I have just received the results of my PhD exam and I passed. I will soon have my award confered next year and formally be called Dr. Anyone in their right mind should be celebrating right??? Well, I'm not because I found out couple of inconvenient truths that all PhD students should know about. It will save you much heartache, stress, time and agony.

When I was mid-way through my PhD, there was a professor (not my supervisor) who I was quite close to. At the time he was the head of school and although we got along well immensely. When his term was up he took a redundancy payment and then we had a chat.

He told me about John Howard's government RTS scheme. According to him, funds to train PhD students are paid on the basis of completion - about $200K for each completion. That amount decreases in proportion to the time taken past 3 years. If a student does not complete, for any reason, then the university is awarded none of the $200K. Furthermore, they lose a "student place". The bottom line is, there is a huge incentive for universities to pass PhD students.

The implications of this policy was, in effect, to put all power in the hands of the PhD student since they indirectly controlled funding. Only a PhD student can choose to complete his/her PhD. If they were to quit, for any reason, then a university simply can't replace the PhD student.

Meanwhile, my supervisor started bullying me. He exploited postgrad teaching in the usual fashion - and you all know what I'm talking about - and asked me to write journal papers not related to my PhD. He said that if I didn't then he would refuse to allow examination of my PhD thesis. Of course, I retaliated. I set up private tutorials with the international students knowing that once he found out I would never be asked to teach again. I also plagarised material and fooled him into thinking that I was doing research. In actual fact, I did bugger all for the last 2 years of my PhD - except to collect the scholarship and work full-time. I knew that even if they found out, there was little they could do given the situation.

When the scholarship was up, I decided that I would submit - but I'll admit I was tempted to leave them high and dry. You should have seen the comments he wrote on my draft PhD thesis which didn't include the plagarised work that he thought was for real ,-) But I adamantly and stubbornly refused to change my thesis despite all his threats. Instead, I reported to his higher-ups that I was ready to submit and that he was holding me back.

And oh boy, did the system come down on him... He was now willing to pay for my thesis printing costs. And once printed, he arranged for 2 of his friends to examine my thesis (guaranteeing a pass) and suddenly the journal papers he wanted so badly counted for nothing.

We PhD students are very powerful and have the means to ensure that we get a fair go - but do you have the nerve to threaten non-completion?

In my honest opinion, this all sounds so outright menacing.

I would much rather focus on actually doing my work and getting done and moving on with the rest of my life. And if it takes me 3 yrs rather than 4 or 5 or x to do it in, the better it is for me.

Wouldn't you rather do the work and have the satisfaction of gaining the title properly, and deserving it? I know it's difficult and that supervisors can be harsh at times. What happens if you want to use the skills you gained during your PhD?, you can't continue to blackmail institutions forever, even if it has worked out for you on this occasion.

In the UK, I suspect such a system does not exist, although it does look bad for departmental reputation to have students dropping out left right and centre, and may make it difficult for a supervisor to recruit new PhD students. I suspect that if a student was playing up in the way you describe, an experienced supervisor would probably call their bluff and leave you with an incomplete thesis, the institution would'nt like this but ultimately it would probably be blamed on a poor student not bad supervision, especially if the supervisor had other very good PhD students in the past.

Congratulations on passing your PhD, I'm sure you'll go far.

======= Date Modified 19 Nov 2010 10:43:25 =======
I would have taken the opportunity to work on journal articles as a good thing, many people finish their PhD without any publications and he was giving you the opportunity to build up your publication writing skills and get some on your cv. Why be so negative about this?

I don't for a second believe that universities are motivated by this RTS scheme - I assume this is just oz you are talking about, surely it depends on how you are funded? And why then have we seen many people fail their vivas on this very website? It comes across like you are suggesting that we should all jack it in, and they'll let us pass anyway, this is not the case! I've seen three people this year fail their vivas at my university - one who did exactly what you have done, gone over their sups head to submit and then was told it was nowhere near PhD standard by the examiners.

I can believe you are not celebrating your PhD, but neither would I if I knew I'd plagarised in it.

Well aren't you a ray of sunshine! Congrats on your PhD (not that it sounds as though you deserve it). FYI most of us here are not in Oz, the few that I know of that are would never dream of behaving like this and submitting substandard work to prove a point. I've seen many fail their vivas, people who'd worked damned hard - I've also seen people who drop out being replaced so your experience is nothing like that of the majority of the rest of us. Enjoy your doctorate - i just hope that you don't want a reference having behaved so badly - spoilt brat is the phrase that comes to mind.

Hi James82,

I understand your need to "retaliate" against the unfair stuff your supervisor asked you to do (like writing papers unrelated to your thesis). The frustration and anger are there, most PhDs get that. But this does not justify blackmailing and plagiarizing.

Thanks for informing us of the alleged PhD power (it's not a secret, a lot of phds know that the university is financially penalized for phd attrition).....but I guess we all get different utilities from doing PhD. You did not have to stay in your program if you didn't like what you did, you had the option to get out if you were not happy. And whatever happened to directly talking to your supervisor about your concerns?

Hope this doesn't sound harsh, I really get why someone could be driven to do this, but we have a choice to succumb into it or not. It's a pity because you got the stipend, which comes from somebody else's pocjet (i.e. taxpayers' money?). And despite the unrelatedness of the journal papers to your topic, you could have gotten publications under your belt. That does not necessarily prove you have something uber profound to say about your topic, but it proves you are able to do research-- which is a top criteria employers are looking for. After all, research is all about looking for answers, not knowing the answers even before doing the study. Otherwise, the effort is futile.

Wish you luck in your endeavors.

I think this thread can be summed up in six words (I only wish my thesis was as concise): How not to get a PhD.

Hi James!

You seem quite frustrated from your PhD experience and I am sorry to hear.

It is not very clear to me, why would someone want to start a PhD, while not enjoying doing research.

I didn't understand why you consider writing papers (even not directly related to your research) and teaching as "bullying".

And finally, if the thing you said about the viva is true (that he brought his friends to guarantee a pass), then maybe we should all reconsider about the viva process. It's been a while since I've started wondering if we, as PhD students, should ask for university legislation imposing publications to high impact journals in order to complete. After all, if a PhD is a contribution to knowledge, then it should be peer-reviewed and should be available to other researchers. I am aware that a PhD by publication is already an option to some unis.

I find this whole situation rather amusing and wonder why you have published this. Firstly you tell us about how the university will do anything (underhandedly) to pass PhD students based on funding from successful students. But then you also tell us how you have plagerised and also undermined your supervisor for your own gain. Are these the qualities of a successful PhD student? I would have thought not. You are obviously angry with the institution to print this, yet you are blatantly going to accept this award when it was not given fairly. Interestingly you have registered with this site purely to divulge this info......why?

It is a shame that such an award is given in this instance when it seems there is some serious ethical issues presented here. Fortunately most of the PhDs that seem to be awarded here are for people who have passed due to sheer hard work and determination. Unfortunately some people have failed despite their willingness to work hard so obviously your system didn't apply to them. Perhaps you should consider whether you really did deserve to get your PhD?

Lol this is the definition of trolling (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolling) people who use the internet and especially forums should know better than to feed the troll

======= Date Modified 21 Nov 2010 10:02:25 =======
Hear hear to all those who have responded to this thread, I will not waste my time repeating their comments.  Especially given that I am hoping to submit shortly and have far better things to do.

However,  I would like to ask you a question in light of yours below..

Putting aside any consideration of the character of the instigator of this thread based upon their post.

I would strongly suspect that not all (or many) institutions would respond to this type of tactic by students positively.

I believe we have, at least in the UK, to submit an electronic copy of the thesis so there is a reasonable chance that it will be checked for plagiarism.

I hope that the majority us reading this forum believe in academic integrity - if we cannot believe each others work what is the point in a literature search, or indeed in science at all!

I'm doing a PhD in an Australian university and have to say that James82's rant sounds like a bunch of absolute rubbish. For the vast majority, undertaking a PhD is a positive experience and we have the same expectations of quality and standards of academic honesty as the UK, US etc. And yes, everyone knows of someone who has failed in their final submission.

The system DID somehow fail in this instance - there's no way this thesis should have been passed. I can only assume the supervisor pushed it through in the end because he was desperate to get rid of a spoiled, blackmailing brat who was making his life a nightmare.

I'm disgusted by the way you brag about plagarising - one day, either in a couple of weeks or a couple of years, someone will be doing research on a topic similar to yours, read your thesis and discover your plagarism. They'll alert the university, which will immediately strip you of your doctorate - I know this is the procedure my uni follows in this instance.

Man, this post has made me angry! I think I need a brisk walk to calm down.

I quite like feeding trolls, its another fantastic method of procrastination. Where's cleverclogs??

I miss cleverclogs :-(, hours of procratinating fun for all the family! Its a bit like the three billy goats gruff around here some days!