27
votes
How does management work in academia? Who do professors report to?
Generally speaking "management" in a university takes a different role and faculty are generally expected to know what to do and to do it to a high standard. In a certain sense, every ...
- 399k
22
votes
The Curious Case of Disappearing Funds
I am not detailedly aware of European Training Networks, but it sounds like you are grossly misunderstanding some things here.
1. €200k for three researchers for three years are absolutely certainly ...
- 138k
20
votes
Accepted
The Curious Case of Disappearing Funds
These are public funding from the EU, I don't think there should be any secrets how the money has been used, because eventually the universities involved will have to report this to the EU. Don't go ...
- 11.7k
12
votes
Accepted
In American universities, why are academics placed in managerial and administrative functions?
I'm not sure this is limited to the US as it is a fairly traditional view of what a Faculty should be. Traditionally a group of scholars shared administration as needed. When things were small, not ...
- 399k
11
votes
In American universities, why are academics placed in managerial and administrative functions?
As suggested in a comment to another answer of mine, I'll expand my sentence "We rarely hire "professional managers
in academe, because we do not trust that they know what is going on here."
That is,...
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10
votes
Is it ethical to put a surveillance camera inside a lab
This largely depends on disclosure --- in cases where you record employees at work there are ethical and legal obligations relating to notification and disclosure. The legal rules depend on your ...
- 73k
10
votes
Accepted
management in academia
This is a good question, but I don't see how anyone other than you can answer it. You write that you "[love] the institution ... [and] do not like the situation I am seeing." You also write that "I am ...
- 10.4k
10
votes
How does management work in academia? Who do professors report to?
An answer from a Dutch perspective. Short answer: there are no traditional managers for academics.
At the top level, the university has an executive board. These are normally (ex-)academics, and each ...
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9
votes
Accepted
How to deal with a setting where some students come to synchronous class unprepared?
This is the online version of the flipped classroom, of course. But, I suspect that a lot of your students aren't familiar with the concept or how to behave. Like most everything else, you need to ...
- 399k
8
votes
In American universities, why are academics placed in managerial and administrative functions?
I think one crucial factor is the academic environment. For any outsider the inner mechanics of a university are very hard to grasp. This is a process that takes years. Even experienced faculty that ...
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7
votes
How to gracefully step back from academic administration duties during the pandemic?
I have to admit to some ambivalence about the issue -- which may be what many of your colleagues might feel as well, and that might affect how they see your decisions.
On the one hand, I think we all ...
- 105k
7
votes
Project management techniques applied to research
A number of things spring to mind. The first is communication of goals and time lines, and I'd just point to Gantt and PERT charts. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but the key is to make sure ...
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7
votes
management in academia
Sorry, but I don't recognize anything in your question that suggests why you would want to take on management duties. What you have sounds like a pretty good situation as you aren't describing any ...
- 399k
6
votes
Is it ethical to put a surveillance camera inside a lab
Yes, it is certainly ethical, so long as everyone knows it is there. It doesn't even necessarily show lack of trust in the regular lab denizens. An alternative, of course, would be to pay someone, a ...
- 399k
6
votes
How does management work in academia? Who do professors report to?
As Buffy mentioned, many universities do not use a line management model. But some do. There are several strategies used to deal with the ratio of "managers" (department chairs/heads of ...
- 100k
6
votes
Accepted
How to answer your boss's question about your impression on the progress of a project that you took part in as a newcomer appropriately?
Assuming your professor is a reasonable person, there is nothing wrong with truthfully sharing your view of the progress in the project. They wouldn't be asking if they did not think your opinion ...
- 138k
6
votes
How did medieval universities discipline?
In the US, you can get Rait's Life in the medieval university from Amazon for free.
There were a number of different punishments for various infractions, which also took the age of the student (...
- 25.3k
5
votes
Are management courses useless?
I won't comment on whether management courses are useless. But the way you approached them certainly made them so. Learning by rote the day before the exam and forgetting everything afterwards is a ...
- 51
5
votes
How does management work in academia? Who do professors report to?
Self-organization on a high level
One aspect (at least in many countries) is self-organization and self-elected "managers". For example, in my research institute the leadership (both "...
- 8,341
5
votes
How does management work in academia? Who do professors report to?
Old ideas of academic freedom, and the academic as a self-organizing unit are getting rarer than they used to be.
In my university a faculty member's line manager is definitely the Head of Department (...
- 43.2k
5
votes
How did medieval universities discipline?
The answers and comments have mentioned Rait's Life in the Medieval University. To give a self-contained answer for this site, this book claims that punishments could be:
financial. This seems to be ...
- 73.4k
4
votes
Project management techniques applied to research
It is not project management exactly but more general you can read "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.
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4
votes
Is it ethical to put a surveillance camera inside a lab
If the lab ever uses human subjects, it's important to keep this camera in mind as a potential breach of confidentiality. Most IRBs would (a) want to know that subjects are being recorded, (b) want ...
- 1,375
4
votes
How to deal with a setting where some students come to synchronous class unprepared?
I think Buffy has the right of it, when he says that you need more regular coursework submission. For me, interactive classrooms don't work very well because my students are spread out in many time ...
- 16.4k
3
votes
Notes taking and notes management
I like taking notes separately in an infinitely zoomable online outliner and include hyperlinks there to the papers in question. Dynalist supports KaTeX and Markdown, and there's a MathJax Chrome ...
- 11.6k
3
votes
What can a PI do about a low-performing postdoc?
This really depends a lot on the contract situation. In some countries, such as Germany, there is a “probationary period” of several months wherein either side can choose unilaterally to end the ...
- 175k
3
votes
Accepted
How to reply to your boss when your boss ask you whether your new subordinate is competent/ good to let the boss have a good impression of you?
Reply honestly, especially if the supervisor is in a position to help the student overcome any deficiencies. It is fine to give facts, such as the lateness issue. But don't give either overly-positive ...
- 399k
3
votes
I'm from India, planning to do Phd in Marketing Management. Can I pursue it with my job thats 5 days a week 10 hours a day?
Anything is possibly, but a PhD is a full-time occupation, so holding a job that demands fifty hours on-top seems infeasible. Even for a part-time PhD, you'd be working a lot of hours.
(Assuming a ...
- 41.1k
2
votes
Engineers/Scientists to break into management consulting
Looking at the current set of responses, they seem to be heavily biased. As someone having spoken to several PhDs in management consulting, let me try to clarify some of the nuances.
First, it is not ...
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