PhD

“I know something which you probably don’t want to do”

So said my female owner’s thesis supervisor. Besides being surprised by his statement, my female owner can’t help being amused by the way he framed his words. Indonesian Chinese man.

Using a pencil and paper to illustrate what he was going to say next, he wrote “DCP”, crossed it out, and wrote “PhD”.

“I’m wondering if you would consider changing your DCP to PhD”

He’s right. This is something which my female owner would probably not do, not that she has even considered it. Nonetheless, they spent the next 5 minutes exploring the feasibility of this option (graduate with a Masters and go on to a PhD? With a PhD taking just 1-2 more year?). In a way, my female owner was touched that her supervisor was thinking ahead for her. She had told him before that she would like to teach in a tertiary institution and with his depth of experience, he felt that the best way would be through a PhD and not a DCP.

“But only if you want to teach full-time teach at NUS”