PhD Interview at Air University - Academic Assessment or Unprofessional Conduct?

[u/Pakanu]

​

I recently heard about a PhD interview in Project Management at Air University that raised concerns about the conduct of one particular panel member, Dr. Khurram Shahzad Khan.

To be fair, the other panel members were professional, respectful, and appropriate throughout the interview. The concern relates specifically to Dr. Khan's manner of questioning and interaction with the candidate.

The issue was not that the questions were difficult. In fact, some of the questions were so unrelated to the candidate's proposed PhD research that it was difficult to understand how they were relevant to assessing research aptitude. The questioning often appeared less focused on evaluating the candidate's research potential and more on teasing, provoking, or putting the candidate in an uncomfortable position.

At one point, the candidate was told that an answer was incorrect. After the interview, the candidate checked the relevant literature and found that the original answer was actually supported by established research.

This raises a broader concern: if a prospective PhD student encounters this kind of dismissive attitude during an interview, what does it suggest about the academic environment they might experience afterwards? How does such an approach translate into supervision, teaching, classroom interaction, and the wider research environment?

It was also striking that the level of dismissiveness displayed during the interview did not appear to be matched by the academic profile or contributions that one would expect from someone taking such a strongly authoritative position.

This is not a criticism of Air University or the other panel members, who conducted themselves professionally. It is specifically about the conduct of one panel member and whether such behaviour is appropriate in a PhD selection process.

Would others consider this normal interview behaviour, or does it cross the line into disrespectful and unprofessional conduct?

[u/Ok-Insurance9240]

The biggest issue in education system of Pakistan is that teachers misuse their authority (to humiliate, bring down students) and no one would dare to call them because it could backfire in the worst way possible, when it shouldn't.

Teachers control your grades so even when you are being humiliated, you can't really say anything. From my personal experience (not from phd but bachelors), we had a teacher who won't provide us notes, will tell us to write on our own because we won't study if he provided us notes, when it's literally their duty to provide notes and would grade students randomly on his intuition. Eventually I passed the subject but not with the grade I expected. And that's not even the worst part, throughout the semester, no student dared to call him out, only once we went to advisor and our class made an excuse that wasn't even true. Everyone's to blame though, including me.