Doing a PhD is unlike anything else you’ll ever do, it is a huge task, so understanding your motivation (reasons) for doing it will help you succeed and also help your supervisor support you. Motivation is paramount in keeping your interest on and seeing to your overall well-being as a research student. Below are some motivations, you may want to determine which actually fits your case.
• Current Occupation: If you’re doing a PhD in order to improve your employing organization’s performance, then you may be given time in which to study or at least, have part of your fees paid. The motivation here is completing a qualification where failure to deliver could have some negative impact to your career because the qualification is tied closely into your current occupation.
• Skills enhancement: If this is your reason, then you are interested in a doctorate as a way of enhancing your employability(making you more attractive to future employers). This should boost your interest and make you choose an appropriate field of study.
• Career Change: Few careers such as university teaching and as a research scientist require the possession of a doctorate. If this is you, then you want to complete your programme quickly and publish.
• Hobby: Is reading and acquiring knowledge your hobby? Then this could be your motivation. It could help you focus more on the PhD topic you have chosen because you want to know more about it.
• Self-development: Here, your love for studying is a way to develop yourself. Then that means you will have a passion for doing a doctoral study.
There may be many other motivations, but the key is having a motivation in the first place, before proceeding. The worst type of motivation is: ‘Doing it because everyone else is doing it!.’ Your doctoral work is what you did and will be made public, it becomes paramount then, that you must find your own reasons to succeed rather than picking the reasons of others.
Margaret E.
As always, the writer wishes to acknowledge the works of authors: Naomi Rockler-Gladen(2007) and Alistair McCulloch(2007,2009) for inspiration to create the ‘Graduate School’ series.
