Given the current political turmoil, I was eager to read through the day’s English language newspapers as I boarded the Air Malta flight KM117 back to Malta last Friday 20 January from Gatwick Airport after having undergone a successful MPhil to PhD upgrade at Southampton University. I consider myself lucky in managing to get hold of a copy of the day’s issue of your newspaper.
Although I have my own personal thoughts about the Franco Debono saga, I was taken somewhat aback by his definition of what a thesis entails. I quote “...a thesis is an academic experience that cannot really be put into practice...” (‘Franco Debono insists thesis is academic experience’, TMID, 20 January).
As a full-time member of the academic staff at the University of Malta within the department of accountancy for the past nine years, I beg to differ. Such a definition is somewhat an insult not only to us academics but also to those undergraduate students who give their dissertation project their utmost commitment.
It is imperative that when students commence thinking about their eventual dissertation project they have to consider two important issues. Primarily, they should select an area they feel confident with and, secondly, treat the dissertation as their own personal project which can fuel them with a certain degree of expertise their counterparts do not possess. In doing so they could utilise their dissertation as a golden opportunity not only to excel academically but also to add value to their successful post of employment.
Over the past nine years, I have signed dissertation proposals in accountancy. Such dissertation projects not only give our students an initial inkling into the research continuum i.e. qualitative versus quantitative, but have also contributed in fathoming better how globalisation and accountancy impact on our home country, Malta, which is considered to be an island state economy.
Dr Franco Debono, has just presented a private member’s bill relating to political party financing. This is another interesting area for my future students to research about. Given our recent historical past, Maltese people still have close at heart the notion of stewardship accounting, something which I strongly feel is lacking where political parties are concerned. I look forward to visualise what sort of financial disclosures political parties will be obliged to present so that interested users can scrutinise them and give academics like me the chance to carry out research on them.
During one of the graduation ceremonies held last November, I met a B.Com student who although eligible to further his/her studies in the Honours degree programme chose not to do so because of fear of doing a dissertation! I was obviously taken aback with such an answer as well. Unfortunately, Franco Debono’s thesis definition will surely not help to alleviate such an inauspicious situation.
I might not manage to change Franco Debono’s attitude towards doing a University degree which according to him teaches you only the “how” but not the “why”. Yet, I do hope that my humble contribution here will change any current or prospective undergraduate to look at doing a dissertation in a better light.
Ivan Grixti MPhil(Soton)
Lecturer in Financial Accounting
University of Malta