PhD not a title to gratify once ego

It was reported that the number of PhD holders among academic staff in public universities had increased by 133% since 2005 and Higher Education Department director-general Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi said there were now 14,000 PhD holders compared to 6,000 in 2005.

Of the 14,000, 60% were PhD holders in pure science, applied science, engineering, biology, physics, medical and technology and the rest in social and human sciences.

He said apart from increasing the number of researchers, scientists and engineers, the ministry would strengthen its research and innovation work as well as implement a programme called ‘MyBrain 15’ to produce 100,000 researchers over a period of 15 years.

This report seems to give the impression that we have produced 14,000 research or innovation equivalent to 14,000 PhDs.

What happened to the 14,000 innovations? Have these innovations been converted to products and services as 60% were from the science field, or are their theses still sitting on the bookshelves of university libraries?

What happened to the 40% who came from social and human science? How many of the theses out of the 14,000 were published in reputable journals?

Taxpayers’ money is being used to run these universities. At the end of the day, quality research needs to be seen. Otherwise, a PhD is merely a title to gratify once ego.

K.T. MARAN,