Yesterday I made a social media post on which some of my senior faculty members advised to create a blog for comments. Here is the post and kindly note your comments in the comment box below so that we may have notes to share with hi-ups.
Policy makers need to rethink the terms and conditions on PhD evaluation
1. HEC asks PhD thesis to be evaluated by foreign experts even in the fields where we have many many foreign graduates in Pakistani universities. Why did we invest so much in their qualifications if we r not going to trust their expertise.
2. Foreign evaluators are listed after their consent and when thesis is sent they either dont respond or regret, evaluation procedures r taking more than one calendar year
3. PhD students are required to publish in at least y category journals which is a huge challenge keeping in view the lobbying and money involved.
4. A faculty member cannot supervise more than 5 students and they r not checked out from a supervisors list even after submission until they graduate. Think of this scenario that a faculty will remain free until any of them gets evaluation publication n viva process done.
I am sending out this msg to all concerned and requesting them to please comment and suggest alternatives
AH
Policy makers need to rethink the terms and conditions on PhD evaluation
1. HEC asks PhD thesis to be evaluated by foreign experts even in the fields where we have many many foreign graduates in Pakistani universities. Why did we invest so much in their qualifications if we r not going to trust their expertise.
2. Foreign evaluators are listed after their consent and when thesis is sent they either dont respond or regret, evaluation procedures r taking more than one calendar year
3. PhD students are required to publish in at least y category journals which is a huge challenge keeping in view the lobbying and money involved.
4. A faculty member cannot supervise more than 5 students and they r not checked out from a supervisors list even after submission until they graduate. Think of this scenario that a faculty will remain free until any of them gets evaluation publication n viva process done.
I am sending out this msg to all concerned and requesting them to please comment and suggest alternatives
AH
Evaluation of the thesis should be from experts, word foreign should be removed.
ReplyDeleteIt should be published in the journal of the field, categories doesn't matter. Consider that its first attempt of the PhD student.
No. of Supervision is matter of the department and the university concerned.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteQuality is subjective which mostly judged not measured. The evaluation of PhD dissertation should be done locally by the known and relevant field experts. Local evaluators should be identified in the subject areas.
ReplyDeleteI think publishing a paper is good enough for a novice researcher/ scholar but need to address the publishing process which must be transparent and quality oriented
The number of PhD students should be extended according to the faculty expertise, stage of PhD students towards completion of studies. At least, the candidates who have submitted their dissertations should be excluded from the list of a supervisor. After thesis submission, evaluation process starts and will take too much time in some cases.
I think we should trust on the expertise of the PhD graduates abroad. Since we are relying on foreign professors, who at times prove to be annoying and it creates troubles for the students. PhD thesis evaluation procedures should be made simple. We put scholar in twisting situations from the time of submission of thesis till final award of degree.
ReplyDeleteThere is need to make a list of experts (specialized in one area e.g. curriculum, mathematics education, assessment and evaluation, educational leadership etc.) at National Level.This task should be done by HEC.
ReplyDeleteAt first stage : Two local experts (from the list of experts available at national level either foreign or local qualified) from the relevant field should be trusted without nepotism, friendship or give and take basis. Otherwise, we may not claim quality of research work at PhD level. I think evaluation from one foreign expert should also be taken instead of Two.
At the second stage, when we have large number of experts available at national level from specified fields of education, We may get thesis evaluation from three local experts from the relevant field.
I think one research publication is good step to acknowledge the students work. Publication in Y category journal is not mandatory; Phd candidate can publish his/her work in journals available in the mater list of ISI. At the time of thesis submission, it should not be mandatory to get article published or even have the acceptance.
Once a thesis document submitted in the department that PhD Candidate should be removed from the list of that supervisor. Number of five for one supervisor may be increased to six or seven.