LETTER | 'Kangkung' professors and PhDs

LETTER | On Nov 27, Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin told the Dewan Rakyat more stringent conditions would be imposed on candidates who want to pursue a doctorate.

The minister was responding to Jelutong MP RSN Rayer who asked the Higher Education Ministry to check and monitor universities to ensure only those qualified could obtain PhDs.

The issue was brought up following a controversy sparked by Kepala Batas MP Siti Mastura Mohamad, who has Lee Kuan Yew’s family name wrong and alleged that DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang is a cousin of Singapore’s founding prime minister and also related to former Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng.

Siti Mastura holds a PhD conferred by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

The issue is not new and has been discussed by concerned academics and reported in the media repeatedly with no progress forthcoming. No politician thus far has the political will to effect change. As such discussions are now beginning to sound like a broken record.

Perhaps change is not forthcoming because those in the authority do not know what to change. Is it enough just to impose more stringent conditions on candidates as the minister suggested or perhaps checking and monitoring how a PhD is being conferred on the candidate by the universities, as suggested by Rayer, is more important?

As a retired academic in the field of social science, I am certainly not convinced by the minister’s answer that imposing more stringent conditions on candidates will ensure better quality PhDs.

Quality PhD, research

For a start, those in the authority should understand what is meant by quality PhDs and quality research in social science disciplines.

Perhaps after understanding the tedious process of producing a good quality PhD thesis, the minister will agree with Rayer to check and monitor how PhDs are being produced in the universities.

A PhD programme is an educational journey for those who would like to learn how to carry out proper scientific research that will add “valid” and “reliable” knowledge to society.

A good PhD will also provide representative data on the subject matter. As such, there are proper procedures to be followed. How these procedures are being carried out will determine how credible and valid the PhD.

A PhD student will definitely need the guidance of his or her supervisor; normally a senior lecturer or professor. A credible supervisor will be able to guide and impart good step-by-step research knowledge to his or her students.

In general, a social science PhD thesis will have the following chapters with the word limit of 80,000 to 100,000:

Chapter 1: Introduction:
Introduction
Problem statement
Objectives of research
Definition of concepts
Theoretical framework and hypotheses, or Conceptual framework
Significance of research
Limitation of research

Chapter 2. Literature review
Chapter 3. Methodology
Chapter 4. Analysis of data and findings
Chapter 5. Discussion
Chapter 6. Conclusion
Chapter 7. Bibliography
Chapter 8. Appendices

Each chapter of the thesis will be carefully written as every word that is penned has a meaning.

For example, a student writes that there is a significant difference between males and females in how often they read. When the word “significant” is being used, an examiner would expect the hypothesis or assumption to be tested using the correct statistical test and not because there are 20 percent more females than males who read every day.

A good supervisor will read every word that the student has written and ensure that the thesis has reached the quality that is expected during the “viva voce” or oral examination.

The literature review is where the student will show that he or she is well read and informed on the subject matter before embarking on his or her research. Besides reading the literature review, the examiner will also check every reference in the thesis to ensure that they are from credible sources and not “fake” information.

The methodology of the research will be critically examined for “validity” and “reliability”. If the research method employed is not correct, then the thesis will have failed the quality test.

Analysis of the data is another crucial aspect. If the wrong method of analysis or the wrong statistical test is being used, the thesis could be rejected. The findings of the analysis will provide the answers for discussion and conclusion to meet the objectives of the research.

The thesis will also be carefully examined for plagiarism.

Supervisors’ load

It is tedious and hard work supervising as well as examining PhD students. Normally a supervisor will only be able to supervise two or the most three students at a time.

However, in our local universities, it is not uncommon to find supervisors having more than 10 students and proudly showing off to other colleagues. The more students they supervise, the more marks will be given for their yearly performance appraisal, and the faster they will get their promotion.

With such a large number of students, can one believe that such supervisors could do a good job and the students could learn substantially from them? Moreover, with the complaints that there is a substantial number of “kangkung” (low quality) professors in our academia, will they produce good PhDs or “kangkung” PhDs?

As for Siti Mastura, how could she get Kuan Yew’s family name wrong? Secondly, if you are a PhD holder, you should have been trained you must always refer to credible sources and if you are making an allegation, you should double-check your facts. This is one of the major rules in research. How could she have gone so wrong?

If the minister of higher education is serious about upholding the quality of PhDs, I would suggest that besides having more stringent conditions, he should take up Rayer’s advice to check all the theses produced within the last 10 years to determine the extent of the rot in the academia before taking steps to fix it and to monitor the quality in the universities to ensure that only those who are qualified could obtain PhDs.

However, be warned that it will not be easy because there will be resistance from the “kangkung” professors and lecturers.

The writer is a retired professor in Criminology and Sociology, and a member of Gerak, Aliran and Kami9.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.