A university is known by the quality of research it pursues, therefore, standardized parameter that governs PhD supervision must not be compromised as it crystallizes institutional reputation and gives us the concrete base to produce quality graduates, said, Prof Bernt Lindeorn. Click here to see the pictures.

Prof Bernt of University of Bergen, Norway, said it while delivering lecture on ‘Experience on joint PhD degree and Norwegian PhD system,’ hosted by AMU at Main Campus on 6th May, 2017; university top officials and others were in attendance.

Academic Affairs Vice President, Dr Yechale Kebede, introduced Prof Bernt Lindeorn, who having had 40 years of rich academic experience in Ethiopia, said there are few universities like Addis Ababa, Jimma and Mekelle, which have made their place in the list of 800 top-most universities of the world.

On what makes university qualitative, he adds, the quality of PhD students is determined by proper training, apt supervision and issues like academic writing; predatory journals, plagiarism, well-defined research problem, etc. must be looked into because they speak of quality.

Apprising gathering with PhD system in Norway, he said, one, who has a PhD can become a supervisor, but he/she has to pass the mandatory test to prove knowledge about university’s rules & regulations; and a board manages PhD system wherein students are squeezed to be qualitative.

Later, he dwelt into good thesis, mid-way evaluation, supervisors’ responsibilities, students’ contract, staff stability and standard required at entry and exit points for quality PhD holders.

Listed out research funding types, he says, there are small, national, international, Horizon 2020 and European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership funding, for which Africa has to have a structure to collaborate and diligence to exploit one’s association to tap big funds.

On predatory open access journals, he said, is a hyped industry, where money plays tricks for those seeking promotion get easily lured are from engineering, bio-medical and social science fields. Citing out statistics, he informed that globally, India tops with 35% such cases, Africa has 16.4%, North America 9.2% and Europe contributes 8.9%.

Expatiating on authorship, he adds there are different traditions, but primarily it should be on substantial contribution, conception, design, analysis, interpretation, data drafting and revising article for its all about credit, fame, grants and research evaluation are based on it.

Touching upon conflict of interest, he revealed that in medical field it’s a huge problem because invisible attributed articles generally have profound effect on somebody’s judgment, hence, it should be declared in clear terms, he emphasized.

During discussion, Dr Yechale Kebede, Dr Simon Shibru and others shared their concern majorly about how to forge collaboration at global level, how to tackle plagiarism menace and vexed issue of impact factors, etc.

 

(Corporate Communication Directorate)