PhD is a source of prestige and is the apex of academic ability. However, anyone dreaming of becoming a doctor of philosophy in any field ought to listen to entrepreneurs a second time. A product that solves a problem sells, the innovators say.
You don’t start a venture to make money. Unfortunately, a good percentage of people the world over further their studies and launch PhD journeys to make loads of money without knowing how their degrees — were they to graduate — will solve a problem.
This means a PhD holder ought to see a problem and take risks to confront the ogre, some scary and others hidden from the naked eye.
Recently, some Kenyans have become the butt of social media jokes when the Daily Nation newspaper reported that some Drs — yes, that revered Daktari title — have remained as primary school teachers while fighting stigma and possible heart-ache years after kneeling to get superior powers. They spent a fortune in time and money to deliver their dreams.
However, to their disbelief, they are applying for jobs like everyone else and only accumulate regrets for responses while their eyes are glued to lofty desks at university, in national and county governments. All to no avail, forcing them to lie low, lest they upset the environment made up of their pupils, colleagues, bosses, associates, and society at large.
Like in football lingo, PhD students belong in the Group of Death long before graduation. In 2010, The Economist wrote that “One thing many PhD students have in common is dissatisfaction.”
It is a programme of nuances, including breathtaking supervision, prohibiting budgets and punishing reading that averagely runs for five years; in the US, some take up to more than a decade to complete the studies. The dropout rate is higher than 50 percent.
The hope of differentiating self in the job market tops the reasons they keep fighting to complete the programmes that sometimes require going into debt. However, the pay or job advantage PhDs have over the rest is, according to The Economist article, not more than 26 percent.
“Over all subjects, a PhD commands only a three percent premium over a master’s degree,” it said.
Apart from the search for higher pay and increasing chances of getting a job as a researcher or a faculty member, people join PhD classes out of passion while others land scholarships that keep them running for years without the headache of looking for a job.
Many countries, including Kenya since 2017, now require a university lecturer to have a PhD, something that has increased enrolment.
According to Gill Houston, who chairs the UK Council of Graduate Education, PhD trains candidates to become “critical thinkers, to synthesise knowledge, work across functions and disciplines, to embrace ethical practice, to be deep thinkers….”
Deep thinkers are naturally the problem-solvers; unfortunately, PhDs have been accused of tying themselves to university-speak in their ivory towers where they do nothing apart from praising worthless citations in unsightly papers that gather dust on shelves while the world is groaning under rubbles of problems and challenges requiring top ideas.
Julian Kirchherv wrote in The Guardian in 2018 that “some study PhD to chase citations, not improve society.”
When Europe launched PhD studies in 1917, the goal was to produce people who are “stewards” in their disciplines and professions. Such stewards should not be found queuing for the jobs of the rank and file, but ought to be risk-takers who can confront the plague armed with knowledge. They don’t wait for advertised jobs, they create their own.
This is the goal that has eluded many a PhD holder whose prowess in mastering other people’s theories and defining them with finesse without tangible application is the eerie norm.
Across the world, there is more leaning towards skills than amassing knowledge that does not breathe or get tested. After a master’s degree, some people are now going for short professional courses that are designed to address particular industry trends and challenges.
Unfortunately, in Kenya, some master’s and PhD holders have been forced to hide their qualifications when recruiters claim they are overqualified for certain roles. You don’t block the best, you allow them to join the system and gain from their competence.
As Confucius said, knowledge ought to be applied. This can be done individually or as a team since the world is mapped in problems and challenges.
PhDs in the four corners of the globe are reminded that challenges form an untidy mound in homes, rural areas, cities—leading to informal settlements— and it is inaccurate to claim they lack jobs. It is time they proved what they can do to deliver dignity to as many people as possible.
