Lately, more and more students want a non-academic job when they finish their PhD. Anecdotally, some graduates seem to be experiencing the PhD as a barrier to employment, not an enabler. In fact, I’ve heard so much negative talk about how employers react to PhD holders over the years that it seemed important to start […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
What is this ‘anti-PhD’ attitude about?
Nigeria’s universities are performing poorly. What can be done about it
Why are Nigeria’s universities in such a sorry state? Some would say it had to do with just one word: money. Sadly this is part of the reason. But not entirely. Nigeria’s universities have been under-funded for decades. Like a talented but under-achieving football team, fail to achieve goals because the country hasn’t invested enough in […] … learn more→
Why girls have abandoned computer science
This is a fact that is obvious to any organizer of post-baccalaureate orientation or open days in engineering school: boys are far more likelythan girls to hurry around booths dedicated to the trades of digital . One might think that it has always been so. Moreover, this state of affairs is anchored in mentalities, the figure of the “geek” still […] … learn more→
Christian students fight back…and win
Six months ago I covered how the University of Iowa was targeting a Christian youth group, tossing them off campus because of their anti-homosexuality stance regarding their own club officers—note carefully, the group was merely asking that its own officers adhere to Christian beliefs. The Christian group decided to fight the university’s bullying, taking their […] … learn more→
Duke Professor removed for asking students to speak english
Even though our schools are well-supported by a student loan scam pouring money on them in an ever increasing deluge, they always want more. A sweet spring of such funds comes from foreign students—they get to pay a “non resident” tuition penalty on top of the usual bloated tuition price. It’s particularly prevalent in graduate […] … learn more→
Australia should start planning for universal tertiary education
Australia is often characterised as having a mass higher education system. In fact, it could be called near-universal. According to the 2016 Census, 56% of Australians aged 15 years and over – 9.6 million people – hold a post-school qualification, up from 46% in 2006. Universal education does not mean every Australian should attain a higher education […] … learn more→
What nobody tells you about ‘minor corrections’
In the UK system, the majority of PhD students pass their viva ‘with minor corrections’. Your examiners present you with a list of corrections, you go away and implement them. Easy, yes? Well, no, not necessarily. If you’re lucky, corrections are simply typos, formatting issues etc. So far, so good. Any thesis will inevitably contain […] … learn more→
College prep for Generation Z
Generation Z is made up of those born between 1997 and 2012. They are the digital kids that have been raised with a device in their hand and a screen in their face, however, don’t discount this generation as an over obsessed bunch of tech addicts. Generation Z is proving to be a generation that gets the […] … learn more→
International graduate school enrollments decline in consecutive years (First time ever)
Gloom and doom reports have always been around. I can find “new reports” of the dollar becoming worthless from the turn of the century…and similar reports from last week. Sooner or later they’ll be right, I suppose. Even a tiny rise in my tumor markers can presage the final run of cancer through my body…and […] … learn more→
An intern in a company: need to be paid or not? Legal and ethical study
A number of students in Quebec Canada at the end of November last year demanded that the internship be paid. Do they have a point? Some people consider unpaid internships to be a good thing, especially those who have benefited from the internship contract. While some others emphasize that there is forgetting the issue of injustice if we consider […] … learn more→
