I have something I’ve been wanting to get off my chest.
A couple of weeks ago we were having a farewell lunch for a work mate. The conversation came around to Mel and her baby and whether we thought she’d go back to work when her leave was up. I mentioned that there’s a research centre much closer to her home than this hospital and it would be cool to get a job there. Someone else mentioned that she could work part-time and I said that ne might be hard-pressed to find somewhere that wants a scientist part-time. Then someone else said yes in hearty agreement and Yvonne (who is doing a PhD and had a great deal of trouble getting her supervisors to let her do clinics somewhere else one day a week) said “I’ll kill you later.” In jest of course, but it started something brewing inside me.
For one thing, there must be a reason that universities allow post-graduates to enrol part-time.
For another (or many others), you can’t hold a PhD to the same standard as a regular job. A regular scientist job (as a gross generalisation) involves working on projects, writing papers, writing grants and continuing to do the same thing, sometimes with a slightly different area of interest. A PhD involves those things plus become an expert in an research area, working on the same project for three years, getting enough data to write an enormous dissertation and as the whole thing flies (or crawls) by having this massive amount of writing looming over your head. Not to mention people asking you how it’s going all the time and you not wanting to talk about it (or does that happen with all jobs?). It’s most often the first time a person has ventured into such a large academic task too, apart from honours if they did that. If they were a medical student doing a PhD it could be the first time they’ve ever done lab work.
Before a supervisor argues with their student, denies them any freedoms and crushes their spirit I think they need to ask themselves why they’re supervising this student. Are they trying to train a younger person in science? Do they want to produce someone with a keen mind and an interest in furthering their own knowledge and the knowledge of science as a whole? Do they want someone to continue in their science career? Or do they just want the money the government will give them for having a student? Their name on a dissertation? Kudos and credit for having lots of PhD students in their lab? If it’s the latter reasons then I only have one word: shame.
