Selecting a doctoral programme using the analytic hierarchy process-The importance of perspective

This paper discusses the application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to the selection of a doctoral programme. The first section of this paper includes a brief discussion of the AHP. In the next section, the authors describe a hierarchy for selecting a doctoral programme that includes the perspective or career objective of the decision-maker as what is called a pseudo-level. This is followed by an illustration of the hierarchy in a case study with MBA students contemplating a doctoral programme. Finally, the authors discuss the results and highlight the importance of perspective as a discrete criterion that should not be included as another level of the hierarchy in the usual way.