COMPLETING A THESIS - SOME USEFUL TIPS

Dr Zahri Hamat giving his comments

30 Sept – “A thesis of its own class with a distinct and unique feature as it was done with a the greatest of effort and perseverance” was the final comment given by Dr. Zahri Hamat towards Raziah Md Tahir’s final draft PhD thesis. Raziah presented her findings during the ISDEV Graduate Discourse held at Ibn Khaldum Meeting Room, Institute of Postgraduate, USM.

Prof Syukri Salleh's (centre - with a white skull cap) sharing the trials and
tribulations of Raziah's (right) PhD journey

Raziah who presented and defended her PhD proposal on 31 December 2009, struggled for more than three years to juggle her responsibilities as a wife, mother to her three children and lecturer at Universiti Utara Malaysia as well as carrying out her duties as a RISDEV student to complete her PhD thesis within the time frame given. Finally on 26 September 2013, her supervisor, Prof Muhammad Syukri Salleh, gave her the green light to present her final draft PhD thesis to about 100-strong ISDEV members that attended that day. Her thesis was evaluated by Dr Zahri Hamat.

The stately-looking  Ibnu Khaldun Room at IPS

With the title “Mekanisme Operasi Kredit Mikro Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia: Satu Analisis Daripada Perspektif Islam” (Operations Mechanism of the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia: An Analysis from the Islamic Perspective), Raziah shared with all those present on her trials and tribulations of going through the empirical part of her research. Some tips were also given on the skills to the art of personal communications on how to garner the confidence of respondents to share some confidential information with her. However above all persevere and hold tightly to Allah SWT and never lose hope is a motto that she held dearly throughout her PhD candidacy.

A confident Radieah presenting her final draft PhD thesis

Same goes to the other candidate, Radieah Mohd Nor. Radieah is also a student supervised by Prof. Muhammad Syukri Salleh. She presented her final PhD draft thesis on “Pengurusan Kemiskinan di Zaman Khalifah Umar Abdul Aziz” (Poverty Management During the Time of Khalifah Umar Abdul Aziz). Her draft thesis was evaluated by Dr. Mohd. Shukri Hanapi, who was full of praises on her reference materials which included highly respected and acclaimed books in Arabic on Khalifah Umar Abul Aziz. He also gave his positive comments on her standards of writing and thorough research carried out.

Dr. Shukri diligently reviewing Radieah's draft thesis

Besides agreeing with the tips shared by Raziah, Radieah also added that to make one’s academic journey enjoyable at the Master’s level or PhD level, one must be deeply interested with the research that is carried out.

With such an upbeat and constructive feedback received from both evaluators, Raziah and Radieah received a unanimous approval from all ISDEV lecturers that they can submit their PhD thesis, with minor corrections, to IPS.