An Aspiring Scientist’s Frustration with Modern-Day Academia: A Resignation

[Boo Radley]

I though this was an interesting read:

Dear EPFL,
I am writing to state that, after four years of hard but enjoyable PhD work at this school, I am planning to quit my thesis in January, just a few months shy of completion. Originally, this was a letter that was intended only for my advisors. However, as I prepared to write it I realized that the message here may be pertinent to anyone involved in research across the entire EPFL, and so have extended its range just a bit. Specifically, this is intended for graduate students, postdocs, senior researchers, and professors, as well as for the people at the highest tiers of the school’s management. To those who have gotten this and are not in those groups, I apologize for the spam.
While I could give a multitude of reasons for leaving my studies – some more concrete, others more abstract – the essential motivation stems from my personal conclusion that I’ve lost faith in today’s academia as being something that brings a positive benefit to the world/societies we live in. Rather, I’m starting to think of it as a big money vacuum that takes in grants and spits out nebulous results, fueled by people whose main concerns are not to advance knowledge and to effect positive change, though they may talk of such things, but to build their CVs and to propel/maintain their careers. But more on that later.


Before continuing, I want to be very clear about two things. First, not everything that I will say here is from my personal firsthand experience. Much is also based on conversations I’ve had with my peers, outside the EPFL and in, and reflects their experiences in addition to my own. Second, any negative statements that I make in this letter should not be taken to heart by all of its readers. It is not my intention to demonize anyone, nor to target specific individuals. I will add that, both here and elsewhere, I have met some excellent people and would not – not in a hundred years – dare accuse them of what I wrote in the previous paragraph. However, my fear and suspicion is that these people are few, and that all but the most successful ones are being marginalized by a system that, feeding on our innate human weaknesses, is quickly getting out of control.


I don’t know how many of the PhD students reading this entered their PhD programs with the desire to actually *learn* and to somehow contribute to science in a positive manner. Personally, I did. If you did, too, then you’ve probably shared at least some of the frustrations that I’m going to describe next.


(1) Academia: It’s Not Science, It’s Business



Pascal Junod » An Aspiring Scientist

 

[longview]

Pure research is and always will be a real bear.
You see 100 failures for each success, and that is with funding.
I suspect the young Author of the letter, did not understand the destination,
when he began the journey, and still does not.
By jumping through all the hoops, A person establishes themselves,
so they can then have the resources to pursue what research they choose.
(and get the grad students to do the heavy lifting.)

 

[Threegoofs]

To be honest, it sounds like a whiner who cant get his PhD done. Come on. He quits a 'few months shy' of completion? Sounds like he was nowhere near completion and he knew it.

He also sounds like someone who doesnt get the concept of human nature. When you are an accomplished professor with many papers under your belt, OF COURSE you are defensive about your work. OF COURSE you are not wildly open to seeing it overturned by the young upstart. Thats why its hard to change the status quo in science. But the PhD student who cant handle not being the top dog like his Mommy always told him he was needs to suck it up and either prove the status quo wrong or get out. Looks like this guy decided to take the easy route.