"PhD by publication is an alternative that can help address the growing need for qualified academic professionals while maintaining the quality standards demanded by the research community."
PhD is the highest academic qualification conferred to the students who excel in research in their corresponding field of study and is also a necessary requirement for various professions. Various academic bodies award thousands of PhD’s each year and this number is growing as many universities have made it compulsory for lecturers to attain a Phd within a specific period after their appointment. According to Universityworldnews.com the ”massification” of PhD enrolment is putting a lot of pressure on the universities and the academic world is experiencing serious issues related to the quality of the doctoral education.
Similarly, making it mandatory to hold a PhD degree is also increasing the stress level on lecturers as it now requires them to earn a degree to be eligible for further employment. Prabhat Kumar, a lecturer enrolled in part-time PhD said, “Most of my colleagues have enrolled in distant PhD or part-time PhD programme and are facing a lot of difficulties as the time frame of getting a PhD via the above modes may take four to eight years and also involves a lot of money.” He further added, “Unlike full time PhD students we do not get any scholarships so it is very hard for us to manage the finances and once I have taken a decision to do a full-time PhD but did not proceed further as the scholarship amount was very less and sometimes given at regular intervals.” In the recent years countries such as India have discontinued PhD through distance further adding to the woes of the doctoral students.
Another full-time scholar Ritika Rastogi added, ”I have enrolled in a full-time program after leaving my previous job as this is necessary to excel my carrier but have realized that I am wasting a lot of my time in doing courses that I have studied during my Masters coursework. Also, availability of mentor is limiting my freedom in choosing a domain for my PhD thesis.” A report by theguardian.com further confirms that PhD scholars also considered as a source of cheap labour as the institutes also use them for multiple jobs while offering a waiver in the fees or a fellowship.
While bureaucracy is rampant in the academic world, there are further higher instances of degrading research quality especially in developing countries such as India and Africa. Report by natureasia.com reveals that making it mandatory for lecturers and academic students to publish before getting promotions or doctoral degree in India has increased the number of fake publications from India. This has much to do with the quality of doctoral education as students are not getting sufficient resources to improve their research aptitude because they have to balance their education and job simultaneously.
PhD by publication is another alternative for obtaining a PhD and is being awarded by few prominent universities such as the University of Westminster, University of Warwick, Kingston University (London), University of Portsmouth, University of East Anglia. The universities aim this mode of education for professionals in the middle of their carrier pathway and cannot leave their jobs for a doctoral programme. Enrolling in this mode of education requires the applicants to fulfill certain requirements such as being a working professional in a related discipline for a certain number of years, possessing basic academic qualifications such as a bachelor or a master degree and the degree is awarded when the applicants have published required number of papers (which may range from three to eight based on the academic discipline and university awarding the degree) in peer reviewed journals.
While PhD by publication is not a replacement for a regular mode of doctoral education, it may act as a substitute for improving the quality of PhD program in developing countries that cannot allocate funds to support the increasing number of PhD applications. The mode also helps the doctoral students in focussing on the research-related activities and their job without being exploited by institutions that would use doctoral students as cheap labour for institutions. Similarly, doctoral students will achieve more freedom as they need not go through the highly bureaucratic procedures and can allocate more time for self-study leading to more performance oriented outcomes such as top quality research.
There are various steps the countries and educational bodies have to take to ensure that PhD by publication method will b beneficial to both the students and the countries. First. the governing bodies should set first the minimum basic criteria to be eligible for candidates to be eligible for this course correctly. A preferred criteria would be a master of philosophy degree and minimum three years of work experience in the related discipline. A master of philosophy degree ensures that the candidate has the basic knowledge of the prerequisites of conducting the research.
Similarly, the candidate should clear a national level or equivalent entrance exam that would test the candidates aptitude in the discipline the candidate wishes to get a PhD. The governing bodies should also provide the minimum number of articles and a quality list of journals in which the candidate needs to publish his research article to be eligible for the PhD. The governing bodies should also provide a mechanism of getting access to various equipment and journals to scholars by paying a subsidized amount of fees.
The scholars enrolled in such programs can get a card issues and can use the government or institutional laboratories for conducting the experiments by booking the dates on which they wish to use the equipment. This is like the way people use a library to issue the books but here we are talking about equipment in the laboratory. Finally, every university that has a full time doctoral program should provide this mode of education should as the additional cost incurred in providing such a program is minimal and also this mode ensures equal access to quality education for all the aspirants.
Sources:
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200609091837168
https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/mar/23/they-called-my-university-a-phd-factory-now-i-understand-why
https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2017.115
Similarly, making it mandatory to hold a PhD degree is also increasing the stress level on lecturers as it now requires them to earn a degree to be eligible for further employment. Prabhat Kumar, a lecturer enrolled in part-time PhD said, “Most of my colleagues have enrolled in distant PhD or part-time PhD programme and are facing a lot of difficulties as the time frame of getting a PhD via the above modes may take four to eight years and also involves a lot of money.” He further added, “Unlike full time PhD students we do not get any scholarships so it is very hard for us to manage the finances and once I have taken a decision to do a full-time PhD but did not proceed further as the scholarship amount was very less and sometimes given at regular intervals.” In the recent years countries such as India have discontinued PhD through distance further adding to the woes of the doctoral students.
Another full-time scholar Ritika Rastogi added, ”I have enrolled in a full-time program after leaving my previous job as this is necessary to excel my carrier but have realized that I am wasting a lot of my time in doing courses that I have studied during my Masters coursework. Also, availability of mentor is limiting my freedom in choosing a domain for my PhD thesis.” A report by theguardian.com further confirms that PhD scholars also considered as a source of cheap labour as the institutes also use them for multiple jobs while offering a waiver in the fees or a fellowship.
While bureaucracy is rampant in the academic world, there are further higher instances of degrading research quality especially in developing countries such as India and Africa. Report by natureasia.com reveals that making it mandatory for lecturers and academic students to publish before getting promotions or doctoral degree in India has increased the number of fake publications from India. This has much to do with the quality of doctoral education as students are not getting sufficient resources to improve their research aptitude because they have to balance their education and job simultaneously.
PhD by publication is another alternative for obtaining a PhD and is being awarded by few prominent universities such as the University of Westminster, University of Warwick, Kingston University (London), University of Portsmouth, University of East Anglia. The universities aim this mode of education for professionals in the middle of their carrier pathway and cannot leave their jobs for a doctoral programme. Enrolling in this mode of education requires the applicants to fulfill certain requirements such as being a working professional in a related discipline for a certain number of years, possessing basic academic qualifications such as a bachelor or a master degree and the degree is awarded when the applicants have published required number of papers (which may range from three to eight based on the academic discipline and university awarding the degree) in peer reviewed journals.
While PhD by publication is not a replacement for a regular mode of doctoral education, it may act as a substitute for improving the quality of PhD program in developing countries that cannot allocate funds to support the increasing number of PhD applications. The mode also helps the doctoral students in focussing on the research-related activities and their job without being exploited by institutions that would use doctoral students as cheap labour for institutions. Similarly, doctoral students will achieve more freedom as they need not go through the highly bureaucratic procedures and can allocate more time for self-study leading to more performance oriented outcomes such as top quality research.
There are various steps the countries and educational bodies have to take to ensure that PhD by publication method will b beneficial to both the students and the countries. First. the governing bodies should set first the minimum basic criteria to be eligible for candidates to be eligible for this course correctly. A preferred criteria would be a master of philosophy degree and minimum three years of work experience in the related discipline. A master of philosophy degree ensures that the candidate has the basic knowledge of the prerequisites of conducting the research.
Similarly, the candidate should clear a national level or equivalent entrance exam that would test the candidates aptitude in the discipline the candidate wishes to get a PhD. The governing bodies should also provide the minimum number of articles and a quality list of journals in which the candidate needs to publish his research article to be eligible for the PhD. The governing bodies should also provide a mechanism of getting access to various equipment and journals to scholars by paying a subsidized amount of fees.
The scholars enrolled in such programs can get a card issues and can use the government or institutional laboratories for conducting the experiments by booking the dates on which they wish to use the equipment. This is like the way people use a library to issue the books but here we are talking about equipment in the laboratory. Finally, every university that has a full time doctoral program should provide this mode of education should as the additional cost incurred in providing such a program is minimal and also this mode ensures equal access to quality education for all the aspirants.
Sources:
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200609091837168
https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/mar/23/they-called-my-university-a-phd-factory-now-i-understand-why
https://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2017.115
