4 ms·

This isn't a UK PhD, at least it's not up to the standard of any rational UK PhD I've ever seen. I've supervised Masters theses and PhDs in the US at a top ins

This isn't a UK PhD, at least it's not up to the standard of any rational UK PhD I've ever seen. I've supervised Masters theses and PhDs in the US at a top institution. No one can do a part-time PhD; it's just so much work. The fact that Reading is willing to sign a PhD with basically no research with one publication in an absurd venue is pretty sad. This wouldn't pass for a thesis proposal here! It's also very sad that this person's adviser is willing to shirk her responsibility and just let him go without a proper education. Part of the problem with the UK is how funding works encourages this reckless and pretty selfish behavior on the part of faculty members for their own benefit. A PhD is supposed to teach you how to do research, pick a big problem, break it down in several different ways, push the state of the art several times, and learn how to communicate in reasonable venues. Looking at his thesis and publication he's done none of the above. As for the UK vs the US, I have collaborators there and have postdocs from there. A US PhD is like a UK PhD plus a postdoc. You're basically just halfway toward being able to do good research by the time you're done a UK PhD so standards are pretty low, although not this absurdly low. There's a reason why getting a faculty position in Europe with a European PhD almost requires a US or Canadian postdoc. As the parent said part of what the PhD gives you is the access to people that are smart and capable. Being around them will make you much smarter and more capable in ways that are intangible but obvious in retrospect. Doing this remotely defeats the whole purpose. Because of this in the US you would never get into any reasonable (top 100 or even lower) grad school if you said you wanted to a part-time PhD. That being said. A real PhD is worth it. You'll learn a lot. You'll work very hard for 5-6 years and at the end you'll be far better equipped in any environment.

kchoudhu 10y ago
> The fact that Reading is willing to sign a PhD with basically no research with one publication Something tells me that the parlous state of higher education funding in the UK has a lot to do with this.
reuven 10y ago
I agree that a PhD at a good US institution is full time. But there were people in my program who got off relatively easy: A professor would basically say, "Here's some data I've collected over the years. Do some new analysis on it, and you're done." Now, those people still worked very hard. And there is often something to be said for analyzing existing data in new ways. Or collecting some data that extends the stuff that was already done. But there's a world of difference between that and what my advisor expected, namely that we do something completely original and groundbreaking.
danieltillett 10y ago
UK Ph.Ds are often a joke. Serve the time and irrespective of the results they give you a degree. I feel really sorry for anyone who has a UK degree and who has done the work as your degree has been degraded by all the other time servers.
- BellsOnSunday 10y ago
  > Serve the time and irrespective of the results they give you a degree I don't know what you are basing that on and maybe you've had a bad experience with this but it isn't true in my experience (which is of having a PhD from a UK university and now being an academic supervising doctoral students). Yes, there is a difference in the expectations of PhD students at a top UK university and somewhere like Reading or, for that matter, the university I work at but we still have standards I consider to be high and by no means a joke. PhDs are examined externally and the external examiner must be someone who has no ties with the supervisor, so it isn't possible for the university to give you a degree "irrespective of the results". My students publish at international events, in competition with US graduate students and whoever else, so a lot of people must be in on the "joke". Given that, this does seem like a very weak project and I agree that a part-time PhD is, or should be, pretty much impossible really. [EDIT] Also, bear in mind he hasn't been examined yet! It could well be knocked back at that stage, the possible outcomes usually being Accept, Minor Corrections (no need for another viva), Major Corrections and resubmit, Reject.
  - danieltillett 10y ago
    This is just my person experience from interviewing lots of UK graduates. The problem seems to be that there is overwhelming pressure to get a candidate in and out in three years no matter what. It is not that the average UK student is any worse than anywhere else, just that the extremely weak candidates are pushed through despite having nothing more than a weak honours degree. My post was more a lament over the damage good candidates suffer from this policy than any criticism of UK graduates in general.
    - brightshiny 10y ago
izzym 10y ago
Typical one-size-fit-all judgement, bigotry, similar to making a statement like 'All VW cars are polluting'! > This isn't a UK PhD, at least it's not up to the standard of any rational UK PhD I've ever seen. How do you judge without reading the thesis?, there is no thesis in the article. > No one can do a part-time PhD; it's just so much work You can't generalise, not everyone is the same, some people have the capacity and capability to put all in. There are part-time PhDs and there are many people who completed part-time PhDs whilst working full-time. Oxford University and many others top institutions offer part-time PhDs, it's possible and doable https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/part-time-and-flexible-study?wssl=1 https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/part-time-a... > PhD with basically no research with one publication Publications usually take a while to get through the review process, many be there are many in the pipeline, how do you know? > Looking at his thesis and publication he's done none of the above. There is no thesis in the article!, it's very hard to judge without reading the thesis. > A US PhD is like a UK PhD plus a postdoc No comment, I'm quite sure this debate has taken place in many forums https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-compare-pursuing-a-PhD-in-Europe-vs-a-PhD-in-USA https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-compare-pursuing-a-PhD-in-E... And of course if you have to attend classes, it will be difficult doing it part-time. > Being around them will make you much smarter and more capable in ways that are intangible but obvious in retrospect. As part time you can still meet those smart people at the university or by attending conferences.
- searine 10y ago
  >There is no thesis in the article!, it's very hard to judge without reading the thesis. He's on google scholar. We can see his abstract, citations, and other publications. His website also lists his github. That's more than enough to judge his productivity. >As part time you can still meet those smart people at the university or by attending conferences. Conferences are very clique-y. If you are just some shmuck showing up off the street you're not going to be able to get access to those smart people. Hell, I have all the relevant credentials and still get shut out of conversations at conferences.
- mattkrause 10y ago
  I would guesstimate that 75%+ of the "value" of my PhD came from casually interacting with smart people (classmates, postdocs, profs) working on related topics. These same people go to conferences, but they are busy there--they have talks to see, posters to visit, and friends/collaborators/funders to catch up with. In contrast, when you're "around", it's possible to muse and mull things over with the grad student waiting for her turn in the darkroom or the postdoc brewing coffee. "Hey, did you see this paper?" or "How do we know that <X>, anyway?" I'd worry that a part-time student would miss out on a lot of these opportunities; by definition, they're around only part-time and most of that time is "business time."

kchoudhu 10y ago

> The fact that Reading is willing to sign a PhD with basically no research with one publication Something tells me that the parlous state of higher education funding in the UK has a lot to do with this.

reuven 10y ago

I agree that a PhD at a good US institution is full time. But there were people in my program who got off relatively easy: A professor would basically say, "Here's some data I've collected over the years. Do some new analysis on it, and you're done." Now, those people still worked very hard. And there is often something to be said for analyzing existing data in new ways. Or collecting some data that extends the stuff that was already done. But there's a world of difference between that and what my advisor expected, namely that we do something completely original and groundbreaking.

danieltillett 10y ago

UK Ph.Ds are often a joke. Serve the time and irrespective of the results they give you a degree. I feel really sorry for anyone who has a UK degree and who has done the work as your degree has been degraded by all the other time servers.

BellsOnSunday 10y ago
> Serve the time and irrespective of the results they give you a degree I don't know what you are basing that on and maybe you've had a bad experience with this but it isn't true in my experience (which is of having a PhD from a UK university and now being an academic supervising doctoral students). Yes, there is a difference in the expectations of PhD students at a top UK university and somewhere like Reading or, for that matter, the university I work at but we still have standards I consider to be high and by no means a joke. PhDs are examined externally and the external examiner must be someone who has no ties with the supervisor, so it isn't possible for the university to give you a degree "irrespective of the results". My students publish at international events, in competition with US graduate students and whoever else, so a lot of people must be in on the "joke". Given that, this does seem like a very weak project and I agree that a part-time PhD is, or should be, pretty much impossible really. [EDIT] Also, bear in mind he hasn't been examined yet! It could well be knocked back at that stage, the possible outcomes usually being Accept, Minor Corrections (no need for another viva), Major Corrections and resubmit, Reject.
- danieltillett 10y ago
  This is just my person experience from interviewing lots of UK graduates. The problem seems to be that there is overwhelming pressure to get a candidate in and out in three years no matter what. It is not that the average UK student is any worse than anywhere else, just that the extremely weak candidates are pushed through despite having nothing more than a weak honours degree. My post was more a lament over the damage good candidates suffer from this policy than any criticism of UK graduates in general.
  - brightshiny 10y ago

izzym 10y ago

Typical one-size-fit-all judgement, bigotry, similar to making a statement like 'All VW cars are polluting'! > This isn't a UK PhD, at least it's not up to the standard of any rational UK PhD I've ever seen. How do you judge without reading the thesis?, there is no thesis in the article. > No one can do a part-time PhD; it's just so much work You can't generalise, not everyone is the same, some people have the capacity and capability to put all in. There are part-time PhDs and there are many people who completed part-time PhDs whilst working full-time. Oxford University and many others top institutions offer part-time PhDs, it's possible and doable https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/part-time-and-flexible-study?wssl=1 https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/part-time-a... > PhD with basically no research with one publication Publications usually take a while to get through the review process, many be there are many in the pipeline, how do you know? > Looking at his thesis and publication he's done none of the above. There is no thesis in the article!, it's very hard to judge without reading the thesis. > A US PhD is like a UK PhD plus a postdoc No comment, I'm quite sure this debate has taken place in many forums https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-compare-pursuing-a-PhD-in-Europe-vs-a-PhD-in-USA https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-compare-pursuing-a-PhD-in-E... And of course if you have to attend classes, it will be difficult doing it part-time. > Being around them will make you much smarter and more capable in ways that are intangible but obvious in retrospect. As part time you can still meet those smart people at the university or by attending conferences.

searine 10y ago
>There is no thesis in the article!, it's very hard to judge without reading the thesis. He's on google scholar. We can see his abstract, citations, and other publications. His website also lists his github. That's more than enough to judge his productivity. >As part time you can still meet those smart people at the university or by attending conferences. Conferences are very clique-y. If you are just some shmuck showing up off the street you're not going to be able to get access to those smart people. Hell, I have all the relevant credentials and still get shut out of conversations at conferences.
mattkrause 10y ago
I would guesstimate that 75%+ of the "value" of my PhD came from casually interacting with smart people (classmates, postdocs, profs) working on related topics. These same people go to conferences, but they are busy there--they have talks to see, posters to visit, and friends/collaborators/funders to catch up with. In contrast, when you're "around", it's possible to muse and mull things over with the grad student waiting for her turn in the darkroom or the postdoc brewing coffee. "Hey, did you see this paper?" or "How do we know that <X>, anyway?" I'd worry that a part-time student would miss out on a lot of these opportunities; by definition, they're around only part-time and most of that time is "business time."