What’s the Point of a PhD?

Across Asia, there is an aura around the title of PhD. This has led to massive marketplace fake degree production mills. Many are subscribed to by politicians, business people, management consultants and trainers. 

Fake PhDs were on offer at RM15,000 several years back. The only other requirement was to write a project paper of your choice – ideally based on your experience. I met a prospective client with a fake PhD and I asked him the topic of his dissertation and what were the key conclusions of his study. This was a CEO of a listed company. His reply was both evasive and nonchalant. So much for a fake PhD.

Aside from the fakers, evidence suggests a PhD is useful for policy analysis positions in government, international organisations and large NGOs. However, there is a serious mismatch between job opportunities and these graduates. Many graduates find it extremely difficult to find a suitable job. Many universities promote PhDs as a means for better employment opportunities, higher salaries or a step to an outstanding career. The reality is different especially in Malaysia.

 

Source: https://www.eden-online.org

The Malaysian Government has a target of producing 60,000 PhD holders by 2023 (the initial target date was 2020). Why? To meet increasing need for research and innovation – to build a knowledge-based economy. A lot of BS! Compared to countries like Germany, Japan and the U.S. we have very limited jobs from local industries or research centres that require PhD graduates. Even Singapore does better (than us) – they have research clusters for R&D and innovation. We have a few moribund centres.

A PhD can only guarantee that the candidate or graduate has worked diligently and methodically in producing a narrow piece of domain research. This assumes the candidate has a helpful supervisor, sufficient funding and a topic or research area that suits the candidate’s temperament. If any one of the above is not in place, chances are the candidate will fail or drop-out from the programme. The mental scar on the candidate is huge.

Many outstanding thinkers, scientists and professors had successful careers without a PhD. But these days to be in university as a lecturer the sine quo non is a PhD. Good if you are headed for academia.

For Malaysia, the final destination is important – are we in fundamental research, application research or into some other goal? PhDs for the sake of PhDs are only for politicians or businessmen who need to forge respectability or reputation to impress their audience. For that the fake degree mills do better, faster and more efficiently. Otherwise, devise a solid desired outcome for STEM and clinically root-out the fraudsters with jail terms!

 

References:

1. Dilemma that fresh PhD graduates face, Assoc. Prof. Dr Lau Woei Jye, The Star, 23 Mar 2021

2. What’s in a PhD? Murray Hunter