PhD on the basis of published work

Lest we forget, the purpose of this proposal to the northern governors is to bring to the notice of governors some little known educational opportunities that will stimulate rapid increase in the number of our graduates and thereby bridging the educational gap between the north and the south at the university level.



I was told that there is a state in the south that has more professors than all the 19 states of the north combined. Thus, its not only undergraduates that we want our governors to support but also PhD students who will later become professors that will teach our students and improve upon our failing educational system. PhD by published work is a fine route to accelerate this achievement. Progressive universities with clear vision of where they are going award PhD through different routes. These are through course work, research, professional PhD and on the basis of works published in the past. Thus, a published book can earn the writer a PhD provided he satisfies other requirements of the awarding institution.



Several universities in UK grant PhD on the basis of published work. Although some of them admit only their own staff (their teachers), an increasing number of them allow students from around the world to apply for doctoral qualification through this channel. One of such universities is Anglia Ruskin University.

Anglia Ruskin University



Originally Cambridge School of Arts then, Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT), Anglia Ruskin University is one and a half centuries old. Since its year of establishment in 1858, the university has gone through higher education status, to polytechnic position before it was granted university standing in 1992.



The school is committed to academic excellence and has spent over 90 million pounds on facilities for its 28,000 students on their two campuses in Chelmsford and Cambridge. And Anglia Ruskin University has the largest part-time students' population in UK.



It has Odile Crick, the wife of Francis Crick who discovered the structure of the DNA with James Watson in 1953, as a past lecturer. Odile herself created the simple iconic image of DNA, as two intertwined ribbons linked by 10 rungs per turn of the double helix.

Other lecturers were the author Tom Sharpe and Anne Campbell, the former Labour MP for Cambridge.





Principle of award



A PhD by published work is awarded to a candidate who, having already published work which has demonstrated an understanding of research methods appropriate to the field and an independent and original contribution to knowledge, defends that same published work and its critical appraisal, to the satisfaction of the examiners.



Definition of published work



'Published work' refers to papers, chapters, monographs, books, scholarly editions of a text, edited collections of essays or other materials, software and creative work (which may be in any field including fine art, design, architecture, music, composition, dance or performance) or other original artifacts. The precise selection of work undertaken by the candidate will depend upon the discipline concerned. The work must be traceable through ordinary catalogues, abstracts or citation indices and copies must be available to the general public.



Works that are not regarded as 'published'



Memoranda and reports to government departments, industrial organizations or NGOs are not regarded as 'published' and therefore not submissible unless they have been published and are publicly available.





Currency of publication



The publications submitted for the degree shall normally have been published within the last ten years and should demonstrate a continuing record of publication normally within the last two years.



Research done in collaboration with others

Where any work submitted for the degree has been written in collaboration with others, a statement clearly indicating the intellectual and practical input by such persons must be submitted with the candidate's application for registration and, wherever possible, endorsed by the collaborator.



Declaration by candidate



The publications shall not have been submitted by the candidate for a research degree of any other institution and a declaration to this effect must be submitted by the candidate at the time of application for registration.



Period of registration

The procedures for considering an application and awarding the degree of PhD by published work will normally be completed within one year.



Entry requirements



A candidate for the degree based on published work shall hold a first or upper second class honours degree of a UK university or a qualification which is regarded by the Research Degrees Committee as equivalent to such an honours degree. Or a candidate shall hold any other appropriate equivalent qualification, other than those above awarded as a result of studies carried out with not less than five years relevant professional experience.



Fee

The registration fee and other fees associated with this programme total about 2500 pounds sterling. That's about N640, 000 (six hundred and forty thousand naira). But our governors can negotiate a discount whenever they decide to sponsor students through this programme.



Please note that the fee and the regulations above applied to Anglia Ruskin University only. Other schools which offer this programme have their own fees and regulation which may be different from that of Anglia Ruskin.



But why don't we do this in Nigeria?



At a time that a country like China is boasting of having more PhDs than United States of America, Nigeria is still confused about what it wants in this direction. And the culprits are the government, university administrators and university teachers. While the top government functionaries are befuddled and confused because of the too much funds at their disposal, university administrators are busy backstabbing themselves and the teachers are engaged in infantile battle of wits with their students.



Our universities don't have a clear vision of where they want to be tomorrow let alone in the next 10 years and that's why they can afford to lock up their schools for three months (like what A.B.U has done) just because of a little misunderstanding. As the students suffer the disruption of their academic programmes their professors sit at home and enjoy their salaries.



But let's get back to our question; why don't Nigerian universities award PhDs based on published work as better universities in Europe are doing? We wouldn't do it because it's too easy (they think) and it has to be difficult to be good enough for Nigeria. That's why our professors write books that are unreadable! A student once told me that his father "spent 15 years! doing his PhD in Nigeria."