Ph.D student Lim Kar Yong is putting in at least 40 hours of studying a week for the next three to four years before he can gain his doctorate degree. |
The Cabinet’s decision to stop holders of honorary doctorates from using the ‘Dr’ pre-fix has restored academic integrity. Christians not only ought to abide by the ruling but lead the way, according to Kairos Research Director Dr Ng Kam Weng
“Somebody once said that the way the Ph.D is being given out, we might as well give it with the birth certificate,” he jested.
Dr Ng stressed that he was not against honorary doctorates, but they should be given to truly deserving people. He quoted John Stott and F.F. Bruce as two exemplary holders of honorary doctorates.
“John Stott was known to have refused all honorary doctorates until Cambridge University felt ashamed not to bestow him one. In his case, it was the university which wanted to have a share in his honour, to be identified with him, and not the other way round,” he pointed out.
In contrast (to Stott), people are buying doctorates, whether honorary or academic, to elevate themselves so as to gain more respectability, Dr Ng lamented.
He also questioned holders of academic doctorates who obtained them without going through the laborious academic rigours of studying, researching and writing.
“The public assume that a person with a doctorate degree has spent many hours researching and writing to clinch that PhD. But there are people who get their doctorates by just writing six papers. This conveys a misleading message,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ph.D student Lim Kar Yong lauded the Cabinet’s timely decision in an e-mail to Berita NECF. The University of Wales, Lampeter, student said, “We Christians should be the ones refraining from using and abusing such titles in the first place even without the Cabinet decision.”
He also concurred with Dr Ng that Christians who obtained their academic doctorates without going through the proper route is “deceptive and not truly deserving of a real doctorate”.
“There are Christian institutes that confer unaccredited ‘Dr’ titles on those who merely submit some papers based on some devotional reflections or life experiences. No previous master’s degree required.
“The award of such ‘Dr’ titles naturally does not correspond with the rigorous requirements of an academic doctorate. It is only morally right that we do not give false impression to others in both the award and use of such titles,” added Kar Yong who is pursuing his Ph.D degree on New Testament at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the university.
A Ph.D degree, he said, requires an original contribution of between 80,000 and 100,000 words to the area that one is researching. To achieve this, it normally takes at least three to four years of full-time studies.
“For me, I shut myself in my study room and put in approximately 40 to 45 hours of work per week. In addition to this, there is also language requirement. For example, the focus of my research is in New Testament and as such, proficiency in both Greek and Hebrew is required. Furthermore, reading proficiency in German must also be demonstrated,” he explained.
Kar Yong is currently focusing his research on Paul’s suffering in 2 Corinthians. “My emphasis is on a thematic study on more than 20 verses on Paul’s suffering in 2 Corinthians.
“It won’t take us a minute to read all these verses, but it will take me at least three and a half years trying to make sense of them,” he quipped. |
