As professors struggle to recruit postdocs, calls for change in academia

Re:As professors struggle to recruit postdocs, calls for cha... by graycat on Wednesday June 15, 2022 @12:35PM (#31755520)

> Because the duration is so dependent on the program, and the only end is when the advisor agrees that sufficient work has been done to merit a PhD, it can stretch on without much hope in sight.

At least one world famous research university has a fix for this problem of "... when the advisor agrees":

The official statement of the university is that the Ph.D. student must submit "an original contribution to knowledge worthy of publication".

So, if a student believes that they have done such work, then they are free to, and maybe should, submit it for publication. When the work is accepted for publication, the student can then so announce to the professor, department school, and university.

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Re:As professors struggle to recruit postdocs, calls for cha... by BeetleB on Wednesday June 15, 2022 @01:33PM (#31756364)

> The official statement of the university is that the Ph.D. student must submit "an original contribution to knowledge worthy of publication".

> So, if a student believes that they have done such work, then they are free to, and maybe should, submit it for publication. When the work is accepted for publication, the student can then so announce to the professor, department school, and university.

For many fields, this would not work. My advisor required a journal publication to get the Master's degree, and several to get the PhD. He (and many others) would have failed any candidate's defense if they had just one paper if they were in their committee.

(Yes, it's crappy).

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Re:As professors struggle to recruit postdocs, calls for cha... by eli_gottlieb on Wednesday June 15, 2022 @02:34PM (#31757267)

Huh. My department requires one paper just to attain PhD candidate status.

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