How about a PhD, people?

GETTING a PhD is seen as one of the pinnacles of academic learning, a magnum opus, right? No, it’s not.

The PhD process is rigorous, difficult, and most challenging, yes? No, it is an enjoyable discovery of self.

The PhD holder is accepted by society as the most clever of all, of course. Hah! I have met PhD holders who are as intelligent about religion or politics as the least educated among society.

 

The PhD process marks the end of an education at the university, right? No, it’s just the beginning of real learning.

Well, I offer all these contradictions about this esteemed degree, so what is the PhD, really?

Well, firstly, to begin with the basics, “PhD” stands for the Doctor of Philosophy. Any artificial intelligence-assisted site can tell you its history, so I won’t bother – I actually have never really wondered why it is named so.

I do know that the word “philosophy” is the critical one here. For me, the PhD is a very small beginning into interrogating everything that we know in life that we have accepted as the truth.

Believe me when I say this, but many achieve a “PhD” without even realising that fact because they do this.

Now, I recommend the PhD to anyone who loves reading very much, loves to question the origins of things, ideas, narratives – everything in the world, basically – and loves to talk about things to clarify.

I view the PhD as a process of realisation of self, awakening into the real world and summarising one’s life before death takes us all on its lonely path.

For those who slaved and worked towards success, the PhD can give a sum total feeling of ending and accomplishment at the level of spiritual satisfaction.

This business about being proud of the title “Dr” is not really worth very much in comparison with the realisation of how we have been living all our life.

The PhD has always, to me, been wrongfully presented as something difficult, and something with statistics, and also rather difficult maths.

Well, I never trust any statistics or maths related to who we are as a society.

A statistical prediction of the outcome of an election is laughable because things can change literally overnight while the ­statisticians are still gathering data and input. What, then, are the plus points of reading for the PhD, really?

To me, it is the joy and excitement of peeling back the layers on the things we had come to accept and seeing their mystery. Thus, for me the PhD has lifted the veil on religion, society and humanity, inspiring me to write, speak and think about solutions to the problems of peaceful coexistence well beyond the thesis I had submitted.

It did not require any statistical maths, just a selection of references, fulfilling discussions with my supervisor and writing and then more writing.

Writing actually is the vehicle that trained me to structure my thoughts. Now, I write with ease and it has become as much a part of my life as breathing.

My thinking flows effortlessly to receive news, information and events and structure them to make some sense.

The PhD is the beginning of a peek at what can be considered as a “truth of things” that is no longer hidden by shadow upon shadow of human interpretations and conjecture.

The PhD also gives meaning to a life well lived and a life to be lived beyond the ephemeral baggage of knowledge we all receive throughout our lives.

The PhD is beyond a completed and well-defended thesis, it is a true awakening from a lifetime of blindness and soulless practice to a clarity of purpose and meaning.

Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at the Tan Sri Omar Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies at UCSI University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.