Just been to a graduation.The last person to get an award had done a PhD in “Returning To Work After A Hand Injury”.I have no idea how long it would take to write a PhD but it did seem like a very strange thing to study.
Do you think he does one every year but changes the bit of the body by substituting one word.
Is this valuable research or has he just been dossing?
I have 2 o levels so not really in a position to criticise .

‘s academics innit.

Take a boring mega- niche topic and analyse the shit out of it.
Once your degree is conferred it instantly makes you the worlds leading authority in your extremely narrow and specific field of research.

I suppose it depends on the field in which he was writing, and the actual thing he was examining; the title, after all, will have been a mere simplification of a great deal of work.

At least one would hope so.

That said, a friend just finished her PhD in English Lit at a university that shall remain nameless, and I was utterly blown away by how short it was. Judging by its length alone, it would have qualified as a mere MA thesis (or, just possibly, an MPhil) back in the day.

I do tend to think that PhDs are becoming a diminished currency. 😐

/grumpy old man

Take a boring mega- niche topic and analyse the shit out of it.
Once your degree is conferred it instantly makes you the worlds leading authority in your extremely narrow and specific field of research.

Given that the hand is one of the more complex parts of human anatomy and is used extensively for most occupations i would have thought it was a perfectly reasonable area of study.

It’s also an area that has specialist surgeons and rehab teams so it’s not really an isolated area of study.

I kind of like that graphic, lemonysam.

zippykona – Member
Is this valuable research or has he just been dossing?

That only thing good that comes out from that is that the student demonstrated his/her ability to carry out a piece of research properly.

As for the topic 95% of the time they are worthless unless they continue to further research in that field or whatever subjects once they have gained some sort of employment.

If getting a PhD is merely for self vanity then it is worthless … many of me mates (I think all of them them got one 😯 ) got PhDs yet they still talk rubbish.

Don’t believe the hype!

At least it isn’t sphincter preservation!

PhD projects drive many areas of science and although some are worthless many are very valuable. However if you do, as normal, end up in a highly niche area, as chewkw says

the student demonstrated his/her ability to carry out a piece of research properly.

Good PhD’s teach you to think and research in a scientific manner.

The biggest problem with PhD’s is the variability in supervision. Just because you are a good scientist doesn’t make you a good PhD supervisor and many students don’t find this out until they are well into their PhDs.

Well, hands are a particularly important body part if your work involves holding, writing, typing etc (which the vast majority certainly do). It’s not hard to imagine that society would draw some benefit from understanding what helps or hinders injured people returning to work. I’m sure it is more useful than my PhD on efficient algorithms for obscure mathematical problems that have never had any practical applcations at all that I know of!

edit: on the topic of length, mine was under 100 pages widely spaced with a decent intro and bibliography. There is no lower limit and a very famous 4-pager IIRC.

On university challenge last night there was one person studying for an “MD in Sphincter preservation” and another studying for an “PHD in the cultural history of the lapdog in the 18th century”

WHY?……. 😯

Sounds like one of the most useful PhDs I’ve heard of.
My favourite remains a PhD on the life expectancy of celtic cowboys in the Wild West (not very long, the conclusion).

There was someone on TV (Pointless iirc) who was doing a PhD on contemporary Austrian cinema. I’m still so puzzled about it I don’t know where to start…

Epidemiology features some of the most highly cited people* in all of science and medicine – their work drives public health policy and has enormous impact. Unlikely that hand-injury man is working at that level, but his field has a lot of stature.

*e.g. Walter Willett (Harvard, nutrition research) has an h-index over 250.