PhD: to what end?
The authors argue that philosophy grads from Canadian universities are at a disadvantage in landing tenure-track jobs. I never did finish my PhD in philosophy, but I spent five years pursuing it. One of the things that led me to move on to other things after I had written my dissertation proposal was the evident fact that people (and especially men) with the degrees simply weren't being hired; some very very good people were simply being shuffled through the system as sessionals and the rest just disappeared. "There is a deep incoherence here," write Groarke and Fenske. If a department considers a Canadian PhD a liability, how can it, in good conscience, busy itself producing more Canadian PhDs?" Of course, I did value my studies in philosophy (they prepared me for my current work). I just came to (deeply) mistrust the academic system that ostensibly offered me the education. Louis Groarke and Wayne Fenske, CAUT University Affairs, November 23, 2009. [Link] [Tags: Online Learning, Canada, Academia] [Previous][Next]Comments
Re: PhD: to what end?
Stephen,
Help me understand your position better here, if you wouldn't mind. Are you saying that a Canadian PhD might be considered a liability because it's from Canada or are you saying that PhDs in general are becoming less valuable? [Comment]
[Permalink]
[Previous][Next]
Re: PhD: to what end?
We are producing more PhDs for a few good reasons:
1) Students *want* PhDs. Not a month goes by without a student getting in touch with me regarding possible PhD work.
2) The government and the general public value the production of PhDs.
[Comment]
[Permalink]
[Previous][Next]
Re: PhD: to what end?
Darren: The article asserts that those people who produce Canadian PhDs (ie., existing Philosophy professors) tend to prefer non-Canadian PhDs when hiring.
Anymouse: it is fallacious to talk as though 'want' were an unmediated variable. People come to want things as a result of advertising and publicity, no little part of which is propagated by the very people who produce degrees.
[Comment]
[Permalink]
[Previous][Next]
Your comments remain your property, but in posting them here you agree to license under the same terms as this site (Creative Commons). If your comment is offensive it will be deleted.
Automated Spam-checking is in effect. If you are a registered user you may submit links and other HTML. Anonymous users cannot post links and will have their content screened - certain words are prohibited and your comment will be analyzed to make sure it makes sense.
Copyright 2008 Stephen Downes
Contact: stephen@downes.ca
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.