So, I'm thinking about writing an expose on the atrocities of a phd program ....everything from abusive faculty to blatant discrimation to lack of concern for student's success. What do you think? Any ideas about things I should include?

Bullying/discrimination, working for less than the minimum wage, and intellectual theft are probably the top three 'PhD atrocities' I've come across in media reports.

I think you need to begin by thinking about how this might affect your future career.
No-one likes a whistle blower. And even if you try to be anonymous this cannot be guaranteed on any continuous basis.

Pamplemousse, I wrote virtually the same thing as you then deleted it as my belief in freedom of speech got the better of me.

But that said, it would be interesting to know why you want to write this exposé Stardreamer?

For instance, are you genuinely interested in researching the PhD experience and infrastructure (both the good and the bad), and suggesting improvement/reforms? Or have you simply had a bad experience yourself, and want a platform to publically vent and expose your dept.? If it's the latter, then it will across unprofessional, and there are already many such exposés online.

As I agree with you Missspacey; there are plenty of things wrong with PhD programmes -- but sometimes self-preservation is more important than making them public!

The only way you can do anything like this is to think positive, you may be able to alter a few things as you go along. I have told people here that the prgrammes were much more suited for full timers than part timers, and why this was so, and they have now put together a series of Saturday and evening sessions. I have attended all the ones I can, and sent messages about the ones I couldn't go to. Have always said how good they have been, how  useful, how it lets all of us meet up etc., I encouraged others to do the same, and it has worked they have now become a regular feature. There is little point just complaining, it just makes you seem moaney, if you feel you must say something now, the make sure you are constructive and suggest ways of improvement, tiny steps rather than big ones will probably give a better result.

It is true that the world of academia is small, and you will meet many people who will remember you and will have influence upon your future, so it is better to be remembered as someone who made some improvements, rather than someone who stamped their foot and demanded change. They may not even realise what they are doing, its probably the way they were treated and they are just following in the same footsteps.

Once you get to their position, you can start to do things differently, and maybe do the research that will validate your suggestions and change things for others - but you have to also remember that not everyone wants to work in the same way, so you may find that what you want will not suit everyone either. Swings and roundabouts I think!:-)

I wouldn't say it could ever be classed as an atocity - just a realistic glimpse of life "out there". Having been in full time employment and seen the best and worst of academia, there really isn't much difference that a little common sense and political savvy won't solve.

Screaming and shouting, whether in academia or the workplace, seldom solve anything but sure as Hell promote bad feeling. Sorry Stardreamer, I think you'd be over-egging the pudding.

At mancherster metropolitan there is an atrocity for research students especially those doing molecular biology research (like Me) in that the John dalton tower building is closed for more hours than it is open over a 7 day period its only open from 9-4 on sat and sun. Not to mention that they also closed the building for virtually four days over easter so no experiments could be done and the closure also delayed other experiments. I am funded for three years yet the building is only open for less than 1.5 years its an atrocity for any body who wants to do serious mechanistic research of gene expression. Do not go to manchester metropolitan if you want to do your PhD is all I would advise.

yes but self-preservation also means hypocrisy, excessive diplomacy and lies. A career is not always worth losing character.


Phd has many injustices....I would simply add lack of harmonization of supervision quality....there are formal rules, then the rest depends on the supercisor's character, and unfortunately some can go from great guys to beyond ridiculous....

ever heard of needing 2 weeks to read 7000 words..? :-(

I'm not sure that I agree that self-preservation entails character-loss. I think sometimes when you've had a bad lot then the best thing that you can do is rise above it and carve out a career for yourself....
Setbacks are invariably caused by human errors and character flaws, but often it's just best to deal with this.
If you're thinking of trying to move things forward I'd say that the best thing would be to move forward in your own career first.

well there are degrees and varieties of self-preservation.....but overcoming odds at the expense of others , especially when other options are available is definitely a loss of character (or moral if you prefer), and is easily found when competition gets stiff or insecurity rises.

no wonder all pensioners are relaxed and pretend they were always relaxed LOL

True. But it is only a loss of character if you CHOOSE to take the morally dubious option

Indeed, I'm not sure I ever espoused overcoming the odds at others' expense....
There are other ways and means; like getting your head down and getting on with it!!

Interestingly Myostatin, MMU's website says that the building in question is open 7am-9pm on Mon-Thurs, 7am-8pm Fri and 9am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday. Is this not the case? If it is then 81 hours a week of opening seems more than adequate for running experiments, given that presumably you can do admin type stuff/ any necessary reading at home. In fact, my department is only open for 64 hours a week (I haven't got any issue with this whatsoever).

It seems the meaning of 'atrocity' is rather variable!