A student’s life is full of challenges and aspirations. And the ones who aim higher, are the ones who achieve too. I am talking about the brilliant lot, here.
Many students are content with the basic education they receive, while many like to challenge themselves to newer avenues to test their abilities and achieve greater heights.
One of the such challenges is a Doctorate Degree, a.k.a. PhD, in a student’s life.
It is undeniably counted as one the most important and the highest grade in the catalogue of educational qualification, that an academician can acquire. And as they say, the paramount can never be achieved without effort. Especially the one which requires day and night effort, brings the finest fruits as its result.
Yet, as it is believed, one has to be a little strange to want to do a doctorate or PhD. Because, once you take up a PhD, you really have to give up on a chance to earn some real money in a steady job. You will be your own boss, setting up your own timetables, goals and agendas for several years of little or possibly no money.
Let us discuss a few imperative points about PhD, to help the students understand better.
What is PhD?
PhD or research based education, which fetches a degree of a Doctorate, is directly related with a student’s academic field.
Entering students often think of a PhD as a ‘magnum opus’, a brilliant research project culminating in a great work. This is rather an extremely demanding model and very few students win Nobel Prizes as a result of their doctoral studies.
As rightly phrased by someone, a PhD is more like strolling around in familiar territories with a magnifying glass which fetches less of major discovery of new lands, but more painstakingly detailed investigation of some well-known ones.
In realistic terms, a PhD is a demonstration of your indepth research competence. Through your research, a student is expected to demonstrate the following:
- Mastery of The Chosen Subject
- Research Insight
- Respect For The Discipline
- Capacity For Independent Research
- Ability To Lay Down The Results And Relate Them To A Broader Discourse
These parameters definitely reflect competence and professionalism, rather than magnitude. More importantly, they are as much about comprehending others’ work as about doing one’s own.
Therefore, a PhD is research training leading to a professional research qualification. A PhD can also be a deep, specific education in a discipline, preceding a postdoctoral period of on-the-job training.
Why PhD?
With the changing times and swift upgrading in the academic grounds, PhD is becoming a coveted part of educational life. Research scholars are seen playing 3 important roles in the course of their PhD, which basically explains the requirement of it.
- Getting involved only in the research field without any teaching requirement in order to dig out more information’s and findings about many new issues and cases.
- Getting involved in teaching sector only, without indulging in any research task. This particular requirement emerges in the higher education only, where the master’s or doctoral studies have been completed. Earlier, it was not the compulsion for lecturers to hold any doctorate degree, but as per the raised benchmarks in the educational qualifications of the educationists, it is slowly becoming imperative.
- Getting involved in teaching as well as research both, in their respective fields, so as to deliver more practical lectures with the most updated information of the topics in question. This is often demanded in the doctoral level teaching where the lead has to teach the pursuing candidates also and keep screwing new nuts of the topic, along side.
Thankfully, there also are some very good understandable reasons to support that why a normal, sane person should choose a doctorate or a PhD.
To Achieve or Create Something In Life Worth A Mention
If your ambition is to make money, then please go and become an entrepreneur. But if you are ambitious enough to challenge yourself, push yourself to new heights or achieve a difficult goal, then a doctorate or a PhD is definitely for you.
To Discover New Horizons In Life
If you still have that childlike curiosity left in you, after all the years in the college, you have all the potential to be a great researcher. If at all you feel a driving force pushing you to explore and learn new things, then you may love research, and find a doctorate is perfect for you.
To Improve On Self And Betterment of Life
If you only wish to pursue a PhD degree for the sake of a pay raise, then forget it. A PhD course is a great tool for greater things in life. It can improve on your abilities to understand and solve problems, it increases your confidence, it makes you a better communicator and helps you gain skills that may lead to a better job.
Only If It Fits Your Personality
Some people are made for a doctorate. You might have grown up doing countless little ‘research projects’ as hobbies. You might have a natural thirst for knowledge or an insatiable appetite for reading books about a particular topic. You might have had a lifelong fascination – even obsession – about something significant. If this sounds like you, and you can tailor a doctorate to suit your particular needs, then you’ll love it.
It May Serve As A Key to Abroad
Doctorates are in huge demand overseas, and if a scholar owns that degree from any renowned university it further increases the probability of an academic call from other nations. Thus, not only adds up to the employment scale and earning potential of the scholar, but also becomes a value adding point from the promotional point of view. Statistics show that a PhD scholar working abroad earns 50% more than, the one working here in the home country.
To sum it all, at last I would like to add, that whatever else it may be, a PhD Degree is undeniably a huge prestige tag, as till date it is the most illustrious degree that students aspire to achieve.
Now, it is completely your call, if you want to go for it or not!
