The value/future of #PhD

This topic catch my attention as it’s featured in the cover page of the recent Nature magazine (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v472/n7343/index.html).

The following issues of the topic above maybe of interest:-

Education: The PhD factory : Nature News -  http://ow.ly/4Kkae

Education: Rethinking PhDs : Nature News -  http://ow.ly/4Kkkk

Seven ages of the PhD : Nature : Nature Publishing Group -http://ow.ly/4Kkl9

Reform the PhD system or close it down : Nature News - http://ow.ly/4Kkmg

What is a PhD really worth? : Nature -  http://ow.ly/4Kknl

Fix the PhD : Nature : Nature Publishing Group -  http://ow.ly/4KknH

In tourism,lots of $spent in building resort,golf course,etc to attract Middle East&Asia tourists,but we shouldn't rule out the significance of ecotourism& biodiversity of the country

1Malaysia email account?

Read the following news this morning:

Malaysians to get official 1 Malaysia email a/c - The Malaysian Insider - http://ow.ly/4D6rR

Can I say offer this without our consent is a privacy breach?

There's no need to establish new communication channels. We should fully utilise networking sites available, instead of spending millions on this.

Furthermore, it's counter productive, if the government bodies taken our suggestions/opinions lightly despite of many attempts to express our view / opinions.

To be honest,I would prefer 1Malaysia investment fund for all people rather than email account:)

Green election?

At last the Sarawak state election is finished. I’m wondering what are we going to do with the leftovers i.e. banners,posters?

The previous UK general election impressed me every much, apart from the opportunity to witness the change of government. It’s hardly to seen any banners or posters on street/city at that time. Throughout the campaign period, I only received 3 flyers from three parties.

Well, this may due to their awareness on election, in which they don’t need such a great publicity as in our country.

Hope we'll have a clean& green election in future

 

image source: http://www.sarawakreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/BN.png

image source: http://merdekareview.com/

Bagaimana Melindungi Undi Anda Dari Dikesan? (How to protect your votes ...

Sarawak 2011 - Vote for Change

link: http://youtu.be/HoWN_Ywk8M0

EF-English Proficiency Index (EPI): Malaysia top of the Asia

Browsed through the report downloaded from the following site:

http://www.ef-uk.co.uk/epi/ef-epi-ranking/?tc=LQ

I believe this achievement is something to be proud of, a good indicator of Malaysia Boleh.

EPI is the first evaluation of its kind that measures English proficiency of over 2 million working adults from 44 countries.

I applaud the effort to establish such index, and this is certainly a good guideline for policy makers & educators to assess the effectiveness of English policies in the nation.

However a few questions to ponder after flipped through the report:-

* How random the selection was? i.e. how diverse the professions/occupations of the respondents were? Were the test takers solely from “white collar” group? 

* Was the sample size (no. of test takers) relative to the country population?

* What’s the description/definition for moderate/low/high English proficiency? The score for Malaysia is 55.85 (high proficiency), while Hong Kong-54.44 (moderate proficiency), that’s such a small difference of 1.41, and this carries a heavy weigh that classified them into two discrete group. 

* From the report, it showed that the test was carried out online over a period of 3 years, so I wonder how valid the test was when there’s no assessor around the test takers (hmm, well maybe there was, but didn’t mentioned in the report :) )?

As stated in this report, the EPI is not an indicator of a nation academic & economic performance. Therefore bridging the gap of English proficiency between pupils/students from rural and urban areas & improving our English teaching standard (especially in Science & Math) are not a issue we should take lightly despite of the high English proficiency among working adults.

Books about PhD research

Currently I’m reading/ just finished reading the following books  about doctoral research. You can get it from Amazon book store. Also, thanks lulu ma for the book sharing :). Image of book covers are courtesy of Amazon UK website (http://www.amazon.co.uk)

 

A good review on this book from the following blog post:-

http://phdtalk.blogspot.com/2011/04/unwritten-rules-of-phd-research-gordon.html?spref=tw

 

This book provides guidance on choosing a suitable PhD/Post-Doc project, the reality of scientific research & don’t romanticize your career. How to get the best out of your project within the time period. Learn to say no, don’t please your supervisor blindly & remember in the end of your project, you’re the one responsible for your works.

 

A very good beginner guide for new PhD students or people who wish to explore more info about what research degree is. A dummy guide on how to make use of your PhD, some survival skills, how to make a good presentation,& other source alike. The nature of academia and industrial career, etc.

Aspirations, Expectations and Reality - Postgraduate Toolbox

Thought provoking blogpost from postgraduatetoolbox, as below:-



Aspirations, Expectations and Reality - Postgraduate Toolbox