MEASURE IMPACT TO AWARD PHD

CIENTIFIC journal Nature recently reported about a PhD in which an engineering doctorate was assessed primarily on an implemented solution rather than a traditional dissertation.

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The defence focused on a field-tested innovation documented in use. The evaluation centred on demonstrable contribution in practice. The work was judged for usefulness and implementation.

Many top-ranked universities today offer industrial or application-oriented PhDs. The University of Cambridge, for example, offers a PhD in industrial engineering in which research is pursued primarily in an industrial setting while maintaining the expectation of original contribution. The University of Warwick’s engineering doctorate programme is designed around company-sponsored problems. It follows a system of dual academic and industrial supervision. The final submission is explicitly framed as a portfolio rather than a single project.

The National University of Singapore offers an industrial postgraduate programme in which students conduct doctoral work in partnership with companies. In this programme, co-supervision and the requirement that the student spend substantial time in the company setting are mandatory.

These examples raise a pertinent question. Why can’t such innovative work in Indian institutions lead to a practice-oriented or practical PhDs, making validated application the primary evidence rather than the usual publication-plus-thesis requirements?