Hi Richard, it is true, that Ph.D.s went down in Japan mainly because it is not attractive for students to do it. A part of the story is, that here you have mainly course doctors and not thesis doctors, the two different ways of getting your doctor degree. In Germany we have thesis doctors (90% although getting less because of more business schools coming up) and here you have to do a sound scientific research and write a scientific book about it. That means 3-5 years of work that you have to organise and manage by yourself, not going to classes like you did already in elementary school. That is the qualification, in which German companies are interested and why more than half of doctoral candidates want a scientific career. Bosch even has a program to support its employees to become a doctor.
So I think, Japan should go back to the thesis doctor with some consequences, like the fact that here in the doctorate nobody fails. I had several friends giving up their doctorate effort even after some years of effort, in Japan that would be the end of your career, not in Germany.
I give a lecture at Tohoku University about these issues since 10 years as well as for JST back then. Would be happy to exchange about that!
Lorenz, I am going to write a bit about this in my next post on this topic. "thesis doctors" in Japan show lower creativity and productivity than course PhDs. Would be happy to talk. Email me at rbkatz@rbkatz.com and we can set something up.
Richard, On the matter of the absence of industrial labs, the US has a similar problem. See "America's Advanced Manufacturing Woes" by Adler land Bonvillian in American Affairs, Fall 2023, Vol VII, No3.
Thanks for this, Peter, but I could not find the piece on Google Scholar or JSTOR. If you have a PDF of it, could you send it to me at rbkatz@rbkatz.com. I think what Ueyama was saying is that other institutions have substituted for them, at least to some degree.
Hi Richard, it is true, that Ph.D.s went down in Japan mainly because it is not attractive for students to do it. A part of the story is, that here you have mainly course doctors and not thesis doctors, the two different ways of getting your doctor degree. In Germany we have thesis doctors (90% although getting less because of more business schools coming up) and here you have to do a sound scientific research and write a scientific book about it. That means 3-5 years of work that you have to organise and manage by yourself, not going to classes like you did already in elementary school. That is the qualification, in which German companies are interested and why more than half of doctoral candidates want a scientific career. Bosch even has a program to support its employees to become a doctor.
So I think, Japan should go back to the thesis doctor with some consequences, like the fact that here in the doctorate nobody fails. I had several friends giving up their doctorate effort even after some years of effort, in Japan that would be the end of your career, not in Germany.
I give a lecture at Tohoku University about these issues since 10 years as well as for JST back then. Would be happy to exchange about that!
Lorenz
Lorenz, I am going to write a bit about this in my next post on this topic. "thesis doctors" in Japan show lower creativity and productivity than course PhDs. Would be happy to talk. Email me at rbkatz@rbkatz.com and we can set something up.
Richard, On the matter of the absence of industrial labs, the US has a similar problem. See "America's Advanced Manufacturing Woes" by Adler land Bonvillian in American Affairs, Fall 2023, Vol VII, No3.
Thanks for this, Peter, but I could not find the piece on Google Scholar or JSTOR. If you have a PDF of it, could you send it to me at rbkatz@rbkatz.com. I think what Ueyama was saying is that other institutions have substituted for them, at least to some degree.