Friday (5/11) Promovendus Club Psychological Science Doctoral Program held an event that discussed “Dissertation by Research: Sharing Experiences”. Present at the event were Bhina Patria, Dr.rer,pol and Restu Tri Handoyo, Ph.D as speakers.
Restu started this session by sharing his experience while pursuing his doctoral studies “perhaps what I say today will be very personal. Not all of them will be relevant to the journey of friends who have or are currently pursuing a doctorate,” he explained. The journey of a person’s doctoral education has its own story and is subjective. Depending on which campus is used as a place of study, what demands are accepted, even to the cultural context. “I personally think that all doctorates will be by research because the majority are judged based on dissertations, namely research conducted,” explained Restu.
In the first year Restu took his Doctoral Program in London, what he did was to do a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Then proceed with the second year, namely the preparation of a dissertation proposal. After that, in the third year Restu continued with ethical clearance, “because the variables I took was a groups, so about ethical clearance was quite long”. Even to the point of having to go back to Indonesia to take care of permission at the relevant agency where Restu took the data.
“Through this event, I want to motivate those who haven’t had doctoral degrees, dare to do doctoral degrees,” continued Bhina in the second session. In contrast to Restu, Bhina shared his doctoral degrees experience which was not funded by a scholarship program. Bhina admitted that during his continuing education he paid for his own expenses by paid from working at the International Center for Higher Education Research Kassel (INCHER-Kassel). This makes Bhina strongly believe that doctoral education can still be pursued even without scholarships.
In addition to telling about his doctoral school experience, Bhina also briefly shared his story about unique title, namely Dr.rer.pol. “The doctoral degree is awarded based on what faculty he/she studies at. The faculty or institution is in what field,” explained Bhina. Therefore, there are Psychology graduates who get the Dr.rer.pol degree if they study under Economics and Social Sciences, but there are also those who get the Dr.rer.nat degree. All degrees obtained depend on where the Faculty/Institution concerned conducts studies.
In his presentation, Bhina said that doctoral education could be done by anyone. Not limited to people who have a high IQ and genius. “Don’t get impostor syndrome, where someone doubts themselves,” explained Bhina.