Unfortunately Academia is not an Ideal Environment
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Academia is not an ideal environment so the researcher needs to previously have in mind that different types of problems would occur during the learning process. There are criminals in any institution on this planet and academia is not exempted. There are thieves that steal your ideas and work. There are thieves who not only steal your ideas but also enslave you for 6 to 10 years. So when ever you ask your self why did he do this to me remember he is a criminal.
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Do not take every thing your boss says right.
The state of the higher academic institutions .
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Getting PhD is easy as long as the student is given the right advice and support to get to the end. The problem is when academia becomes to be more money than learning and solving problems oriented. This leads academics and department start developing methods in order to not get the blame for a student failure.
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PhD is a joint team project where two people have to work one with the required skills to manage, guide and support and one with the acquired time and resources to work. Once the two are combined a PhD can be obtained smoothly I see this picture an expressing one.
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You will find that the academic institution manages and covers up its failure by providing free time but no fundamental contribution or support to the student. The student is dragged by the institution into a bureaucratic process so that it would make him lose hope and quiet. Loss of hope is achieved by prolonging the process then counting on that the scholarship money will finish and also on the social pressure that the student will be exposed to. Where the student feels imprisoned by the commitment of finishing PhD.
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You see this also in academia, where it has become more of a business oriented culture than to spread knowledge. Once academia becomes like this that means other nations will over take them in the race. Because as a result lower standard staff will be hired causing the decline of research quality with the progression of time. Talking of 15 year time scales. At the moment they think they are smart and business is flourishing but you should respect humans. Humans are smart and will make an impression of their experience and will learn from it and warn future generations. Once respect and trust are lost it can never be regained. That is why education should always be linked to industry. This will force society to always think and search for new ideas and products to market in addition to keep society preoccupied with constructive matters in life.
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The Student is always the Weakest Link
Unfortunately in PhD the weakest link is always the PhD student and he is most vulnerable to lose the most out of the process. Because the student is usually miss treated depending on his weakest point:
1- The financial statues, when the student is going through financial difficulties he will have less thinking power to think about finishing his project.
2- Visa statues, going through the paper work required for sch a process at the time of thesis write up or during corrections or after substitutions or to take forward the appeal process.
3- Weak personality when the student is a peaceful character and disciplined he is not used to reply to negative comments made by other research parties, when they try to devalue his work.
4- Different discipline questions. They will focus on areas that the students is not part of during the viva, so if he is an engineer they will ask questions relating to applied mathematics and physics in detail to diverge attention away from the work contribution and results.
2- Visa statues, going through the paper work required for sch a process at the time of thesis write up or during corrections or after substitutions or to take forward the appeal process.
3- Weak personality when the student is a peaceful character and disciplined he is not used to reply to negative comments made by other research parties, when they try to devalue his work.
4- Different discipline questions. They will focus on areas that the students is not part of during the viva, so if he is an engineer they will ask questions relating to applied mathematics and physics in detail to diverge attention away from the work contribution and results.
Actions that Weaken the State of the Student
Lots of students feel disappointment throughout PhD because they keep getting projected with things that they thought will happen only in a corrupt environment
1- Not Providing the student with the required facilities to finish his project or always delaying them.
2- Not pushing the student to produce results or helping him in finding ways of validating his results.
3- Not allowing the student to publish through telling him its not important and lots of other things are more important, not publishing will cause the student to get extensively asked questions about the quality of results. Where the examiners will always have doubts to his results even if the results have been validated by the student.
2- Not pushing the student to produce results or helping him in finding ways of validating his results.
3- Not allowing the student to publish through telling him its not important and lots of other things are more important, not publishing will cause the student to get extensively asked questions about the quality of results. Where the examiners will always have doubts to his results even if the results have been validated by the student.
Problem characterization can be split to 4 parts
Signs of Students Vulnerability to Fail
This is what I call intentional negligence. Why? because any responsible person would make a mistake once or twice but when it gets to 8 points then its intentional. The following list gives an example case:
1- Assign the student a PhD project in one year to do, after changing the project several times.
2- Give him important data 2 months before thesis submission.
3- Do not give him required software.
4- Dose not read the thesis for him so he has no responsibility on his back.
5- Select wrong examiners for the students vivas.
6- Give him impossible corrections.
7- The supervisor sends the student contradictory emails.
8- Asks the student to follow the examiners guidelines then dose not give the student the examiners thesis copy.
2- Give him important data 2 months before thesis submission.
3- Do not give him required software.
4- Dose not read the thesis for him so he has no responsibility on his back.
5- Select wrong examiners for the students vivas.
6- Give him impossible corrections.
7- The supervisor sends the student contradictory emails.
8- Asks the student to follow the examiners guidelines then dose not give the student the examiners thesis copy.
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The problem is usually when you get to the end of your PhD you figure out what is the problem and the bad intention intended towards you all along, it would already be too late late to react, they would have made sure that you were so emotionally and mentally exhausted that you can not take the decision to pull out or pull your self together.
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The game is very simple that they play with the student, they gradually take away all your required points to satisfy PhD conditions through misguidance and wrong info and data and then they by pass all the safety mechanisms and regulations made by the university to not put the student in that position. I find the following picture it applies to civil rights also applies to academia for PhD students:
The Manipulation Game
The student is asked by the supervisor to work on things that have no relevance for his PhD for free. Or make him work on a funded project with out exposing the student for his right to get payment for it.
In some cases: The work of the full time student is taken and given to the part time one.
The Misinterpretation Game
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Its when the supervisor and student exchange emails but emails are always misinterpreted by the supervisor. Where a simple thing such as acquiring a desktop to the student becomes impossible for the department to provide.
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The Bullying Game
It is when the supervisor dose not allow the student to talk and not to give him any time to see him and if the student talks not to give him any constructive feedback that would help him finish his project. Shouting at the student is another method. Or making the student feel bad in asking and that he shouldn't ask. Stop the student from asking where by the supervisor always says he is tired or has to many responsibilities to manage.
The Unclear Game
Its when the supervisor never shows the student the end point of the project, this will always keep the student in a weak position. Never tell him he will pass or that his work is enough for a PhD. Always deceive the student that the final decision of pass ar fail is on the examiners. As a matter of fact the main contributor for pass or fail process is your supervisor. While when the student is confident of him self this can contribute.
The Delay Game
This is when a problem can be solved in a phone call, instead it will take him several months to resolve the issue. Like allocating a desktop or work space for the student. An apparatus that can be obtained by the department in one week takes a year. Supporting the student financially through allocating him so secondary jobs that can earn him some support money. Some times this is done to make the student do a postDoc position work for free.
The Devaluation Game
This when the supervisor dose not send his student to any conferences or dose not provide him with a research team to work with.
The Sabotage Game
This is when lab gathered samples or sabotaged to give wrong numbers or values while the researcher is out of the lab. Also when high performance computing calculations are stopped by an IT member on the reason of hardware problem. Another example is when experimental data book for the student also goes missing.
The Double Standards Game
This is when all the rules have to be applied on the student in parallel no rules are applied onto the supervisor. Meaning the student has to submit on the specified deadline but the supervisor dosent read the work. Then the student has to have a high quality peace of work.
The Complaints Department Game
Usually that department is give different names, caring names but in real life its the rejects department. Its when you are told to go
Administrative Swapping Heads Game
Its when regularly members of staff are assigned a position to conduct negative polices and then removed to show the public that the problem was due to miss management.
The Fake Meetings Game
Its when fake meetings are held to get the student to talk his worries, to find what strong evidence he has against the university to neutralize its legal threat and create new problems to the student, or over saturate him with new problems with intentional acts of negligence. Then at the end of the meeting different points are written down on paper.
The Appeal Game
The appeal game it is just like going to a criminal asking for justice.
The Random Game
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Its when the supervisor gives no constructive guidance if he dose its dangerous guidance that causes the student many problems at later stages of the project. Always taking none sense one week he says the work is good another week he says its bad at the end of the year bad two years later good at the end he say you are not PhD standard.
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The Language Game
Its when the supervisor always takes the student to the language area problem which the student can never perfect or master because its not his mother tongue.
Sick Academia
You will see after a while sick patters among Professor and other members of staff due to that the acquire lots of skills over time they enjoy playing with the students minds and emotions and they enjoy it more when they get away with it without being caught. Unfortunately these actions are none moral disgusting and have a devastating impact on the student. It can some times cause the student to lose his mental stability. Especially when the student is funded by his family or he took a loan to study then he didn't achieve his objective and dose not know or have the power to pay the money back.
It becomes more saddening when you hear the academics laughing and sharing there experience and jokes with others about it.
A saying by Joseph Stalin
Dysfunctional Bureaucracy in Academia
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Good read book:
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Unless otherwise noted, all content on this site is @Copyright by Ahmed Al Makky 2012-2015 - http://cfd2012.com