Questions tagged [administration]
On the administration or running of an academic department or organization, or the people associated with this role. [administration] is mainly concerned with overseeing regular operations, while [governance] involves strategic tasks of setting goals and direction.
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Suggestions on how to organize a chair rotation
I am suggesting a chair rotation for a department in sciences. I was wondering about pitfalls and advantages, things to watch out for, best practices and general advice. If you have organized such an ...
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Would it be possible to work as part-time staff in a university research lab?
I was wondering if it's usual(or even possible) to work in a research lab as part-time staff. I would love to just apply for a full-time position, but I cannot leave my current job due to an education ...
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Can administrative work benefit a PostDoc?
Imagine a relatively new Postdoc. She joined a new group (3-5 PhDs, 1 Prof.) and due to 'special circumstances' (Prof. too busy and mostly unavailable) is now responsible for all the PhD and Master/...
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What is the benefit to having administrative tasks in academia? [duplicate]
I see that some professors are super busy with administrative tasks like deanship, directorship, etc.
Is there any benefit to having such administrative tasks in academia?
If so, how?
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Candidating a venue to host a conference: contacting hotels for participants' discount rates
I am an early career academic who is candidating my university to host an academic conference, and this is my first time. As a criterion for determining the location, the chairs asked me if I could ...
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Should I volunteer as the department chair?
My department's chair was due to renew this year. There was a search where, through an anonymous survey, short-listed candidates represented tenured faculty members with the most support from ...
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What are the backgrounds of founders of universities?
Universities have histories behind them. Some are public, others are private.
Some are founded by the state, some by political figures in their capacity as public officials or private capacity (for ...
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Is it fair for my PI to ask me to do administrative work like submitting reports for grants?
If this occurs, is this normal? It seems like work necessary for an administrator. Moreover, there is nothing to learn from doing so. It just seems like a lot of work towards something that is not a ...
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Destructive bureaucracy and how to oppose it
In my country researchers are overburdened with paperwork and are struggling with increasingly overwhelming bureaucracy while being underpaid. This all leaves them not much time for actual research ...
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Can a student seek redress for the administration neglecting their paperwork?
(Breakdown of a larger issue - full story here)
Following the (delayed) approval of my thesis paperwork by my professor, the review staff of my small (~20 grad students?) department took weeks to ...
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Can the graduate school administration change graduation dates?
(Breakdown of a larger issue - full story here)
Following the deliberate delay my thesis paperwork by my professor, and after my department ignored my thesis revision requests for over 6 months, I ...
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Why do professors use course-buyouts?
I am confused about how course buyouts work in the United States and about how the incentives play out for professors and the university. I will use a constructed example to frame my confusion. Please ...
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What standards exist for the naming and abreviation of colleges? [closed]
Background:
Currently, I am trying to manually scrape the contents of a transfer map tool hosted on Arizona State University's website. I was pretty successful in deconstructing how the URL for the ...
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Why do Western universities seem to have trouble with Chinese names? [closed]
I've seen this happen enough times to start wondering.
For example, take the name "Ting Chao Chung", a Chinese-American Nobel laureate. Ting (丁) is the last name, and "Chao Chung" (...
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Is doing a favor for a professor in return for a favor strange?
I’m an undergraduate student and want to teach a workshop next semester, so I’m working with my school’s administration to get help with room reservations and stuff.
I have been bounced around between ...
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For what reasons might a full professor lose tenure?
Recently, a full professor at my university lost their tenure and had their employment with the university terminated. I have never heard of a tenured faculty member "being fired" before. I am not ...
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What is the effect of F grades caused by administrative errors on graduate schools? [closed]
Last year, I went to exchange credit with another university. During course registration, I applied for a graduate class in another department by purely clicking mistake. I explained that the school ...
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Innovative uses for a large donation for my department
Thanks to a large donation by a generous donor, my department has an "institute" that they use to host seminar speakers, subsidize student travel, support postdocs, and host social ...
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How can I go back to a PhD program I left for another?
TL;DR: First, all of this is happening in the US. I was a PhD student in X, in good standing, but had a shift of interest towards field Y, so I switched programs and universities to study Y. A year is ...
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What are the ethics involved in teaching my chair's child in my undergrad class?
I'm a faculty member, and my department chair's son is enrolled in a course I'm teaching. Actually, this happened twice during the past academic year and is slated to happen again this fall.
I'm ...
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Precedents of student affair/DEI providing input in faculty hiring, promotion, and evaluation?
Has there been any examples of office of student affairs or office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) or equivalent offices in university administrations providing (direct and nontrivial) input ...
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How does management work in academia? Who do professors report to?
In commercial companies you will mostly only have a handful people per manager. For example in a law firm it might be four or five and rarely that I know of more than a dozen. But in (university) ...
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Should tenured researchers be "encouraged" (forced) to retire at a certain age?
While thinking about this recent question, I was reminded of an issue at two different institutions I've taught at, as well as a third institution I am aware of via my father.
One complication I ...
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How to use a transcript with wrong course names in my application
The transcript for my last year of master's contains severe errors in course names. I will need it fixed if I want to apply to PhD programs, otherwise my chances would diminish.
The master program's ...
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What incentive does a professor have to allow a student to enroll in a course that is already full?
I'm hoping trying to register for a course I need that is currently full, and am told that I can try contacting the professor for permission to enroll. Under what circumstances are such requests ...
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How to negotiate on heavy social tasks and administratives that weren't advertised when you signed a lecturer contract?
I signed a deal as an undergraduate specialized lecturer with job description that prioritized research (followed by teaching). The (Human Capital) HC outlined these job descriptions when she offered ...
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What can a student do to respond to faculty/administration decisions based on current political events? [closed]
We are from Kuwait. Our university often has many foreign professors visiting for extended periods.
In my particular department, the head has now begun rejecting professors from the US, and starting ...
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Alternate university course allocation mechanisms
When it comes to course enrollment/registration in a limited-enrollment course, most institutions use a sequential system where students pick their course schedules sequentially (often ordered by ...
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What useful teaching/administrative practices do lecturers disclose as additions to the course outline?
There have been a few answers and comments on this site where lecturers have noted some useful practices they implement in their teaching, which they disclose in the course outline. Usually this ...
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Student comments from meetings frequently overreacted to by senior 'management' [closed]
I've worked at several UK institutions over the past 10 years and one aspect that consistently raises my eyebrows is the reaction to student-staff liaison meetings* from senior members of the team. ...
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How to ensure the research continuity when dealing with uncooperative administration?
Let us assume you have secured a hefty funding to do some exciting research. The problem is, the funding is about to end, you have done that hard part already and are interested in a follow-up, but it ...
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Does a department have any obligation to respond to a student petition against a teacher?
If all students of a class sign a petition claiming that a professor of a course is unqualified to teach, does the department/faculty change that professor?
Do students have this right? and what is ...
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A female professor was found responsible for sexual harassment – what can happen to the signatories of a letter in support of her?
The New York Times article reported a female professor at New York University was found to be responsible for sexual harassment of a male student.
There's a letter of support for this professor, sent ...
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Is it common for universities to have multiple boards (eg, a General Planning Board, a Finance Board, etc.) and what is the typical name for these?
I am wondering if it's common for universities to have multiple boards, each with a specific mandate to manage and carry out initiatives in a specific field, such as General Planning, Education, ...
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Student number indicates when you started – what to do about the ensuing prejudice?
I come from a university where the first two digits of your student number represents when you started in the university. As such people often use this to judge age, whether the person is repeating or ...
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FERPA and confidentiality of information when university officials contact school
I have a reason to think an official from a university I previously applied to is potentially stalking me. His previous actions and attitude had made me uncomfortable. We live in the same town and at ...
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Late withdrawal from all the courses after the census date as I had an accident and will be undergoing surgery [closed]
I will be undergoing surgery due to an accident that happened to me 2 months before the start of the term and I have been. The term has nearly ended and I wont be able to sit for final exams as I will ...
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I believe fellow TAs are giving students answers and inflating their tutorial average, what should I do?
I am first-year graduate student doing teaching assistance for an introductory calculus course.
The course is taught by four instructors, with 12 teaching assistants in total and I am one of them.
...
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What are the risks associated with taking a semester off while doing a Master's degree?
I am curious about this - I'm currently undergoing a Masters degree and am almost finished.
I finished the coursework, however, I still have the thesis project plus the thesis. And it's looking ...
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non-responsive academic program advisor/manager
My graduate program advisor/manager (one, who manages logistics of students; not for thesis) and I had arguments about how he proceeded the work (e.g. dropping my course without notice by self-...
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DAAD funding for stay abroad for PhD students and postdocs: is it added to the regular TV-L salary?
There are several funding options from the German DAAD for PhD students and Postdoc working in German universities to visit other countries:
Research grants for doctoral candidates
Research grants ...
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Postdoc offer: Do I have the position? How long does HR take to prepare the formalities?
I applied for a post doc position in the USA. My interview was done with the PI and I had one-on-one interactions with all the lab members ten days ago. He then unofficially offered me the position ...
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Starting PhD, university says I don't have to sign contract
I am starting my PhD in three weeks in Denmark. In Denmark, it is usual that PhD students are formally employees of the university but also have student status. I have received recently my employee ...
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Distribution of in-class and online activities during hybrid teaching after COVID-19
Here in Brazil we are slowly returning to face-to-face activities, and this includes university classes. Most proposal suggest that we do this gradually, by first implementing a hybrid teaching system ...
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Could applying for pass/fail with a grade showing in the transcript affect my chances of entering a PhD program?
Because of Covid 19, we are facing multiple dilemmas regarding putting courses on pass\fail option.
As an applied biology MSc student, my GPA is currently 4.10 out of 4. All of my courses are (A+) and ...
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What are the implications when a student takes a conflict to the chair?
Does writing to a Department Chair always have to result in a grievance and/or official investigation, or does the Chair ever help the parties work things out?
I had originally posed this question ...
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Staying in the PhD program after I told them I'm leaving
I am a first-year PhD student, and as the title suggests, I've told my department that I'll be leaving the program this summer (that is in one month), but now there's a situation that I have a reason ...
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What is the usual process for forming a business partnership with a university lab?
I'm the co-founder of a small US-based startup. As an applied research company, we'd like to form a partnership with my a certain laboratory in my alma mater that would involve the following:
Joint ...
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When should private tutors communicate with course professors?
Students often seek help from a variety of sources, including private tutors, who can be found either locally or remotely on websites such as Wyzant, Chegg, Tutor.com, Varsity Tutors, etc.
As a ...
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Previous University Refusing to Supply Basic Details Required for VISA Application for Another Job
I am a recent PhD graduate from a (large) university in the UK. I have a job offer that I have already accepted that is based in another country. I require basic information from my university for a ...
