COMMENTARY: Maybe you shouldn’t have a PhD If you have to protest for a job

By Hans Ngala

Recent pictures and images showing PhD graduates in Yaounde, protesting because they have not been hired by government have left Cameroonians in disbelief. Many are astounded by the fact that academic scholars of the highest rung in the academic ladder – are unable to create or find employment for themselves! A PhD is the highest level in academic achievement, it shows that one has undertaken independent, often, trailblazing research in a field of interest to them. Unlike other levels of study where you simply attend class, write exams and pass, a PhD is pretty much the scholar’s own thing. He or she chooses their field, topic and what research method they will undertake in completing that research.
They usually have a supervisor who is not there to impose per se, but is more like a guide, telling the researcher what he thinks can improve the PhD researcher’s work. Therefore, since the researcher is the one who is very much in charge of his or her own research, the understanding is that he or she should have thought the topic through before embarking on it in the first place. But this does not seem to be the case with the recent Cameroonian PhD graduates.
Some of them would have earned PhDs in the humanities and social sciences (for example in subjects like History, Literature, English, Economics, Anthropology etc) which are not necessarily ‘useless’ but are neither the kinds of subjects that address the myriads of problems Cameroon is facing and where expertise is needed to solve those problems.
Take for example: Yaounde has an acute problem of waste management and disposal, a crushing lack of sufficient health infrastructure and health experts as well as a poor transportation system. So what kinds of PhD graduates would be most valuable if government was to hire people to address these challenges? Government would certainly prefer a graduate with a PhD in Urban Planning and City Development and not a PhD holder in Literature who speaks fancy English but cannot address problems. They would certainly not hire a PhD graduate in Economics when looking for health experts who can address the shortage of surgeons, ophthalmologists, neurologists etc.
Many Cameroonians have the idea of studying ‘easy’ subjects and then thinking that holding a certificate or degree translates to you being qualified for a job and nothing could be further from the truth.
Many Cameroonians go to school and study subjects that they don’t like or understand well, simply because a job is not forthcoming. Someone goes to university, earns a Bachelors degree, Master’s and then PhD without ever taking a break in between to gain valuable experience in industry and once they complete the PhD (which is the end of school), they suddenly realize that they have no markable skills apart from being able to read and write and the best they can probably do is to teach at university, but then, those jobs are all taken too and they resort to protesting on the streets.
A PhD is not a pathway to a job and perhaps these graduates protesting, were not told this. A PhD simply means you are resilient, you know research methods and you can think independently and it is for you to use all those three skills that you develop during doctoral-level study, to find a job. In an age of interconnectedness, it is simply ridiculous for a PhD graduate to assume that they must be employed solely in the country they graduated from. A PhD graduate should think out of the box, apply for postdoctoral grants in their field of study, look at universities in other countries that are looking for people with those skills, apply to work as a consultant for various NGOs and international organizations who often value doctoral research skills. The blanket reasoning that once a PhD graduate, you must be integrated into the government payroll is an outdated mindset that would bring into question the critical thinking skills of these PhD graduates. If they are unable to think out of the box, are they worth entrusting to teach younger Cameroonians? What values will they be passing on to younger Cameroonians if they give the impression that their PhD was not worth it in the first place?