Meteorology student submits Masters thesis, gets PhD

https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/i-couldnt-believe-it-university-of-pretoria-student-submits-masters-thesis-gets-phd-instead-20211002

by herodoturtle • 5 years ago

47 15 5 years ago

news24.com

fastasucan3• 5 years ago

I don't understand how that is possible, and I quite frankly end up losing respect for the university system in the countries where I read about stuff like that. To get a phd you have to be accepted into a doctorate program, which means your master thesis should be delivered with good grades. To get your phd you should do your work requirements (publishing 3 papers and taking some subjects at phd level - where I am from). His master thesis might be wonderfull, but it is one body of work, not a position in a doctorate program, not published papers and not phd subjects. Is the student to skip the whole phd experience now and aim straight for tenure? He will miss out on a lot.

_moof• 5 years ago

Not taking a position one way or the other here, but I'll point out that he has published three papers as primary author and coauthored five others.

And from the article: "Barnes said he already had published papers in renowned journals by the time he submitted his dissertation - one of the reasons why he earned a PhD."

fastasucan3• 5 years ago

In that case it is truely astonishing, however I cant see why he wouldn't benefit from working as a phd under the best professors in his field, continuing his work.

denhaus• 5 years ago

Personally, as a phd candidate in STEM I think this is awesome. I do not care that he “skipped steps” in getting a PhD. His contribution to the body of scientific knowledge was deserving of a doctorate as determined by experts in the field, no? Who cares if you publish 3+ papers if each of those never got cited more than 10 times in 10 years and they never had any real scientific impact? I know PhDs who simply went through the motions at some of the best doctoral STEM programs in the US and never made a real scientific contribution despite checking off all the boxes.

I guess determining if he “deserves” a PhD depends on what you think a PhD is for. If it’s for checking off boxes, sitting in a room for N years, publishing K papers, taking M number of classes etc, then yes, he doesn’t deserve it. If you think it’s about learning how to be an independent researcher and making significant scientific contributions, it seems to me like he’s done quite a bit.

fastasucan3• 5 years ago

His contribution to the body of scientific knowledge was deserving of a doctorate as determined by experts in the field, no?

This is what I dont agree on. A doctorate is not a prize for the best scientific work from a student that year.

overkalix• 5 years ago

An enlightening excerpt from a related article: "The decision by the Durban University of Technology to require a Master’s degree as a minimum requirement for a lecture position has been welcomed by education experts."

eftychis2• 5 years ago

To people rushing to criticize the decision: a) He has already published major papers. It is stated in the article in the end. The article probably should make that a bit clearer. You can also google him. b) He received acknowledgement and praise for his thesis contribution. The article states about praise from an examiner from the university of Oxford. Not my field so I can not evaluate his work, but I would be surprised from what I see if it was trivial contribution.

A PhD means you know and can push the frontier and do rigorous research. Are people worried the individual skipped a few extra course credits or he skipped quals? I doubt the faculty felt he did not deserved it. And this is clearly not a one off.

P.S. I think this is his scholar profile. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=baVVmaoAAAAJ&hl=el...

elzbardico• 5 years ago

Have a lot of friends that adid their PhDs just for credentialism. Yes, they put a lot of effort and time, but the knowledge they created was frankly not that important. I am favor of valuing results, relevance, not effort.

Meteorology student submits Masters thesis, gets PhD

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