Timeline for PhD student wanting to do "the minimum required"
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
23 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 4, 2019 at 21:31 | answer | added | Thomas Steinke | timeline score: 2 | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 19:01 | answer | added | anjama | timeline score: 6 | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 18:41 | comment | added | henning no longer feeds AI | What field is this? | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 18:16 | answer | added | Buffy | timeline score: 5 | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 18:04 | comment | added | Bryan Krause♦ | I would double-check the requirements laid out in the guide for students of your department... I would be a bit shocked if it didn't contain some language making clear who it is that decides when a student's work reaches the required level, and that who is going to be you as their advisor plus some other group of committee members. The minimum should likely be seen as a guide to those decision makers, not to the student. | |
| Dec 4, 2019 at 17:41 | answer | added | Jeffrey J Weimer | timeline score: 4 | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 21:20 | comment | added | apetros85 | @Prof.SantaClaus can you please elaborate? How do you then arrange for a defence with an examiner knowing the student will scrape by? How do you make sure they reach the minimum and not go under? I fail to grasp... | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 21:18 | comment | added | apetros85 | @ElizabethHenning my problem is that when someone aims for the bare minimum, they usually go lower. If the student does not send material for publication during the PhD, they will not know if they are under the minimum until it’s too late. Unfortunately, it is my job to make sure they are ready for a defence. | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 21:14 | comment | added | apetros85 | @NuclearWang this is a valid comment. I’ll talk with the graduate office about the assessment of suitable for publication if the candidate does not have any publications. | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 21:03 | comment | added | Prof. Santa Claus | This is not odd at all. I see this all the time. Many students discover that they are not suited for research, or/and lost motivation or/and that the work is too hard or/and have personal problems. I encourage them to quit and if they cannot quit (due to some government scholarship), then I just let them do the bare minimum and graduate. | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 18:12 | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | The best evidence that you've produced work "suitable for publication" is to actually publish it. If they can't even submit anything for publication, there's a decent argument to be made that they haven't accomplished the minimum - not only do they not have work "suitable for publication", they don't even have work that is suitable to be considered for publication. | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 17:14 | comment | added | Captain Emacs | Why do they aim for the PhD? | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 16:34 | comment | added | Elizabeth Henning | What exactly is the problem you're concerned about? The student is satisfying university requirements, they have their own funding, and their career goals are their business. So what's your goal here? | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 16:19 | answer | added | user116951 | timeline score: 10 | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 15:57 | comment | added | Jeffrey J Weimer | Are you obligated to continue to supervise the student? Does the university catalogue or handbook provide a disclaimer that can allow you to demonstrate why departments or faculty have the right to set higher standards? | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 15:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackAcademia/status/1201878912701218819 | ||
| Dec 3, 2019 at 14:38 | comment | added | apetros85 | @mlk, unfortunately, this is not the case at my university. A top PhD student and lower one would get the same degree. I have refrained to reply to the comments the student sent until talking to the PhD tutor who is on leave this week. Finishing without any publications and no strong references will, of course, hinder any chances of landing a good position (industry or academia). I haven't gone into this discussion though. | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 14:07 | comment | added | mlk | At my alma mater, there war a grade associated with the PhD. I have never seen the lowest passing grade (rite) actually given and it's usually a huge red flag, also for future employers. Did you tell him that just meeting the minimal requirements will also only get him the minimal grade and certainly no future recommendation and the like? | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 13:41 | comment | added | J. Tylka | It sounds to me like this student doesn’t really want a PhD in this field if they aren’t interested in doing new research or presenting at conferences, etc. Maybe the most helpful thing you could do as an advisor is to try to understand what the student might actually enjoy doing and then help them to see that there are other options (e.g., switching advisors, switching departments, or dropping out of grad school altogether). I imagine the student may be feeling rather “stuck” in the PhD program and may not realize that changing that wouldn’t be the end of the world | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 13:32 | comment | added | apetros85 | @Buffy, the question is not relevant to mitigating conditions (these have been factored in). This is more of a mentality consideration. The PhD student believes that since the university has set a lower bar, then they should be compared to that lower bar and not some "unrealistic" expectations. Given that the PhD degree at my uni (UK) is a pass/fail without classification, the student thinks there is no incentive to do anything more than the minimum. | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 13:22 | comment | added | user48953094 | Which incentive would a non-tenured supervisor have without any publication, in europe afair mandatory | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 12:40 | comment | added | Buffy | You don't mention whether the student is operating under some constraint that makes anything else impossible. | |
| Dec 3, 2019 at 12:34 | history | asked | apetros85 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |