not subject after certain level of intellectual capability - but 'philosophical' aptitude. It is better, the author first understand the true meaning of word 'philosophy' as enunciated by greats like Radhakrishnan, Vivekananda, Socrates, Aristotle.
That would probably answers whole stuff. It is about %u2018spirit%u2019 of degree not %u2018letter%u2019 of it. If you devise a system that validates the 'spirit' than 'letter' then we can welcome. But that validation is already there is system, we just lost it in our quest of material pursuits.
RE:Good idea
by amit mittal on Jan 19, 2008 09:02 AM Permalink
Why only PhD shold expire ? by this logic all degrees B.E, M.E,MBBS also sholud expire!! I think it is astupid proposal made by a stupid. Already there is huge shortage of PhDs in all fields specially in engineering and management. A person spend 4-5 years in doing PhD and if this way degree expires aperson will have to spend half his life in doing PhD.
A Ph.D is based on doing research %u2013 select a topic in which you are interested and have competency, find the historical facts, make a hypothesis, find facts to support the hypothesis, state your findings and defend it before a panel of experts. If one does a basic research, his or her Ph.D carries them though out their life to new areas of knowledge and expertise. Publication in well reviewed journals make the results available to all those who are interested. It is an extremely hard work and needs creativity, originality and perseverance. The rewards are not always monetary,rather explore one%u2019s curiosity with enormous self satisfaction. In India from KG through University, the faculty are mostly select via corruption thus are bogus and are appointed not based on merit. IITs, IIMs are different structurally and in contents. A really good Ph.D allows the persons to be an inquisitive investigator of any related or new field. Persons with such a merit do not need others approval. They can survive abroad and are welcomed there but not India. That is why they migrate out of India and refuse to be mistreated. A teacher with real Ph.D is the seed of knowledge for all future generation. Kick them out, you have lost all future generation.
Your observation that most of Ph.D holders do it for a job is true but let me ask you how many of the professionals in India obtain any degree for that matter just for enhancing the knowledge base ?? I would say 90% of the people with a degree regardless of whether its Ph.D or a M Tech do it a living or a job. I really dont understand why is it wrong to get a degree for a job?? If getting a Ph.D was as easy as you have mentioned in your write up every tom , dick and harry would have been a Ph.D holder but statistics shows otherwise. Different persons have different interests. One person might pursue his research career others might get the degree for promotion or other benefits but we have to remember that he might be having a interest in teaching and he would excell in whichever field he is interested in. The idea mooted by you is irrational and biased. Everyone needs to work according one's area of interest and that would result in high productivity.
