OPINION: Unreasonable Requirements for Ph.D. Candidates

First, here is some clarification regarding what is actually required. The latest edition (December 2019) of the Handbook for Standards and Guidelines for University Education in Tanzania stipulates that (a) a candidate for a Master’s degree by Coursework and Dissertation “shall produce at least one draft paper manuscript based on his/her research results intended for submission in a peer-reviewed journal;” (b) a candidate for a Master’s degree by research and thesis shall have “at least two paper manuscripts based on his/her research submitted to a peer-reviewed journal;” and (c) a candidate for a Ph.D. degree “shall have at least one paper published and at least two accepted manuscripts (articles/papers) in a peer-reviewed journal.” In all cases, it is required that “the journal shall be acceptable or recognisable by the respective University.”

A Ph.D. program in economics by course work and dissertation, for example, at the University of Dar-es-Salaam (UDSM) is supposed to take four years. According to the UDSM’s Postgraduate Prospectus 2018/19, students are required to take a total of ten courses in the first two years. In the third and fourth year, they are to devote their time to working on their dissertations. It is unrealistic to expect them to meet the publication requirement in just two years. Not only does it take time to research and produce a publishable article, the peer review process from submission to actual publication can easily take two years and, in most cases, longer. As a side note, publications in some fields, such as medicine, typically have multiple authors. If there are three authors, including a Ph.D. candidate, I would assume it would still count as a full article for the candidate.

OPINION: Unreasonable Requirements for Ph.D. Candidates

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