Every day students are starting PhD all around the world, but a
lot of them will never finish it and in this video I will show
you the five main reasons students quit and never
completed their PhD. So let's get started.
Please note that this video is not a de motivating video, and a
large number of students who start a PhD also finish it
normally for students, it is difficult to get an advice,
whether PhD is good for them, or they're good for PhD. And this
question is hard to answer. And students should seek some advice
before they start PhD from people who they trust because
students are embarking on a career which will consume a big
part of their life. And most of the students they assume that
PhD is good, and having doctor with their name is a big deal.
So this is a short video and which may help some new students
in some way by providing a bigger picture and I would like
to see your comments and my timika detailed video. However,
the purpose of this video is that out of these five reasons
first three cans b can be prevented and Divya should guide
the students who are stuck due to these three reasons and make
a difference. But for the last two reasons, they are utterly
different and those students do not deserve getting a PhD. So
let's talk about the first reason most of the time when
students start their PhD, they are highly motivated, they have
big goals, they think they have become somewhat special just by
starting their PhD air pumped up, they think that they are
someone who is very special they got this scholarship they got
this PhD position out of the thousands of other students and
they must do something very big, they can do something very big,
and they must do something very big, which should change the
whole world whole science and technology or whatever their
field. So, they are so pumped up motivation up to an extent is
good for doing PhD, but this over motivation is not and this
over motivation is due to not understanding what actually the
PhD is and they think that they have good results in their HSC
in their a level or in their bachelor degree. So, they must
do something very big and they can do it and the matter of the
fact is that still they need to learn a lot of things and this
getting high score and in best layer ITC levels This means
nothing for PhD or for even getting a job in advanced
countries. This means nothing degree 99% of the time your
degree does not count are even if it counts if you can take 33%
of the time. And the rest of the two third are your personal
attributes and your communication skills. And most
cases, their best a degree is the even not relevant to their
PhD and they should realize this now coming to the second reason,
which is misunderstanding the role of their PhD supervisor and
their expectations are very high. Most of us think of a
supervisor as a person who distributes PhD degrees he or
she will place them in a room next to his or her room for the
next four years. We will meet them from time to time hand over
to them some bits and pieces of their PhD degree which they will
just put together like a jigsaw and their PhD degree will be
ready and on their part what they do they enjoy their time
with their family with their friends, because they have
plenty of free time. They don't care about anything, because
they think their supervisor will take care of all the things in
after four years, somehow they will become doctor after some
time they realize they start to realize that the guidance is
little the work is hard and the expectations of their supervisor
from them from them are even higher than their expectations
from their supervisor, then they start feeling the stress
and then mental issues
then start developing some mental issues. Then they start
talking about our you know, choice of supervisor is very
important for a PhD if you will, you will see them talking like
this. And after a few more months, they will say oh you
know what, I want to do something which I am passionate
about. Actually, they were very passionate about the PhD. But
they did not realize what the PhD is how to proceed how to
handle this important carrier episode. So then after some time
they just quit. And don't get me wrong. That selecting a proper
supervisor in your area of interest is another important
thing. But that is less important than making too much
expectations from your supervisor. Now the third
reason, which I call it lost in the literature review. So what
happens is, during the first year supervisor says to them,
you have to do a literature review the review of the
research papers into your area of research, and they start
looking for papers, every title looks good, every title, every
heading looks relevant to their subject, and they start
selecting some papers, then they start to focus on a smaller
area, they read some more paper than they realize there are some
references in the papers, then they start reading those
references. And with the passage of time, that pile of paper
grows and grows and grows and they are completely lost, they
have no idea what to do, where to go, everything looks so
relevant. So good, every graph is appealing every experiment is
attracting. So, they have lost Indian literature review. And
after one year, they just give up the fourth reason is, which I
call gambling. And you will think what the gambling has to
do with PhD, but actually, this gambling happens in third world
countries, so called third world you might agree or not, but so
what happens there is because your PhD can give you a
promotion, if you are a lecturer, if you do PhD, it can
be promoted to associate professor or something like
that. So there are a group of people who know that PhD is not
for them, they are not for PhD, they won't be able to complete
PhD. But they gamble. They think, Okay, let's try let's
enroll in a PhD program, if we do, we will become Associate
Professor some more money, but they know that they are if they
are a lecturer, they are even not doing their lectureship
properly. But they just gamble. And and some might think that,
okay, we'll put some other work together and compile the thesis.
But unfortunately for them with modern tools, this is not going
to happen. The copyright infringement are very easy to
detect with modern tools. And this also needs in a separate
video, which I will make some time. So they never complete,
they're never able to complete their PhD. So this is the fourth
reason. No, the recommendation for them is instead of doing
this, they should have invested some time in proper carrier
development or even in carriers change activities. Now the fifth
reason that happens in advanced countries. So therefore I put
these two specific reasons. One is for the third world
countries. And the last reason is for the advanced countries.
Why this is one of the advanced countries, because the advanced
countries. One thing is that there are a lot of fundings
available like in Australia, where I live, there is a huge
amount of funding PhD funding available. But this funding is
for local students only, no international students can
apply. So this funding is for local students. But
unfortunately, the local people here that don't give much credit
to PhD, that they PhD useless. So they don't participate in
those funding opportunities. But some people know this. They know
this fact. And these are the type of people who I call them
carrier students. They adopt studentship as their carrier. So
what they do, they they know how to get funding, they know how to
write application, they know how to communicate, their
communication skills are very good.
And they get these fundings. They start PhD after for four
and a half year, they quit, they go to another university start
in a different subject and they never complete their PhD because
once they complete, they become ineligible for any further
funding. This is the requirement that the student should not have
a PhD degree before so they do it like this. So why don't you
do this? There are a few reasons. Number one, corporate
jobs are very difficult in here. long working hours. And some
people don't want to work too long hours. They hate these nine
to five jobs, which actually end up nine to seven is a seven to
seven actually. So they don't want to do that. They enjoy the
easy lifestyle. They work part time they get student for
benefits from government because student have concession others
things They also get some benefits like Social Security
benefits. So they enjoy their life time with their friends and
family and they never completed their PhD. So these carrier
students are a special type of creature, which only exists in
advanced countries. So that's it for now, video is becoming very
long. I hope that you find this video useful. And don't expect
too much from yourself. Don't expect too much from your
supervisor. And don't think that every paper is relevant to you.
Try to figure out which papers you should read and which paper
you should never read. Never ever. So thanks for watching.
See you next time.