Is a PhD For Me? What Professionals Can Expect From Doctoral Studies

By Judy Backhouse

If you are a professional, deciding whether or not to enroll for a PhD can be difficult. It’s hard to know what to expect or what will be expected of you. The time and effort required are not clear. Success is uncertain and it’s not clear what the benefits are. Worst of all, you won’t really know what a PhD entails until you are in the program. Many professionals start a PhD and only then discover that it is not what they wanted.

This book helps you to decide. You will learn what a PhD is, and what it’s not. You will get to understand the academic nature of the degree and how that affects the kind of knowledge you will produce in your research. You’ll get an idea of what it’s like to do a PhD, what the benefits are, and what it takes to succeed. You’ll also learn how to make a PhD work for you, as part of a professional career.

This book is for any kind of professional, with a practice outside of the university who already has a master’s degree. It will help you if you are undecided about the value doing a PhD. The book is practical and gives you guiding questions that help you apply the information to your own circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judy Backhouse
• Release date: Feb 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463010327

Judy Backhouse

Judy Backhouse is an author of informative, practical books to help people craft good work lives. She draws on varied experience in academia, professional practice, business, teaching and management to make things simple and accessible. Judy is a career nomad. She started out training as a Mathematician, but dropped out of a PhD in Mathematics to pursue a career in Information Technology, working first in technical roles, and then in management. She returned to academia as Head of the School of Information Technology at Monash South Africa. More recently she worked in the Department of Information Systems at the University of the Witwatersrand, including a stint as Head of the School of Economic and Business Sciences. She has also worked in the public sector as the Director responsible for monitoring the South African higher education system and advice to the Minister of Higher Education at the South African Council on Higher Education. She completed her PhD on doctoral education and for five years convened a PhD program in Information Systems at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She has processed many PhD applications, interviewed many candidates, taught classes to PhD students, sat on panels to review proposals, listened to tales of woe and triumph from doctoral candidates, examined many PhD theses and attended numerous happy graduations. Judy lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Book preview

Is a PhD for me?

What professionals can expect from doctoral studies

Judy Backhouse (PhD)

Copyright 2019 Judy Backhouse

Smashwords Edition

PhD Paths

https://www.phdpaths.com

License Notes, Smashwords Edition

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Table of contents

Title page

Foreword: Why this book?

Who is this book for?

Chapter one: Why people do PhDs

Chapter two: What is a PhD?

Chapter three: Different kinds of doctorates

Chapter four: What to expect

Chapter five: What’s a PhD worth?

Chapter six: What you need to succeed

Chapter seven: What’s next?

About the PhD Pointers series

About the author

Connect with the author

Foreword: Why this book?

In my own experience of being a PhD student (twice) and in my experience of convening a PhD in Information Systems programme for the past five years, as well as from interactions with PhD students from different disciplines during workshops, I’ve seen many people start a PhD and not complete it. I’ve also seen many people start a PhD and find that it was not what they thought it would be. My research into doctoral education confirms that the experience of doing a PhD is often challenging because of a mismatch between the expectations of the PhD student and the expectations that the university and academic discipline have of the process.

A PhD is a big commitment in terms of time, money, effort, career opportunities that you may lose or forego, changes to your identity, and the emotional impact that it can have. Many people who start PhDs only find out that it is not what they wanted when they are so far into it that they feel they can’t drop out. Even when they complete the PhD, some people feel that it has been a step backwards in their lives and that they emerge worse off than when they started.

I want to try and prevent that happening to you. There are many people who have a wonderful time completing their PhDs, and they appreciate the changes in their lives and the possibilities that open up to them after they have graduated. How can you make sure that you are part of this group, and not one of the other group of disappointed graduates?

It’s mostly about expectations. If the expectations you have of the PhD don’t match what you get, you are likely to be disappointed. On the other hand, if your expectations are met, then you are likely to have a better time of it. I wrote this book to help you to get a realistic picture of what you can and can’t expect of doctoral studies, so that you can make an informed choice about whether or not to attempt a PhD.

If you do decide to do a PhD, knowing what to expect means that you can choose a programme that is a better fit with your expectations. If you understand what is expected of you and feel there is a good match, then you are more likely to look like a ‘good candidate’ to the professors who process your application and thus to get accepted. Finally, if you go in knowing what you can and can’t get out of PhD studies, you will be able to take charge of your studies and arrange things so that you achieve what you want to alongside meeting the academic requirements. This way you will be more likely to succeed and be satisfied with the experience.

Who is this book for?

This book is for you if you are considering (or even vaguely wondering) whether or not to enrol for a PhD. It will tell you why people do PhDs, what a PhD is, what you can expect from the process and the kinds of benefits that result from having a PhD. While the focus is on people who are trying to make up their minds, if you have already decided or even recently enrolled for a PhD, it might also give you some ideas about what to expect and help you to understand the PhD process better.

This book is about PhDs in the British tradition, rather than the American tradition. That is because I am based in South Africa and the system that we follow here emulates that of our erstwhile colonisers. In this tradition, the PhD comes after a master’s degree and consists of completing a substantial research project under the guidance of a supervisor. Generally, this kind of PhD does not include examined coursework, although you may be expected to attend seminars. In an American-style PhD (which emerged from the model followed in Europe) you complete a few years of coursework first and then complete your research. While there are lots of differences between the two traditions, the expectations of the research component are similar: you have to make a contribution of original knowledge to the existing body of knowledge in your discipline. What constitutes original knowledge is decided by experts in the discipline, based on established methods for conducting research.

Doctoral study varies enormously between countries, but it is also the area of study that is most international with many doctoral students studying outside of their home country. South Africa has become an international hub for doctoral studies because of its respected universities and low fees. In 2016, 44% of doctoral graduates in South Africa were international students, most of them from other African countries. So this book is probably most relevant to people from South Africa and others who are thinking of studying here, but much of what I have to say will apply if you are planning to study in another country.

This book also has a focus on people with professional backgrounds because the mismatch in expectations of the PhD seems to arise more often for these people than for those in, for example, the hard sciences. This book is for you if you are an engineer, a business person, a manager, a marketer, a teacher, a government official, a medical doctor, an accountant, an IT specialist, a lawyer or a nurse who is considering adding a PhD to your résumé. A lot of what I have to share is about the relationship between professional practice and academia because that seems to be where problems arise. It may also help people in the creative arts because the relationship between practice and academia is similarly complex in these domains.

Some of what I say may be relevant for people in other disciplines, but you will have to be the judge of that. This book is probably not for scientists. If you are a mathematician or physicist, chemist or botanist, and you want a research career, go ahead and get a PhD. It’s hard to have a research career in the sciences without one.

Chapter one: Why people do PhDs

Why do you want to get a PhD?

Before you read on to find out why other people do PhDs, give yourself a minute and write down some of your reasons.

Now let’s talk about those reasons. People who do PhDs have all sorts of motivations. In my research I asked PhD students in South African PhD programmes why they were doing it. Here are some of the answers I got.

To upgrade my knowledge

I want to make a contribution to the field

I think it can open doors for me in the future

"It is necessary