UGC Chairman Stress on the Importance of PhD Quality over Publications: What is a High Quality PhD?
Our higher education institutions must encourage better quality PhD programmes instead to putting emphasis on number of publications a scholar publishes.
In today's day and age, quantity is given priority over quality, as mentioned by the chairman of UGC and AICTE. Its disheartening to see rules like the 2016 Ph.D. regulations issued by the UGC, which prescribes that Ph.D. scholars must produce at least one research paper in a journal before submitting their thesis. Burdening Ph.D. scholars with such regulations pushes them to produce lower-quality research papers, and 75% of these scholars are forced to publish in journals that are not Scopus- indexed.
Maintaining the Ph.D. quality is the key that would lead us to high-quality publications and, more importantly, a well-trained researcher.
What Aspects Make up a High-Quality Ph.D.?
1) Creating internship opportunities for research in the industry:
The close relationship between research and industrial applications is becoming increasingly crucial. A good way to encourage the Ph.D. scholar to take a broader view of research while also being aware of the potential impact of that research on innovation and business is to facilitate internships in the industry. Such internships will expose the scholar to the nature of industry work and how research can be applied in that context. It can aid in developing research problems rooted in industry practice or business.
2) Integration of global experience:
Scholars get an opportunity to work with multicultural and multi-national teams. This helps them acknowledge the research of other countries, which in turn helps them gain a different perspective.
3) Creating opportunities to present at global conferences:
During the duration of the program, the scholar should be given opportunities to showcase their work on an international platform. It is great for showcasing and hearing from great researchers and building connections in this field at a global level.
4) Acquiring teaching skills:
Although research skills are developed during a Ph.D., the program should also prepare these scholars for other academic careers, i.e., teaching. Its not that they don't have TA (teaching assistant) experiences, but these are more often seen as ways to decrease the workload of the faculty rather than as training for teaching. Hence, honing their teaching skills during the program will help them master their teaching capabilities.
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