Prioritizing the Thesis Topic Selection Criteria Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) from PhD Student's Perspective

Choosing thesis topic is one of the most important decisions of postgraduate students and many factors affect such decision. This study aimed to prioritize the criteria for choosing thesis topic from Ph.D. students’ viewpoint, using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and ranking methods.
This analytical study was carried out on the School of Public Health PhD students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), who were in thesis topic selection phase. For data collection, a questionnaire was used; it consisted of three parts: demographic questions, pairwise comparison of criteria, and ranking the criteria affecting thesis topic selection. Data was analyzed using the AHP method, and descriptive and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney).
A total of 80 Ph.D. students participated in this study, of whom 43 (53.8%) were male. Based on the AHP method results, the most important criterion for thesis topic selection was the novelty of subject matter and the least important one was the location of study setting. The most important criterion based on the ranking method was the participants’ interest in the topic and the least important one was the location of study setting.
Although the results of the two methods used to prioritize the thesis topic selection criteria were somewhat different, based on both method results, the most important criteria from the viewpoint of School of Public Health PhD students were the novelty of subject matter, supervisor’s proficiency in it, access to required resources, and participants’ interest in subject matter.