Amy Bruckman deals with a pretty interesting topic on her blog today, which really resonated with me. The essential question is how/what to fund with regard to research topics: should they be focused on what interests that professors, or what interests the students themselves? As a student who had significant latitude with my own work, I watched other students choose (or “choose”) their topics with great interest.
There is good reason for students to choose their own topic. It is probably something they will be very interested in, and very motivated to complete. On the downside, a topic chosen by a student is less likely to be (at the outset) of high quality, and/or not appropriately contextualized. They may not know which methods to apply, or which are likely to yield success, and, they may not have a good sense for what will be of interest to the research community in general. A bigger problem is that they may not know how to frame the research question to begin with.
The flip side is that a prof, presumably, has thought about all these issues — particularly if s/he has already secured funding for a particular project (i.e. they have a grant). The prof already knows how the project should proceed, what will need to be done, and as a bonus, has the funds to actually go ahead and deliver the (research) goods. The proposal has already been vetted out by the funding agency, and presumably in conversation with the prof’s peers. Yet, there is this lingering problem of: will the student really want to do that project? The flipside of this is that if the student chooses the project, will the supervisor be in a position to be able to appropriately advise the student?
I have seen instances where a student came in without a strong sense for what s/he would do, and eventually “picked” a topic that fell right in as a sub-problem of the professor’s bigger/grand project. In some of these cases, they are essentially slung to the oars of the rowboat as extra labour, and so begins the cycle of academia. The upside is that there is direction — and enough cannot be said fora degree that actually finishes in the time allotted (this coming from a guy who finished up right at the end of a full 5 years instead of the planned 4 years). The downside is that sometimes, the direction is not exactly where the student wanted to go. They didn’t get to “pick” so much as “were convinced” or “were significantly persuaded” or “were told that there’d be no money elsewhere.” So… it’s hard to say if this is the best way to go.
The thing is that we might miss something if no students are ever allowed to persue what they’re really interested in. They may, as in Amy’s case, really have a good idea — an idea that is not couched in existing ways of thinking or the prevailing methods/theories of the day. They may be totally off the wall, and they may end up being just brilliant. You might say, “Well, what are the chances of that?” And the answer is that if you never let anyone do it, then the chances are exactly zero.
There is a good reason why professors are funded, and the granting process is in place — it is something that hopefully ensures that research and knowledge moves along. The thing is that there needs to be room for innovation and off-the-wall thinking. That’s where the “Misc funded student” comes along. That student, with appropriate freedom, can hopefully come up with something that the prof never even thought of — and that may just be something better than the prof could have come up with him him/herself.
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I was pretty fortunate throughout my graduate school career. I was always well funded by external sources, so I wasn’t ever particularly pressured into any project that I didn’t want to engage in. Every project that I engaged in was, essentially, my idea.
At least, that’s what I thought until I saw articles like this on persuasion: How to convince others into thinking that your ideas were theirs.
Seeing it, and reflecting on my research topics, I discovered that indeed, most of my research fit really well within the umbrella of my supervisors’ existing research. Things that make you go hmm indeed. So, were those research topics really my idea?
Well, maybe they were just repeatedly great choices for supervisors! 
Thanks for the shout out, Tony! I had total freedom as a grad student, and tried to make the most of it. I wish everyone could have the same opportunity, because a dissertation is a big deal–it should be something you are passionate about.
Money is a reality, and has always been. And it’s always been dealt with differently in different places. It’s a complicated issue. I have worked with many students trying to do what they want and satisfy the terms of funding that’s slightly different at the same time, and it sometimes works but sometimes it really doesn’t.
The solution I guess is to do a better job of PhD admissions and admit the folks who fit those shoes….
I’ve recently discovered the magic of convincing other people your idea was theirs. The tack I usually take is saying something like “aw man, if only there were a way to solve the problem X. If only Y would work, but it doesn’t.” This has to be phrased in such a way that the solution “Z” is obvious. In my limited exploration of the topic, taking the above approach results in much more enthusiastic participation then saying “well, X is a problem, but we can do Z, which will solve it.”