A Study of Quality Assurance of PhDs in Engineering

2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 18500693
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Science education
• Research Institution: National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation
• Principal Investigator: MUGURUMA Masaaki National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation, Department of Assessment and Research for Degree Awarding, Professor (00321597)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HASHIMOTO Hironobu National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation, Department of Assessment and Research for Degree Awarding, Professor (10016131) ; KADOTA Toshikazu National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation, Department of Assessment and Research for Degree Awarding, Professor (70034402)
• Project Period (FY): 2006 – 2007
• Keywords: Engineering Science / Doctoral Programme / Research Supervision / PhD Thesis / Examination of Thesis

Research Abstract

The quality assurances of PhDs in engineering was studied by means of collecting answers to a questionnaire given to supervising professors belonging to 49 universities and colleges of various nations inclusive of Japan. The questionnaire asks many questions about student admission, research supervising, code of practice, learning outcomes, thesis examination and degree awarding. The results of the answers to the questionnaire and related materials like student handbook were analyzed. Some supervising professors were interviewed separately for further questions. Vigorous efforts were found to make successfully in order to select excellent PhD candidates both in Japan and the foreign countries. Research supervising in Japan seems to be left to the discretion of supervising professors while codes of practice are established and made public as guideline for research supervising in some foreign countries. Learning outcomes and requirements for thesis are normally established and made public in UK and some other foreign countries, while they are not established in Japan. Supervising professors in Japan normally act as chairman of thesis examination committee for their own PhD students, while, in UK, they are definitely excluded from the committee that normally consists of two external examiners. Because of the situation mentioned above, supervising professors in Japan can be omnipotent over PhD students. On the other hand, once a supervising professor in Japan decides to give PhD degree to his or her student in spite of poor thesis submitted, no effective stopping power can be found in the system, while various built-in devices to prevent degrading of PhD degrees are found in the systems of some of the foreign countries.