Awkward situation this week. I receive an email from a student expressing interest in our PhD program. It turns out that he already holds a PhD. He is seeking admission to, right after being admitted, submit a second dissertation in the thesis by compendium format—essentially assembling previously published (or soon-to-be-published) articles.
The appropriate response is obvious. So I opt for a brief reply: thank you for your interest, it is actually not possible, best of luck. But then he writes back–and quite persistently. I then have to elaborate: the thesis by compendium is not intended as a mechanism to validate previous publications but rather as the culmination of a structured doctoral training process, it is to be undertaken under the supervision of an advisor, often within the framework of a research group’s collective project, and developed over the course of the doctoral program, and so on and so forth. He then responds with a terse, “OK, thank you.”
Wondering where he might eventually succeed in getting what he seeks.