Re: Ph.D. Thesis Ideas and Material Available: Not a PhD?

Alistair (alistair_f@mail.global.co.za)
Tue, 17 Sep 1996 23:27:51 GMT

Lapeplau@ucla.edu (Steve Gordon) wrote:

::>Whatever happened to that old tradition that a doctoral candidate is
::>responsible for developing original research ideas and collecting his/her
::>own research material? Do our universities need PhDs who cannot formulate
::>their own research ideas and material?

Dunno about your universities, but here in SA we have a university
that feels compelled to place advertisements in the press and on the
radio (on the TV, too, for all I know) that stridently assert that a
Wits degree is "worth more than the paper it's written on".

Unfortunately, given the fact that many people have come to view Wits
students as barbaric hooligans, and certain of their senior staff as
fraudulent liars, this institution is gaining an increasingly
unsavoury reputation.

I'd say a lack of PhD who cannot formuklate their own research ideas
and material is probably a relatively insignificant problem.

Alistair Fall.