Aspirations for Doctoral Study Among Academic Staff

Abstract

Engaging in doctoral studies comes with a variety of motives held by the students whose perspectives also vary about studying at that level. Nevertheless, the Malaysian public university lecturers’ motives for undertaking doctoral studies remain unclear. This study undertook to explore the factors that prompt them to enroll as PhD students. Procedurally, the researcher recruited six public university lecturers as participants. Using semi-structured interviews, the researcher sought to establish the participants’ motivations for entry in doctoral programmes. Accordingly, the major influential factors that emerged had to do with the acquisition of higher status, encouragement from peers, contractual conditions and deep-seated desire for self-fulfillment. Subsequent to the findings the researcher devised a set of recommendations targeting potential doctoral candidates and institutions, as a means to fine-tune their motivations for the qualification.