10 steps to phd failure

7/23/2019 10 Steps to PhD Failure

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BY KEVIN HAGGERTY

BY AARON DOYLE u= url url

10 steps to PhD failureKevin Haggerty and Aaron Doyle offer tips on making postgraduate study even tougher (which

students could also use to avoid pitfalls if they prefer)

August 27 2015

PAGE 1 OF 3

Given the stakes involved, one peculiar aspect of graduate school is the number of students who

seem indifferent to its pitfalls. Year after year many run headlong, like lemmings, off the same cliffs

as their predecessors. Yet a good share of these people ignore or are even hostile towards the advice

that might help them avoid screwing up.

Having repeatedly witnessed this process, we have concluded that a small group of students actually

want to screw up. We do not know why. Maybe they are masochists or fear success. Whatever the

reason, our heart goes out to them. Indeed, we hope to help them by setting down a course of

action that will ensure that they blunder through graduate school in a spectacularly disastrous

fashion.

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1. Stay at the same university

It can be tempting to obtain all three of your degrees (undergraduate, masters and PhD) at the same

university: you have already established personal and professional friendships there, you know the

routines of the university, you have a solid working relationship with the academics, and you even

have lined up a potential PhD supervisor who will incorporate you into an existing research project.

However, if you actually want to succeed, doing so is probably a mistake.

Friends and colleagues often tell students to obtain their degrees at different universities, but

seldom explain why. One reason is that departments have different strengths. Going to a different

university or country exposes you to different perspectives. If you complete both your

undergraduate and your masters at one location, some say that you have probably got everything

you can from the kind of scholarship and research practised in that department. (Whether this is

true is a different matter.)

Going somewhere else for your PhD shows that you have expanded your intellectual horizons. In

contrast, others will view the fact that you did all your degrees at the same place as an indication

that you lack scholarly breadth and independence, and that you were not wise or committed enough

to follow this standard advice about studying elsewhere.

2. Do an unfunded PhD

If you receive an offer for admission to a PhD programme that does not include funding, you should

walk away. If the funding arrangement is vague, you should clarify it as much as possible to make

sure that it has substance. While many masters students are unfunded, the normal practice is for

PhD students to be supported through scholarships, teaching, a supervisors individual research

grants, or a combination of those things. An offer of admission without a financial package can be

interpreted in several different ways, but none is encouraging.

Most obviously, it signals that the department is not committed to you. It can also be a sign of

problems or even crisis in your department, university or discipline. Beyond what the lack of

funding might say about how the admissions committee views you, an unfunded PhD will require

you to support yourself through your course, research and writing your thesis. This precarious

financial situation is demanding and can severely delay your completion.

3. Choose the coolest supervisor

Several years ago, I pulled aside a graduate student and advised her to find a different PhD

supervisor. I delicately, but clearly, pointed out that her current supervisor had a record of relating

poorly to others and was seen as a source of extreme irritation by many departmental colleagues.

The student was torn for her supervisor was also charismatic, had published in prominent outlets,

and had research interests that were reasonably close to her own. So she rolled the dice and

maintained the relationship.

Three years later, the student sat in my office completely distraught. Her supervisor would not

respond to emails and phone calls and was taking forever to comment on drafts of her thesis

chapters. In essence, her supervisor failed her as a mentor, her degree was in crisis, and she needed

to find a new supervisor quickly.

Screwing up your choice of supervisor is one of the biggest missteps you can make in graduate

school. It is also easy to do. If you choose a supervisor because of a single overriding factor such as

a desire for someone who is personable, or is not intimidating, or has a big name you risk choosing

poorly.

So choose carefully, and do not let any one factor sway your decision too much. Enquire about

whether others recognise your potential supervisor as a solid choice. Do her students finish their

degrees, and in a reasonable time? Does she publish work of high quality in prominent outlets? Does

she have a record of getting her students published? Does she equitably co-author articles with her

students? Is the supervisor too overwhelmed with other commitments to give you the attention you

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E R(/USERS/DESCHANT)| 27 AUG 2015 15:05PM

Most of the advice here should be taken with a pinch of salt to say the least. Perhaps more importantly, the authors

seem to think every PhD candidate has a choice on all of the matters mentioned above, ignoring that certain

students, universities and disciplines are more privileged than others. For example:

Point 1) I'm as committed as most people in academia to the idea of moving around and changing institutions- but

have the authors considered that some students may have families or other caring commitments?

Point 2) Although I would advice anyone to think very carefully and consider all the risks before embarking on a self-

funded PhD, with PhD funding for the Arts and Humanities falling to pitiful levels, it is ridiculous to say that failure to

get funding equals lack of commitment from your department. Last year, the AHRC gave funding to 1 PhD student

only in my discipline in Scotland; believe me that, in thus hyper-competitive climate, there are several excellent

projects that failed to get funding.

Point 3) Again, I would advise every prospective PhD student to do their research and find out as much as possible

about their supervisor, but how is a recent UG or Masters graduate to 'make sure that [your supervisor] will actuallywork with you'? Finding out that sort of information, specially for a supervisor who is problematic, requires the sort of

networks and social capital that prospective students don't normally have. Do you suggest students approach current

and former PhD students of said potential supervisor and expect to get all the truth from them? Doesn't seem

realistic.

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MURAT ZEL(/-/2045293.PUBLICPROFILE)| 27 AUG 2015 18:01PM

Very useful advice, in my opinion, though not each of the items listed here can be applicable to all situations. I see

that PhD is used interchangably with the word "doctorate" since it is the most common and well-established type of

doctoral degree, however what I miss is a wider approach to the doctoral level study, covering professional

doctorates as well for example, which in some ways may differ significantly in how the research is handled.

Regards,



NANCY L. RUTHER(/-/2052329.PUBLICPROFILE)| 27 AUG 2015 21:21PM

Reverse logic is catchy and most advice is worth heeding. Writing well is crucial. It is a pity that the coupling bit

focuses on women as PhD students, not men. It is still almost always men in the faculty advisor role. I probably

would have put it closer to "choose your advisor" as "watch you partner" perhaps?



JOHN KELMAR(/-/611388.PUBLICPROFILE)| 28 AUG 2015 4:45AM

Unfortunately I did not complete my PhD at a top ranked British University due to the nefarious attitude of my Head

of School at the Australian University where I was employed as a Lecturer. His problem was that I was far too pro-

active in developing new courses and developing an International reputat ion in my field of Small Business and

Entrepreneurship. He stated that I was flying too high as a Lecturer, and was really annoyed when my courses in

Small Business and Entrepreneurship were accepted by the academic board - he had told me that if I wanted to

teach these units then I should be working at a Tech College, as these were NOT university subjects. For the

establishment of these courses I was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence, so others thought that I

was performing in a manner befitting the academic brief.

When I returned from the UK after the first nine months of research, my Head of School had given my teaching

responsibility to another person, and told to that I had to teach Management units only. Again I further upset him

when his superior overruled him on this matter. He further commented that I was "Not a True Academic because I

had extensive Business Experience" (CEO of four companies) and took a practical approach in my teaching despite

my record of academic publications and conference presentations (80 plus in ten years).

was eventually sacked from my Lecturing position when I spoke out against the bribes and corruption inherent in

the University between staff and students, whereby some students were being awarded excellent marks without

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need? Has she secured research grants? What kinds of jobs did her previous students obtain? Is the

supervisor immersed in her academic community?

Also consider the personality of a potential supervisor. Do colleagues find her easy to work with?

You should consult widely.

The availability of an appropriate supervisor should definitely affect your decision about which PhD

programme to attend. But if the person you have your sights set on is known as a good supervisor,

there are likely to be other students seeking to work with her. If you are going to a university mainly

to work with that person, make sure that she will actually work with you.

Eminent sociologist has recycled 90,000 words of

material across a dozen books, claims paper

Kevin Haggerty and Aaron Doyle offer

tips on making postgraduate study even tougher (which

students could also use to avoid pitfalls if they prefer)

10 steps to PhD failure(/features/ten-

steps-to-phd-failure)


4/4

submitting any work.

Thus, having a good boss is the best way to complete a PhD.

However, I have been told that I needed a PhD to work in an Australian University so that I could write articles for

publication, but I have written many articles in peer reviewed academic journals, was on the International Advisory

Board of an International journal in Entrepreneurship for approximately 15 years, and my papers were always

accepted at International Academic Conferences in Small Business and Entrepreneurship due to my ability to

combine the academic theory with the practical application.



CHARLES KNIGHT

(/-/2010204.PUBLICPROFILE)| 28 AUG 2015 14:55PMA very odd article - where is the evidential support for the first claim?

t would be useful if the article made it clear that these two are talking from a North American perspective and thus

many of their suggestions take no account of how PhD are undertaken in the UK. Moreover like a lot of the columns

here it takes no account of the fact there is no such thing as the academy and advice that is sensible to a HUM/SS

student would be inapproriate to a student in the hard sciences in a lab and so on.



LISA BECKER(/USERS/LISAB15)| 29 AUG 2015 7:01AM

Pretty straightforward advice, with a twist on the initial framing (what to do in order to fail, i.e. what not to do). I would

even go as far as calling it the conventional wisdom. I didn't like some of the advice. Some, like changing universities

n the undergraduate-graduate career - because it stays cryptic even after they explain it. I myself changeduniversities when passed from the MA to the PhD and learned very little from the changed environment. I did learn

that incompetency is everywhere. My greater reservation, though, is that the authors are saying the PhD students

should just 'play the game'. Write a limited thesis, write in simple words, develop a thick skin, etc. This type of advice

produce highly conformist PhDs. It also puts all the burden on PhDs themselves, and ignores the unfairness of a

system that puts students in such a dependent and challenging position.



HARRY STOPES(/-/2053815.PUBLICPROFILE)| 29 AUG 2015 11:53AM

"Three years later, the student sat in my office completely distraught. Her supervisor would not respond to emails

and phone calls and was taking forever to comment on drafts of her thesis chapters. In essence, her supervisor

failed her as a mentor, her degree was in crisis, and she needed to find a new supervisor quickly."

Did you speak to your colleague about what a s***head he is, or did you just let it slide and blame the graduate

student for his appalling behaviour?



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