Last updated on May 13th, 2013
Nature seems to have focused on PhD system challenges in April 2011 as it has quite a few articles on this topic in Nature News then.
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"Reform the PhD system or close it down" by Mark C. Taylor, Head of department of Religion at Columbia university, writes that the PhD system in USA and many other countries is broken! He writes, "One reason that many doctoral programmes do not adequately serve students is that they are overly specialized, with curricula fragmented and increasingly irrelevant to the world beyond academia." He argues for reform of PhD in "almost every field".
"Education: Rethinking PhDs" by Alison McCook, a freelance writer, gives examples of science PhDs being done differently in terms of skills imparted and type of students admitted. It mentions that US science PhD degrees often need a first-author paper publication and take 7 years or more to complete! In UK it rarely exceeds 4 years and a paper publication is not mandatory in some institutions. It covers some other rethinking options as well like interdisciplinary approaches, providing skills as needed in industry (research) jobs, doing the PhD online or skipping the PhD.
"Fix the PhD" advises caution for unlimited growth of PhDs as it may dilute the quality of PhDs. It mentions that research grants from government agencies drives the research system in universities but not enough thought is given about the job market being able to employ those emerging from the research system of the universities. One suggestion it makes is "to better match educational supply with occupational demand" in science research.
"Education: The PhD factory" gives numbers for the rise in science doctorates, and examines the science doctorates picture in Japan (crisis), China ("Quantity outweighs quality?"), US (oversupply), India ("PhDs wanted") and a few other countries.
"Developing world: Educating India" states that India has experienced "an eight-fold increase in science and engineering enrolment at India's colleges and universities over the past decade, with most of the growth occurring in engineering and technology - fields in which jobs are especially plentiful". Between 2003 and 2009, the number of foreign companies establishing R&D facilities in India went up from 100 to 750! The rapid expansion of the higher education system has resulted in serious challenges about maintaining good quality. The paper also quotes a student (or two) giving details about corruption (money corruption) in his (her) institution - I feel quite ashamed about such matters related to India appearing in Nature. But I guess that's the truth and we Indians have to face up to it. Once we face up to it perhaps we can try to improve matters.
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