Most of my student in PhD program does the PhD for the sake of betterment in their life style and standard of living.

My research students are persistent; seek for information and work hard to get the degree.They are straight, trustworthy, and committed to their work.

My students go for a Ph.D to have an academic career. There are many characteristics that could be mentioned:

• Motivation, enthusiasm and passion for the work
• Ability to work independently
• Hard working
• Good Time management skills and avoiding procrastination
• Critical judgment.thinking
• Persistence

In my opinion the key elements are motivation and passion for learning.

Great dear @ Prof Mahfuz!  I wanted to achieve something to do some worthwhile things, gain some knowledge to satisfy my intellectual curiosity, get a better livelihood for my own folks too.  I share many characteristics of your students, and I find that learning is great fun.  I may 'die' if I stop learning.

Thanks Behrouz and friends.  What do you see in her eyes?  PASSION FOR LEARNING!  Lacking that, a teacher cannot motivate students much, because we can't give what we don't possess!

Dear @Miranda and friends, The art of selecting PhD candidates is MUST! Of course, their abilities and virtues are well given in @Behrouz's contribution! Good selection techniques are given!

http://www.unica-network.eu/sites/default/files/2nd%20UNICA%20Master%20Class%20Dubrovnik%202011%20-%20Hans%20Sonneveld.pdf

How about this my dear friends: 12 reasons not to get a PhD! really good reasons as well as good comments on!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/12-reasons-not-to-get-a-phd/

http://www.economist.com/node/17723223

Dear Prof Ljubomir, wonderful link.  So needful to my question.  Indeed you have a huge 'Danube' to fish for great links.  I just put some important things on thread to make it useful at a first glance to people who don't normally stay on my threads for a sufficiently long time.

• Why is selecting the right candidate so important and 
• difficult?
• We know which candidates we want to avoid.
• Doctoral qualities making the difference.
• Possible selection techniques.
• No good selection without a pool of candidates.

The student, who likes to pursue PhD study in chemistry, must have 3 important  attributes: 1) A high degree of patience & tolerance because the results of the experiments will not  necessarily be positive within a short period of time. Sometimes, 3 months are spent without any success. 2) A high degree of self-confidence because a weakness will render the student more dependent on the supervisor. 3) A good readiness to switch from one path to another. The great American scientist "Carothers" was leading a team that worked on polyesters to produce synthetic silk but to no avail, so he changed the research to polyamides & the American- British researchers succeeded in producing NYLON ( a name derived from New York & London)!

Also from Prof Ljubomir's link:  WHY is selecting the right candidates so difficult?  [This is related to my recent question!]

• reasons of macro-context
• reasons of inflexible project requirements 
• reasons of professional autonomy 
• reasons of micro-politics and patronage 
• reasons of missing breeding grounds, the missing pool of talents
• reasons of problems of predicting success or failure
• reasons of insufficient selection techniques

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_must_be_done_when_local_universities_are_losing_ground_not_only_to_top_universities_in_the_world_but_also_to_other_universities_in_the_region

Thanks dear Dr Nizar for reminding me about Wallace Carothers!  I think that many persons with a PhD that is rightfully earned could do a lot more for my country, if only they had been given a chance!  

http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/chemistry-in-history/themes/petrochemistry-and-synthetic-polymers/synthetic-polymers/carothers.aspx

Friends, I wasn't from a rich family in terms of material things.  But I had a wonderful father who loved education.  On a meagre salary he supported 4 of my cousins, besides our family.  But I had great teachers in a convent school; the same school that Nichol David, our national squash player attended.  My teachers told me that I should continue to pursue scholarship, and do what I can for my family and country.

For me, being a pure mathematician and active in interdisciplinary programs, and with a MBA in strategic management of people, the great difficulty in recruiting is that we do not have full clarity on desirable characteristics of candidates. From this, we do not use appropriate instruments and tools for the selection. Whereas we try to treat unequals equally, using objective criteria, subjectivity stands aside. This is a difficult paradox to resolve.

@Haetinger, yes you have a predicament.  Selection of right candidates is so important due to these reasons listed on Prof Ljubomir's link, and there may be more:

'Financial consequences of wrong admission decisions are enormous,

Not admitting is much easier than finishing our supervision in case of candidate’s stagnation

Premature termination of the project is a miserable thing'

I studied in  one local varsity.  Then I taught several years in a secondary school and one day I walked into the office of the dept head of the same varsity.  We talked and she agreed to be my supervisor for Masters program.  As soon as I completed the MSc, I decided to do the PhD, so again I walked into the office of a senior lecturer and she agreed to be my main supervisor.  While doing the PhD, she told me it would be good to have an external supervisor among those whose papers I cited in my thesis, and Prof Rawlings in Aust agreed to be my external examiner.  Perhaps it was so simple that I didn't realize how complicated the process could be!

Choosing to be a doctoral student is a very serious matter. I expect such student to be diligent, industrious, meticulous, conscientious, thorough, attentive, careful, persistent, hardworking, assiduous and careful!

Some of  my master students seeking knowledge and researching new information, those are hard workers and have motivation and incentives to  reach a new stage of information and knowledge.

And some of them seeking a new style of their living and developing their economic status. This group have less motives and hard working comparing to the first group.

Dear Dr.Miranda Yeoh, Thank you very much for attaching an article on the brilliant scientist Wallace Carothers. This man plus the great German scientists (Staudinger & Ziegler) were the real founders of polymer chemistry with due respect to other scientists who changed our world through the immense use of plastics, rubbers, and fibers in daily life.

Dear @Prof Aieman, thanks for your views.  Your first group of students are intrinsically motivated.   The second group is more extrinsically motivated.  Intrinsic motivation is more important, and keeps us going when rewards and appreciation do not materialize, when our great efforts are not even appreciated at times.

I agree with Prof Kamal!

Dear @Barbara, thanks for your post and views. and for the pic.  It's interesting that Stanford university is home to twenty-one living Nobel laureates, the most recent being  Moerner :)

http://news.stanford.edu/nobel/

Dear Miranda

Stanford University opened its doors in 1891 and has been one of the finest and most highly regarded American universities ever since.

Another professor of Stanford university, Maryam Mirzakhani, won the 2014 Fields Medal (some call it Noble prize of Maths). She was the first woman to receive the medal in the history.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_your_opinion_about_awarding_the_2014_Fields_Medal_to_an_Iranian_woman_for_the_first_time_in_the_history

Yes @dear Behrouz, I admire many Iranian scientists throughout history.  They may not all get any prize, but they all had the characteristics of post grad students that we will always remember - true scholarship!  Our academic block in this college is named Al-Farghani complex.

Right now, I am waiting for Raoof and Pardis to get a job; and to write with Pardis!

Passion and dedication for research, quick and sincere at work, hardworking, good common sense, moral compass and respect for scientific pursuits, open minded to new ideas and creative, logical thinking and having patience and perseverance and team spirit.

Thanks for your posts @Eraldo and Yogesh.  I wish to add something on critical scientific thinking:

' A critical approach to learning science is concerned less with accumulating undigested facts and scientific definitions and procedures, than with learning to think scientifically. As we learn to think scientifically, we inevitably organize and internalize facts, learn terminology, and use scientific procedures. But we learn them deeply, because they are tied into ideas we have thought through, and hence do not have to “re-learn” later. A critical approach to learning science requires us to ponder questions, propose solutions, and think through possible experiments. 

A well cultivated scientific thinker:

• raises vital scientific questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;

• gathers and assesses relevant scientific data and information, using abstract ideas to interpret them effectively;

• comes to well-reasoned scientific conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;

• thinks openmindedly within convergent systems of scientific thought, recognizing and assessing scientific assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and

• communicates effectively with others in proposing solutions to complex scientific problems.

Scientific thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective.'

http://www.criticalthinking.org/store/products/scientific-thinking-for-students-and-faculty/170

Sara Rimm-Kaufman, Improving Students' Relationships with Teachers to Provide Essential Supports for Learning, Positive relationships can also help a student develop socially, American Psychology Association

Thanks for your posts.  @Umachandran, I think your post is really suitable for my recent question on school teaching.  I'm being honest; post grad students are very different to young children.

Thanks, Dr Shamsi.  I agree, because we are intrinsically motivated, and that's far better than being motivated by tangible things!  ('Once an Independent researcher said that he is doing research for the mental urge he is having and not for the urge in the stomach, that is he is doing research not for the sake of higher position or higher salary etc., but for the development of the subject , this must be kept in the minds of Ph.D students while doing the research even though everybody is doing Research for their higher position.')

Friends, I wish all Muslim friends a good year, 1436, ahead!

@Miranda

Sorry, I had wrongly attached. I was working on various questions at that time.

@Umachandran, thanks for great understanding.  I have been keying in data in SPSS, since I got home after visiting a Muslim neighbor; and I'm the most absent minded professor!

Please have a look at The 10 Most Substantial Shortcomings Affecting Satisfactory Progress.  Perhaps, even just 1 of those shortcomings is enough to prevent a person from getting a PhD: lack of commitment, laziness, procrastination, lack of enthusiasm and passion.

http://www.otago.ac.nz/study/phd/handbook/otago001979.html

PhD skills expected of students

A: Research Skills and Techniques

http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2014

Among the 10 Most Important Qualities of the Ideal Graduate Research Candidate, on the link, we find the things you have mentioned.  How we wish that more of our own students have these qualities of true scholarship: Intelligence, Independence / Confidence, Commitment, Literacy / numeracy (or verbal and math intelligences, on Gardner's multiple intelligences), Time management / organisational skills, Curiosity / ability to learn, Enthusiasm and passion, Ability to think, Hard working/ diligence, Motivation.

http://www.otago.ac.nz/study/phd/handbook/otago001979.html

University of Reading favors these attributes to select Ph.D students

• Ability to grasp concepts and reason analytically
• Motivation and perseverance in achieving objectives
• Capacity for independent thought
• Organisational skills
• Independence as a learner
• Self-confidence
• Enthusiasm/passion for topic
• Nature and extent of any relevant previous experience
• Likelihood of establishing good working relationships

Thanks Behrouz.  Do you think that the qualities are roughly constant across time and place?  When I compare the several links, I do think so.  But what are your views? Thanks for your answer, and for upvoting the question.  We can guess the sincere intent of our friends by their actions.

Dear Miranda,

Yes, I think that qualities are roughly constant across time and place. We can just compare the responses and you will find many similar qualities mentioned by friends.

The final is subjective and weights given to different criteria are different from one supervisor  to another. I give higher weights to honesty and motivation.

We should note that it is almost impossible to find a student who possesses all these qualities. Neither the supervisors nor the students are not perfect!.

Friends, our discussion reminds me of what Winston Churchill has said about war times.  In our studies, in our service, at work, we are fighting ourselves; all the negative aspects. 

Passionate intellectual curiosity!

Period!