PhD support group?

studentphil

misskool wrote:

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Phil, sometimes you say the most stupid things.

What is wrong with higher standards? Are you saying that third world countries deserve third rate education? If you want to be a lecturer, you must be prepared to do the work and take the learning curve that comes with it.

And nowadays no one has an automatic lecturer post when they finish their phd, they do a postdoc or a few postdocs and find what their niche. Yes, it is hard to get a lecturer's post, there is no denying that but shipping underqualified phds to the third world will not solve your problem either.

Besides, you are only meant to be 20 or somewhere quite young, so how long ago is back then?


:rotfl: :rotfl: I am going back to work now, everyone thinks I am weird for having tears streaming down my eyes from laughing too much after reading your last post.

I did not know them when I was a few months old, what I mean is that I learned later in life about their careers, but it still does not change the facts that requirements for posts have increased vastly over my life time. I was not making any comment on the quality of teachers they should have in Developing countries.

It is NOT always certain that because you hold a PHD that you can do any better research than someone with just a BSc or Msc, so you are wrong to think that because there are more doctors kicking about these days that research is that much better than before.

magyar

studentphil wrote:

It is NOT always certain that because you hold a PHD that you can do any better research than someone with just a BSc or Msc, so you are wrong to think that because there are more doctors kicking about these days that research is that much better than before.

It does probably mean you have more experience in the mechanics of research. If I was to redo my PhD knowing what I do now, I'd probably only need 18 months.

studentphil

magyar wrote:

It does probably mean you have more experience in the mechanics of research. If I was to redo my PhD knowing what I do now, I'd probably only need 18 months.

Maybe experience but it is not certain that in the longer term a PHD holder will do better research.

melancholly

studentphil wrote:

Maybe experience but it is not certain that in the longer term a PHD holder will do better research.

however, if they didn't have a PhD then i don't see how anyone would ever give them the money to do research...... without a PhD you would also get paid a hell of a lot less and have much more restricted career progression.

another thing is that even though there are more people doing phds these days, there are not necessarily lots more people doing research (there certainly aren't many grants around at the moment - especially in the US where academic budgets are shrinking because of the money being spent in Iraq). a phd is often enough to put someone off a career in research!! many people go into completely different directions afterwards.

but on the upside - thanks for all the support guys! my supervisors have been great today and even suggested that they might write an email to the journal because the reviewers comments were so out of order!

DrFluffy

magyar wrote:

It does probably mean you have more experience in the mechanics of research. If I was to redo my PhD knowing what I do now, I'd probably only need 18 months.

My best friend did his PhD in 18 months - the git!

studentphil

melancholly wrote:

however, if they didn't have a PhD then i don't see how anyone would ever give them the money to do research...... without a PhD you would also get paid a hell of a lot less and have much more restricted career progression.

another thing is that even though there are more people doing phds these days, there are not necessarily lots more people doing research (there certainly aren't many grants around at the moment - especially in the US where academic budgets are shrinking because of the money being spent in Iraq). a phd is often enough to put someone off a career in research!! many people go into completely different directions afterwards.

but on the upside - thanks for all the support guys! my supervisors have been great today and even suggested that they might write an email to the journal because the reviewers comments were so out of order!

Maybe ,however, a good few of the professorship holders at my place do not have PHD's and they have clearly had successful careers to get a professorship.

It is good things are going well

melancholly

DrFluffy wrote:

My best friend did his PhD in 18 months - the git!

i already hate him!

misskool

DrFluffy wrote:

My best friend did his PhD in 18 months - the git!

:eek:

jamtart6

hello! this thread caught my eye a while a go, but was a bit overwhelmed at the no. of posts to read thru, i have caught a few and decided it was high time i said hello and please keep me sane!

Im exactly half way thru, things are starting to go well, the huge 1st year learning curve is over and the results are coming thick and fast...but the further on I go...the more I am unsure that academia is for me.

I've always wanted a job like lecturing but not sure now, if the career or family will be more important (ill probably swing to the family side to be honest). DO you think you can have a good balance of work and family in academia?

Hope to chat to you all soon
Jammy x

studentphil

jamtart6 wrote:

hello! this thread caught my eye a while a go, but was a bit overwhelmed at the no. of posts to read thru, i have caught a few and decided it was high time i said hello and please keep me sane!

Im exactly half way thru, things are starting to go well, the huge 1st year learning curve is over and the results are coming thick and fast...but the further on I go...the more I am unsure that academia is for me.

I've always wanted a job like lecturing but not sure now, if the career or family will be more important (ill probably swing to the family side to be honest). DO you think you can have a good balance of work and family in academia?

Hope to chat to you all soon
Jammy x

If writing articles will be all your life is then it is a fairly sad life. All work and no play makes for a very sad and lonely life.