Some lessons for graduate students

(Second of two parts)

In last week’s column, I recounted the recent experiences of Dr. Denny Ng of the University of Nottingham’s campus in Malaysia, and identified two factors that were instrumental in the successful completion of his Ph.D. degree in the span of just over two years. These factors were that he was a full-time student supported with adequate funding for his research, and that he was supervised by a thesis adviser who was himself an energetic, seasoned and resourceful researcher. This week, we take an extended look at Denny’s case and try to draw some additional lessons.

One key factor that played an important role is that of age. Denny was 24 and fresh out of the university when he started his Ph.D. studies, and was unencumbered by many of the responsibilities of family and work that many, more mature Ph.D. students in the Philippines face. It may also be the case that he was also in his mental and physical prime during the two years that he was a Ph.D. student. Having worked with him myself, I am now convinced that it is best to begin graduate studies in one’s twenties. This is in stark contrast with the profile of typical Ph.D. students in the Philippines, who tend to be much older. In addition, many of them are already faculty members from universities or colleges, since in the Philippines, a doctoral degree is seldom considered as a minimum requirement for a full-time post.

Denny also spent a good deal of time going through literature, not just in his first few months of his studies, but throughout his two years as a Ph.D. student. This activity was, after all, necessary for him to stay abreast of state-of-the-art developments in process systems engineering, and thus ensure that any innovations arising from his work had not yet been done by someone else. In addition, he learned early on that journal articles are the prime source of information for any serious researcher, and likewise the most important venue for disseminating one’s findings and staking one’s claim to new ideas. This lesson should not be lost on our local graduate students. It’s always a bad sign when a Ph.D. student relies too heavily on conference papers (which will usually contain only tentative results), books (which, on the other hand, often contain diluted and delayed knowledge) and “gray literature” (which often contain information of doubtful quality). Although subscriptions are often prohibitively expensive, journals contain the best, newest and most important ideas of researchers from all over the world, thus serious research-oriented institutions in the Philippines are already learning to invest substantial portions of their library budgets in this vital knowledge resource. Nevertheless, many local researchers still encounter problems gaining access to the right journals. They find themselves having to resort to different strategies, such as asking the article’s author for an electronic copy, or, as a last resort, purchasing the article online for what amounts to a hefty sum by local standards (the typical price per article varies depending on the publisher, but I’ve had to pay anything from P500 to P1,500 for past downloads). In any case, it is a good idea for any graduate student to get into the habit of relying predominantly on journal articles for literature review.

The final piece of the puzzle is motivation. All too often, local graduate students successfully navigate their way through the first year or so of coursework, only to falter when they reach the research phase. There are, of course, all sorts of reasons why people go into doctoral studies. My impression is that the most successful Ph.D. students are those who are genuinely passionate about their research. This means that such students see themselves as researchers in training, and see the Ph.D. program as a means to learn how to do research the right way, and that any benefits that result from eventually getting the degree are of secondary importance. Only that kind of deep-seated motivation will see a student through the inevitable self-doubt that sets in during the research process. This was certainly the case for Denny (who experienced his fair share of journal paper rejections), and is also the case for my most successful colleagues and collaborators.

To summarize, some of the key lessons we can draw from Dr. Ng’s case on the successful completion of a Ph.D. are as follows: research-based graduate studies are best done on a full-time basis; it is important to have a good adviser who is not only an expert in his or her field, but is also able to create opportunities for learning; it is best to start out at an early age, preferably in one’s mid- to late-twenties; it is essential to recognize the value of journal articles, both as the principal source of knowledge, and as the principal venue for disseminating one’s work; and finally, it is essential to make sure that one goes into a Ph.D. program for the right reasons. These past few years have seen significant improvements in the general environment for scientific research in the Philippines. Local universities have gotten better, and there is now more funding available for scholarships, research equipment and travel. In the coming years, we should see if more young Filipinos take up the challenge to become part of the small, but growing, local scientific community.

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The author is a full professor of chemical engineering and university fellow at De La Salle University, Manila. His research interests include pinch analysis, life cycle assessment and process systems engineering. He is the recipient of multiple awards from the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) and the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), and currently has over 40 published or forthcoming articles in ISI-indexed journals in chemical, environmental and energy engineering. He is also a member of the editorial board of Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy. He can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].