Imam's Professorship Journey

Originally posted 1 June 2016,

Continuing my earlier rant several months ago, I will update my progress to Professorship.

Earlier in May, I have received the formal unconditional offer for a PhD degree at the University of Queensland, Australia. Besides, they offered a tuition fee and living allowance scholarship. The downside is that they did not provide family support, so that I will have to leave my family for a while.

I have accepted the offer and is currently applying for a student visa. If all goes according to plan, I will start my enrollment in July 2016. I will study under the supervision of Prof. Frank Alpert.

I Will update soon.

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Updated 25 November 2018,

It’s been more than two years since my last update. So much for “will update soon”.

So here’s the update:

I’ve passed two critical milestones, with one more left before the thesis submission. I expect to submit it by December 2019, so we shall see.

I’ve managed to survive, but it is a challenging journey with plenty of things that could go wrong. I’m fortunate to have a supportive family and understanding supervisors.

I’m expected to submit three papers for publication by the time I graduate. I now have two under review, with the third in progress. The papers will still require a lot of revising before the reviewers are satisfied. Publishing scholarly papers are always challenging, especially since English is not my native tongue. Fortunately, I received a lot of support here at the University of Queensland Business School, including a generous research budget that allows for professional language proofreader services. Having said that, the expectation is also quite high. Publishing in a top-tier journal ranked in the Australian Business Dean’s Council (ABDC) list is one such thing.

Will update more as soon as I submit my thesis (hopefully around this time next year).

Cheers,

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I am writing this edit in 2021, almost three years after my last edit. I did submit my thesis in December 2019, but the journey to graduation was longer than I expected. The Novel Coronavirus Disease began spreading in late 2019 and became a full-blown pandemic by early 2020. The pandemic really throws a wrench to a lot of plans, including my graduation plan. Fortunately, I have a supportive supervisor, Prof Frank Alpert, who continued to help me even after his early retirement from UQ. After completing the revision and external examination remotely from Indonesia, I finally received my PhD degree in February 2021. 

=====Now, I will continue my professorship journey.