3 ms·

Academic institutions are loaded up with people who are skilled at political manipulation and bureaucratic infighting, and who often have little real interest i

Academic institutions are loaded up with people who are skilled at political manipulation and bureaucratic infighting, and who often have little real interest in their supposed field of research. For these types it's basically a game of getting in with the reviewers of grant proposals, rubbing elbows at scientific conferences, hiring technicians and postdocs and maybe some pHD students to generate a steady stream of papers, cozying up to university administration, attending dinners and so on. It's gotten even worse since the corporations started getting exclusive licenses to university patents, now there's all the secrecy in those fields as well as the PIs start salivating about the possibility of getting a small percentage of the royalties on those patents. Trofim Lysenko would have recognized the system, it's similar to the one he ran in the Soviet Union for decades.

noorkersz 4y ago
I formed this opinion, that in academic institutions there exist two types of persons: bureaucratic types, who play politics and so on, like the ones you describe. and the ones that actually know the content and love their fields of study. my opinion is that institutions need both types. But what do I know... I am going to finish my masters (or maybe not) and get out of academia.
aborsy 4y ago
>> Academic institutions are loaded up with people who are skilled at political manipulation and bureaucratic infighting, and who often have little real interest in their supposed field of research. For these types it's basically a game of getting in with the reviewers of grant proposals, rubbing elbows at scientific conferences, hiring technicians and postdocs and maybe some pHD students to generate a steady stream of papers, cozying up to university administration, attending dinners and so on. This is an accurate description of the current situation!

noorkersz 4y ago

I formed this opinion, that in academic institutions there exist two types of persons: bureaucratic types, who play politics and so on, like the ones you describe. and the ones that actually know the content and love their fields of study. my opinion is that institutions need both types. But what do I know... I am going to finish my masters (or maybe not) and get out of academia.

aborsy 4y ago

>> Academic institutions are loaded up with people who are skilled at political manipulation and bureaucratic infighting, and who often have little real interest in their supposed field of research. For these types it's basically a game of getting in with the reviewers of grant proposals, rubbing elbows at scientific conferences, hiring technicians and postdocs and maybe some pHD students to generate a steady stream of papers, cozying up to university administration, attending dinners and so on. This is an accurate description of the current situation!