Dear Research-gate Members,
I have the following Question to ask you, which is, when one has to decide on enrolling for a doctoral programme how should he/she decide on which topic to take up for this, should it be something the person is deeply passionate about but very difficult to complete in a reasonable time-span allowed for doctoral studies, or a topic which may not be that challenging( interesting to the individual) but can possibly be completed within the allowed time span of doctoral work, how should the individual decide on this?
secondly, in many cases an individual is forced to do doctoral work on a topic that do not interest him/her, how to keep up the motivation under these circumstances?
your valuable inputs will help me a lot in settling some of these related issues in my own life, hence, i thank you in advance for your opinion(s) in this regard.
D. Ghosh
Choosing of Ph.D research Topic : Passion or Common sense to take priority?
I agreed with Prof. Roy i.e. common sense. Reason being - PhD completion is measured by knowledge contribution in which "common sense" is the shorter / faster path to achieve that vs "passion" (which can be attractive but required longer time / more resources). Perhaps you can complete your PhD first to free up more time & resources to conduct your passionate research at later stage. Genuine knowledge contribution is required for PhD regardless whether the research endeavor is one inch short or one mile long.
Thank you Prof. Fung and Prof. Bhatnagar for your extremely valuable Inputs and insights.
Common sense.. In India, its totally depends on your guide. Its fact in India. Sometimes you choose the topic yourself but guide forced you to do the work which he wants.
PhD is nothing but a degree. Yes, there are instances where a person has won Nobel prize based on their thesis, but that is an exception. For an ideal PhD, the work area should be novel, the objectives should be achievable and the thesis committee should be happy to pass it. You will have a lifetime to pursue your interest, PhD is only a step in that ladder. Guess what, you can also set aside some time to work on your passion while you are doing your PhD :)
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