You are totally right Prof. My first six month was just to search for a new topic, because both of my supervisors changed their minds...they gave me three months to conduct literature reviews, and three months for a proposal, if not, they would like terminate my candidacy....that's part of my challenges...I am hoping those who boasted that they can finish Ph.D less than three years, should praised to Allah more, and not to become Takabbur, because He had alleviated the debacles in their Ph.D process...
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Dear Prof,
Thank you for sharing and started this discussion. I think it is important to be able to talk to others about the hard journey of working on a PhD.
It always makes me wonder when Mohe make remarks on the down part of Malaysian PhD's candidates that had struggled in completing their thesis more then 4 years, do they ever thought of many candidates that did not managed to complete?
I just finished my viva few weeks ago, and now waiting for the written changes from the examiners.
I would like to extend the discussion about some candidates that managed to complete their PhD's in 2 and half years. If a candidates began it's research from scratch it is almost impossible to complete it in 2 and half years. Some of my fellow colleague who managed to do that, told me that they started their 'research' 2 or 3 years before they enrolled their PhD, and therefore Yes, they can complete and submit after a year of two enrolled as a full time candidate.
For those who is still in the struggling process, my prayers is with you. The efforts that you're making now will be a big contribution to the nation and the area of knowledge and expertise. So head up and keep on walking straight even though the road is rocky and hard.
All the best, and may God be with you.
Nurul Rahman
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Thank you for all the comments. One of my friends managed to complete within 2 1/2 years. He worked from 10am -10 pm every day, and on weeekends.. He sent his family home. He got his PhD but at a terrible cost.. terrible personal cost.
Next is the story of my husband, prof Wan Mohtar who finished writing up his PhD well within 3 years and waited for one whole year for me to write up and viva etc etc. Plus, me having the children!(Ehem). Of course we are humans and we cannot stop living like human beings just because we were doing our PhD's !. After 6 months he never got any results, his microbes never grew and his supervisor told him to go home , home to Malaysia. He told me we should go and do umrah and ask from Almighty God to open up the bottleneck. When we came back, alhamdulilah, the microbes grew and the rest is history.
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Absolutely agree with this article. Doing PhD is not an easy thing for me either..It is the lowest time I've ever felt in my great academic achievements so far..I started my PhD with a great enthusiasm but as I go along and the more I dig into the matter, the more stupid I feel..At one point I cried - almost into a breakdown state..I couldn't bear of making fool of myself..
But now, I'm happy..I'm almost near to end..Thank you Allah for giving me the strength to carry on till the finishing line.....
I think I will never look back at the thesis either once I've completed this course because it will bring back the suffering moment I've gone through to finish up this 200 pages of thesis....not the glory moment as the one I will have everytime I looked at my degree/spm/pmr/upsr transcripts.
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Dear Ain,
You sound so sad..the PhD must have drained all your energy!
The energy will come back and you will find the energy and enthusiasm to embark on more research.
The one great lesson we should be able to get from doing this PhD is to have empathy with those who are doing their PhD's and give them encouragement and words of inspiration.That is what I tried to do in my article. As an academic administrator myself, I want our academic staff to finish quickly and successfully, but I do not want to just push them to the brink. The success of the programme depends on them as well as us. We must continuously give you people support. Even lending a shoulder for you to cry on if your experiments don't work is good enough (Juju!!!!).It's not going to literally do anything to the failed/stalled experiments but it will not make it look as if the world is coming to an end. when you think nobody is listening, the problems become unsurmountable. You probably have 'whined'how your experiments have failed 20 times to the same person.(The same suffering person)
Ain, of course you will look at your PhD degree but you will smile in nostalgia...at all the memories it will bring back. After a while, they all become glossed over and attain a certain sanitised and what is the word to get rid of pain? yes..that word,
I must have written something close to many people's hearts to get many comments on this post
I cannot even find my MCE cert. I had to go back to my old school to look for it to certify my MCE grades to sahkan dalam jawatan in 1987.
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