miércoles, 3 de abril de 2013

¿Doctorados Inútiles?

Bueno, The economist tiene ste artículo que seguramente no les gustará a muchos de mis colegas, ex estudiantes y estudiantes..... Por supuesto, es una opinión que no necesariamente tiene que ser compartida por todos, aunque hay que reconocer que varios de sus comentarios no están lejos de una "triste?" realidad

The disposable academic

Algunos párrafos para que se animen a leerlo todo

One thing many PhD students have in common is dissatisfaction. Some describe their work as “slave labour”. Seven-day weeks, ten-hour days, low pay and uncertain prospects are widespread. You know you are a graduate student, goes one quip, when your office is better decorated than your home and you have a favourite flavour of instant noodle. “It isn't graduate school itself that is discouraging,” says one student, who confesses to rather enjoying the hunt for free pizza. “What's discouraging is realising the end point has been yanked out of reach.”
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The interests of academics and universities on the one hand and PhD students on the other are not well aligned. The more bright students stay at universities, the better it is for academics. Postgraduate students bring in grants and beef up their supervisors' publication records. Academics pick bright undergraduate students and groom them as potential graduate students. It isn't in their interests to turn the smart kids away, at least at the beginning. One female student spoke of being told of glowing opportunities at the outset, but after seven years of hard slog she was fobbed off with a joke about finding a rich husband.
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Many of those who embark on a PhD are the smartest in their class and will have been the best at everything they have done. They will have amassed awards and prizes. As this year's new crop of graduate students bounce into their research, few will be willing to accept that the system they are entering could be designed for the benefit of others, that even hard work and brilliance may well not be enough to succeed, and that they would be better off doing something else. They might use their research skills to look harder at the lot of the disposable academic. Someone should write a thesis about that.

1 comentario:

Anónimo dijo...

Claramente hay verdades en esos párrafos, pero son superficiales y a medias.
No des información engañosa a tus estudiantes.
Si alguien busca éxito profesional hay caminos más expeditos.
Y el que tiene apetito y habilidad para el éxito en cualquier rama que trabaje lo va a encontrar sin doctorado o con uno.
Un doctorado en un fin en sí mismo, y te abre la posibilidad de crear conocimiento.
El que escribió eso es un amargad@.

slds