Just annoyed listening to people saying Ph.D. is not a
point of mind settlement as it does not guarantees job. What else does
guarantees job? If Ph.D. degree does not guarantee job, obviously, he/she want
to mean is, just some senseless sort of, job does guarantees job. Then, what
does mean by job? It’s nothing but just the monetary return of what we do. The
conventional meaning of job, in India, I don’t know for other countries, as in
the case of Ph.D. is getting into a teaching kind of institution- say, lectureship.
I would say this is a clear attitude of laziness to prefer get into Government
jobs to private sector similar jobs. Your Research either degree or
skill/aptitude is enough to get a job either independent undertaking or under
some agency and thus is how Research degree or the skill/aptitude does
guarantees your job.
You start killing the potential return of your
learning when the moment you feel your mainstream course either science or social
science such as (let me particularize about social science) Political Science,
History, Sociology or similar are less advantageous than professional course
like Social Work, Development or similar. Because, once you start gaining a Research
aptitude either during your Master programme or Research Master Programme (e.g.
M.Phil.) your potential to earn begins. There are lots more in the market
available for Research works which can be taken up either individually or in team
instead of waiting for a Government job.
To go to the job market of Research you need to show
your past Research works, an evidence that you have the skill and aptitude of Research,
done Research with your own topic of interest, your expression of thinking by
writing to show off your thought process and so on. When you start doing small
scale Research you are starting to apply your learning, just like engineer or
medical students applies during or after their course. There are lot many
agencies both government and non-government in the market in the field of Research
in which these kind of young students, Masters level or Undergraduates, who
possess a mindset of independent stand of thought and interest and have earlier
evidence for the same, are demanded. This is why I find strange to hear people
speaking about unemployment after holding a Research degree either M.Phil. /
Ph.D.
Perhaps many of the mainstream Social Science students
do not know about this job market (netizens can look up few sites for the
advertisement of internships and other development related jobs across Indian
such as Devnetjobsindia.org and NGObox.org and for internal such as Devnetjobs.org) which is why they feel less
advantageous then those so called professional course students. But, to me,
there is nothing like professional or non-professional course, all course are
professional when you apply for a purpose or all course are non-professional
unless they are not applied for a purpose.
In today’s corporate world the market and function
demands high level of personality apart from the competencies of silent desk
work, meaning the aptitude of Research. One needs to have the required
interpersonal skills in order to interact with the clients and the rest of the
world. As this kind of personality doesn't seem required in the normal academic
atmosphere, which is not supposed to be, students don’t feel the need to
learn it.
To come to the corporate Research and to gain these
personalities and experience one need to start exposure with Civil Societies may
in the form of internship right from the undergraduate life to Masters in the
field of applied Research (Such as the current Internship call in UNICEF China for Education and Child Development). This will give an exposure to both Research and
Project Management (Operational) of the Research program. One who is really
determined to be a Researcher does not need to hold a Research degree either M.Phil.
/ Ph.D. to be a competent Researcher, but the better if you have these to
certify your profile.
If we closely look into the course structure and
pedagogy of the so called professional course such as engineering in science
and Social Work and Development are theory loaded and far to be more practical.
For Engineering courses there is a much talk about making industry ready,
but there never such for Social Science streams. The present courses of Social
Sciences are more of theory and abstract. Once the courses such as Political
Science and Sociology or similar course are made to connect bit more with
practical, there is no room for students to feel less advantageous in
employment frontier. It is late compared to other developed countries, which is
why it is priority to make the curriculum of the Masters’ degree a Research
Oriented and Computer friendly.
When the student lost their way to making money using
their academic tools it is a lost to the country in terms of social and
economy. It’s not only about making the courses job ready but also about the
application of their learning which is the need of the day for developing
country like India. There is an urgent need to make these mainstream social
science courses (including mainstream general Science courses) more realistic
and applicative for an inclusive and sustainable growth of the country India,
before this inflation reach the threshold that kills everyone.
