Updating ones education profile is always a lucrative personality transforming event, as it provides an experiential opportunity to an aspiring individual to explore his specialized domain to the highest possible level. The Journey of my PhD turned out to be highly exhaustive as it showered innumerable challenges both at the professional and personal front but at the same it offered new opportunities to get acquainted with new contours of skills, which were literally unheard of at the post-graduation level. It all started with a great degree of enthusiasm and zeal to fill a research gap and facilitate in updating and evolving the literature of the subject for the upcoming researchers to research in the future. The first phase of my research career started with mandatory course work, where our batch was taught in a very lucid and elaborative manner. The much laid emphasis was on Advanced Research Methodology and emaculate focus was primarily on the methodology to be employed, appropriate statistical tools to be wisely selected and applied, depending upon the interpretations and inferences to be made of the available data. A thorough strategy and the sequential hierarchy of the steps involved on how to write cutting edge review and research papers were transcended to the researchers and every research scholar irrespective of his/her subject background had to compulsorily learn these research enabled skills for smooth progression of their research work. During course work, the other core domains discussed with the researchers included recent advances in the concerned subject, workshop on content writing and nitty-gritty of seminars. The varied core areas central to course work truly mediated in a positive way during the cumbersome journey of my PhD. The course work culminated with the assessment of the core parameters and the researchers who successfully stood high in the scheduled assessment were declared qualified for the next phase of the PhD: The Synopsis. The synopsis proved to be a daunting task in my case as it coupled with the sudden emergence of COVID-19.The Synopsis tests ones grit and patience as one has to do comprehensive understanding and evaluation of innumerable number of research papers in the relevant field and same translated in my case as well because to do in-depth understanding , analyzing and the comparison of the results of end-less number of research papers and then meticulously identifying research gap, devising problem formulation and subsequently designing Methodology for the selected research topic demands time , mental concentration and more importantly patience on the part of the research scholar and same hold apt in my case as well. Once synopsis compilation is done from the researcher’s side, then it is subjected to scrutiny by departmental research committee. Once the recommendations suggested by departmental research committee are incorporated in the synopsis, then the final hurdle to get ones synopsis through is the successful defense of Synopsis before the external evaluation committee. Once the external evaluation committee extends green signal with or without suggesting changes to the synopsis, the researcher enters the most crucial phase of his research career: The experimentation, field visits and data collection phase. The meticulous design of experimentation set up cited in the synopsis section needs to be tactfully and skillfully applied in this research defining phase. The onn and off field visits and collection of data from designated transects was one hand a sort of learning curve for me but at times aggravated the stress and anxiety levels and a source of de-motivation and nervous breakdown, whenever I returned from the field visits without accumulating substantial data from the selected transects.
Whatever work inter-alia research executed by Dean Research Office is strictly done in accordance with the norms and statutes of University Grants Commission (UGC).The enormous research exposure vested in Dr. Sachit Vardhan, Deputy Director, Dean Research Office has truly changed the research landscape of the University and at the same time facilitated endless research scholars to write quality research papers which got published in reputed International Indexed Journals such as Scopus, Web of Sciences etc. The workaholic attitude of Baljinder Singh , Research Officer, Dean Research Office , CT University is truly facilitating the budding researchers in making their mark in the research arena by lending every possible professional support.
The nervous breakdown at times was so alarming that I even thought of quitting the research in the mid-way, but the optimistic mind set always motivated me to seek opportunities in every difficult and fits well with the common saying ‘ that when going gets tough, tough gets going’. I found this phase most intriguing and challenging and the emotional support from your loved ones plays a pivotal role to keep the ship moving even in adverse weather circumstances. This phase is followed by subsequent phase of Data compilation and analysis. One must have expertise acumen to deal with analysis of data. The fine handling of statistical tools such as ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Linear regression, multiple regression, mean, mode, median, Scatter plot, Tukey’s method etc and their sound understanding and requisite implementation at the appropriate place to correctly validate and justify the results emerging out from the subjected data is a must in researcher’s life to successfully execute his research on desired parameters. For such a herculean and tedious journey, the constructive synergy among the relevant stakeholders is unequivocally important, be it research scholar, supervisor, University administration and Dean Research Office. The student friendly approach of CT University, Ludhiana, Punjab needs to be given due credit and recognition in successful execution of my research work. The primary department of the University directly concerned with the research is the Dean Research Office. The Dean Research Office is in real sense doing commendable job in imbibing world class research ethics among the innovative research scholars. What actually renders the team of Dean Research Office as highly professional is their sheer dedication and un-flickering attitude in successfully discharging their duties without an aorta of bias and prejudice. They never compromise with the quality of work done by the research scholar and always extend helping hand to mitigate the issues faced by the innovative researchers. Whatever work inter-alia research executed by Dean Research Office is strictly done in accordance with the norms and statutes of University Grants Commission (UGC).The enormous research exposure vested in Dr. Sachit Vardhan, Deputy Director, Dean Research Office has truly changed the research landscape of the University and at the same time facilitated endless research scholars to write quality research papers which got published in reputed International Indexed Journals such as Scopus, Web of Sciences etc. The workaholic attitude of Baljinder Singh , Research Officer, Dean Research Office , CT University is truly facilitating the budding researchers in making their mark in the research arena by lending every possible professional support.
(Author is an Educator. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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