The university has given us staff members without PhD an ultimatum: go pursue a PhD program or we’ll cut your housing allowance. I’m not sure if that’s entirely legal, but we have one year to comply.
It is not that I don’t want to get a PhD. I know coming into this line of work that I’ll have to get a PhD eventually. I just don’t really want to get a PhD just yet. A PhD is meant to teach, or rather train, you to do independent research. Beyond that it’s just a paper qualification. One does not need a PhD to do research, and I’m not too concerned over promotions. At the moment I am much more interested in trying to be a better teacher than doing research, and I have not found a problem that I want to spend three to five years dwelling on.
However, now that this ultimatum is out colleagues are telling me to just get a PhD and get it over with. Perhaps I’ll do just that. As much as I’m not in the mood to go back to school, I’m in a much lesser mood to either accept a pay cut or find another job. Besides, I love teaching; it’s research that I’m not sure about. If a PhD is what I need to keep doing what I love doing, then a PhD is what I’ll get.
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