in many cases i have seen that the students want to work on something else but supervisors ask them that they have to work on that specific topic which he/she wants? i am talking about same field like in HR training and development and Performance management etc
This is a very intetesting question.
Ideally the PhD student should select a topic that concerns him/her.
However, at some stage there is the inevitable influence of the supervisor (what the supervisor can do, understands, knows, suggests etc) about it.
I guess it is up to where these two balance.
The doctoral learners should be allowed to select the topic. The supervisor or chair's role is to help the learners to formulate research questions to be explored in the doctoral research that meets the minimum criteria set for the doctoral research.
Thanks.
It is true, that supervisor and PhD student in the making will agree on a topic before they agree on supervision, but it should be the student who would come up with the topic. Naturally a student picking a topic like proto-industrialisation won't go to a professor for current history as supervisor and somebody having a topic from the JFK years in mind won't go to the professor whose focus is clearly set on European religious wars in the sixteenhundreds. But apart from that, the student should choose.
Anyhow, I know cases where the professor "suggested" a topic dear to him, but not dear enough to deal with it himself. He then "convinced" his student to start on the topic. That rarely works. If by chance the student is thrilled by the topic: why not? But if he is not, he might be spending the next couple of years working on something that disgusts him.
There are cases, however, where the university proposes a job-offer wherein the PhD student is expected to work on a certain specified topic. But in that case students from all over the country may apply, they are getting paid for the job and receive a PhD in the end, so thats' a whole different setting as compared to student X approaching Professor Y who then talks him into working of something that is not his choosing and not getting paid for it, whereas among hundreds of students there might be some who develop a keen interest in a certain topic they are getting paid for.
Consummation
- supervisor "convince" student of topic, student agrees, but is uninterested, working the PhD becomes a pain for the student, the results will not satisfy the supervisor
- supervisor resp. university comes up with a topic, connects it to a job offer and presents the chance for willing students to turn the topic into their PhD thesis; only students interested apply, unlike with topics of their own choosing they are getting paid for it, win-win for both sides, nobody is being forced
- student X approaches Professor Y and presents a topic fitting into the focus of the professor, both are happy
Basically: if there are options and the choice is the student's its all good, if there is forced involved nobody will be happy in the end.
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