The Higher Education Megathread

Corazon de Leon

Indeed, we’re doing our best in a crappy set of circumstances.

With that said, I do get the frustration of people who are genuinely enthusiastic to learn and have paid a lot of money/given up a lot to do so, and who are having to sit through industrial action that is completely out with their control. I understand that Red has moved from a career in the publishing industry to pursue a passion, and that’s been disrupted on a lot of levels. It’s natural to be frustrated.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Red** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:14 pm

Mini E wrote:One example of the way senior management are trying to "make peace" with academics on the ground that I've heard about this morning:

My former institution has voted for strike action (lectures are being covered by Associate Lecturers). To appease students, senior management have pushed back all deadlines by two weeks. Senior management have also decided not to move the University exam boards, meaning that an already tight deadline for lecturers to mark/moderate hundreds of thousands of words of work is now absolutely zero. Can you really not see why treatment like this (which happens constantly before the strike too) leads to lecturers reaching breaking point? Most people in my department are working 10-12 hour days five or six days per week, and are expected to work weekends too for applicant days/open days etc and all that happens is decisions are made from above to make things even more unpleasant.

As previously said, if your lecturers are gooseberry fool about this, they're probably gooseberry fool lecturers anyway. The majority in this industry are not.

Edit: A number of middle aged-older male academics in higher education will be tools. This is known amongst everyone else in the industry. Apologies on their behalf, the next generation is better.

I can see why 'treatment like this' is bad, of course. Welcome to the workplace in 2020, I guess. Despite what we might like to think, we don't have jobs that are can't be done by someone else so employers can always take advantage of that. I left my profession to find something better for similar reasons, so yes, I know how shitty these places can be. But students aren't the enemy, and yet they're the ones who suffer from all this. I don't think it ought to have happened this way when there are other ways to disrupt the university without directly screwing over the education of people who have paid a lot of money to try to make their situations better but are now caught in the middle of someone else's employment dispute.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Red** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:22 pm

That doesn't mean I don't have sympathy with the reasons stated or with individual lecturers, techs, etc. But I am also pissed off to be put in this situation. And me being pissed off means absolutely nothing because the university has all my money and is not suffering a relative loss of reputation or status because a large number of other universities are also involved.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Red** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:24 pm

And I also don't want to be condescended to about things like the gender pay gap by a male professor currently withholding the education I need to improve my situation in the workplace.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:04 pm

I passed my viva. :toot:

Karl_ wrote:I passed my viva.

Dr Karl! Congratulations dude! How are you celebrating?

Karl_ wrote:I passed my viva.

Amazing news mate! Congratulations!!!! Genuinely so please for you - welcome to the club!

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:19 pm

Feels good!

I'm really pleased. It went a lot better than I thought it was going to.

All I've got planned right now is a big night in hiding from the Coronavirus :slol:

but when that all blows over I'll celebrate properly I'm sure!

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **jawa4** » Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:30 pm

Karl_ wrote:I passed my viva.

Congratulations, Karl!

I had to look up what it was ( :shifty:

), though; some form of spoken exam? Are you now a doctor, dude?

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:48 pm

Yeah Jawa, that's right! To get a PhD you have to do research for a few years, then write a book about it, then a professor in the same field reads your book and grills you on it in a kind of extended interview. It was a pretty intense process but I'm really chuffed now!

Awesome, congrats Karl! :toot:

Still remember just how good it felt to pass mine, such a great moment!

Karl_ wrote:I passed my viva.

Congratulations dude! :toot:

Corazon de Leon

Karl_ wrote::wub: Feels good!

I'm really pleased. It went a lot better than I thought it was going to.

All I've got planned right now is a big night in hiding from the Coronavirus but when that all blows over I'll celebrate properly I'm sure!

Incredible scenes! Did you pass it outright as well? Lucky bastard

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Mon Mar 16, 2020 4:44 pm

Corazon de Leon wrote:Incredible scenes! Did you pass it outright as well? Lucky bastard

Oh no, I've not seen anyone get no corrections! :shock:

I have minors of course, just a few bits and bobs to add or rephrase over the next couple months. It just has to be waved through by the internal though so it's a nice way to finish off really.

Minor corrections crew unite! o7

Corazon de Leon

Minor corrections is where all the cool kids are at. :wub:

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Red** » Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:08 am

Congrats!

Last edited by Mini E on Tue Apr 07, 2020 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

So we're running this big research study into the effects of social isolation on mental health, wellbeing, and physical activity levels. One individual on Twitter has called us "opportunists", criticisms of us using the standard definitions of single, married, divorced (apparently therefore alienating, vilifying, or not accepting couples who live together who aren't married), another mocking the standardised wording on our information sheet that clarifies no financial benefit to researchers or participants:

Edit: I've got rid of the quote with the tweet in, because the person who wrote it comes across as the person who would google their own tweets to see if anyone's talking about them.

Honest to God, not sure why we bother. *shrug*. To be fair, we've received overwhelmingly positive feedback and have recruited well, but some of the feedback you do receive is just :fp:

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Tue Apr 07, 2020 11:01 am

If you're getting enough participants to get rando Twitter cranks popping off at you, at least you'll have lots of great data!

I can see why people might be a bit confused if they're neither single nor married to be fair, but I doubt that's going to have a big impact on the results!

Karl_ wrote:If you're getting enough participants to get rando Twitter cranks popping off at you, at least you'll have lots of great data!

I can see why people might be a bit confused if they're neither single nor married to be fair, but I doubt that's going to have a big impact on the results!

I have also just had this interaction on my Facebook post advertising the research study:

This is likely to be a scam. Who are the team of researchers? You have to click on suspicious link to proceed. This doesn't come any known reliable known organisation like the NHS, WHO, UK government etc etc. I would be very suspicious of taking part in this survey as how can you be sure who is really behind it? It's preying on people's genuine concerns about helping in the fight against covid 19. Criminal are exploiting innocent people in this time of crisis.

To which I replied:

Hi xxxxx, Thanks for your comment. I am on the research team myself, I know every other member of the research team personally, we are from a number of universities including Oxford Brookes, Winchester, Gloucester, and Southampton. This is certainly not a scam, nor are we criminals. Take care.

And have received:

Hi Andy, while you may be entirely genuine and I have no absolute proof you are operating a scam, I would point out that your method of delivering this survey is done in a way that anyone responding to it should be wary of. Your message doesn't give any real idea of who the research group is and how many people would know who your identity is in real life? I have had messages from genuine fb friends whose profiles have been hijacked to embroil other friends into criminal rackets. If you are genuine university researchers you must be aware that your requests for survey information are performed exactly as criminal scammers would operate. The message is not from a known organisation, although it sounds plausible no one knows what's going on until you click on a link. This is exactly what people are advised not to do on order to protect themselves against scammers. You say you are from high brow universities and not criminals but how does anyone know that? Why not publish all your full contact and university research group details before you ask people to click on a link? If I got a letter through the door from the NHS or my doctor asking me to do a survey then I would consider it. Through Facebook no. I have friends who may be compromised by you so I have reported you to Facebook as a possible scam or fraud. Better to be safe than sorry

Called a gooseberry fool researcher, an opportunist, and reported to Facebook as a cyber criminal on a variety of social media - all before 12pm. I'm tapping out.

The Higher Education Megathread

Who is online

Affiliates