Is there a doctor in the house?

A lot has been written recently about the University of Wollongong somewhat puzzling decision to award a Ph.D. to Judy Wilyman for one  of the poorest theses ever written. (See @uow , @uowoowoo and here)

I've read ths thesis and i think it is very poor. I have seen better work from first year undergraduates. It's lack of scholarship alone is a red flag. But I leave it to others to address this specifically. It is after all in social science, a sphere with notoriously poor standards and which I personally do not view as science at all.
What I want to talk about here is Ph.D's themselves, how they are examined, and the common abuses of the system.

Firstly I am talking here about research degrees. The traditional DD type doctorate is getting rarer. Also note that at least in the UK most doctors are not Doctors. When I insist on my title in medical settings it is common for secretaries to tell me I am not a "real" doctor. Of course the truth is that the nedic is only a doctor by custom, holding only a Bachelors degree in medicine... Anyhoo the research doctorate is only about a century old.

The standards for reaching this level are summarised quite well in the idea that the candidate must gave a good knowledge if their field, be able to plan and conduct major research, be able to debate and defend their work and have made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge in the field. This last generally involves peer reviewed papers though it is possible without.

Examination of Ph.D's depends on country but generally involves a thesis or portfolio (6 or 7 papers presented as evidence) and a defence where the candidate defends the thesis in scientific debate. The defence can either be public or private (viva) or both. The issue is that both of these can be, and often are, gamed.

A public defence is where tge candidate presents their work and then is grilled for a couple of hours by the audience. Although the audience is open it is generally made up of academics ftom the uni and fellow Ph. D. Students. Potentially this is the more rigorous aporoach but what goes wrong is social pressure. The candidate will iften stuff the auduence with friendly questions to yse up all the available time. Academics will be inhibited from asking questions by peer pressure. Ive seen this happen so often and to such a degree that I have lost faith with this system completely. It needs an external moderator who is hostile.

Private defence is also gamable. The idea is you have an external examiner (sometimes 2) and ine or more internals (supervisor not alliwed in the room) and they can ask anything they like. The externals job comes down to establishing ownership and scholarship. The internals job is to ensure the external is being fair. Both must sign off on the deal. The viva can last for as long as it takes.
The issue is choice of externals. Often suggested by the supervisor these can be quietly nobbled to go easy on a candidate. Ideally there should be little contact between examiner and supervisor but sometimes it is for everyones benefit. I have contacted a supervisor before to say tgat if the thesis i had been sent "in error" was the final version the candidate would automatically fail and could I have the "final draft". The candidate withdrew it and did 6 months more work and produced a much better document. I have also been contacted by a supervisor and asked to haul the candidate over the coals a bit as they did not know as much as they thought they did and needed to find that out.
But if the external goes easy the internals rarely take up the slack. And externals and supervisors owe each other favours...

So when done well and honestly both systems COULD work. But it assumes disinterested behaviour from academics. Ha!

How could we make it better at a stroke?

It us a tough one but I have a thought here. Make it mandatory for the doctorate to be examined at a different university to that granting the award...

Just a thought.

in absentia ego

I must apologise for my long absence from these pages.  This has had many causes and I will list them in order:
1) lifestuff.  You know the simple day to day grind which seems to expand to fill your available will to live.  And I didn't have too much of that to start off with.  I always seemed to be too busy.
2) Moveystuff.  My brother and i did a road trip to Switzerland to move my belongings out of what had been my hostel room.  I gave notice on the room a while ago.  This to be honest was very much delayed and that was my fault.  Put simply I could not face it.  I am glad to get my stuff back but so sad.  the trip itself took several days and was not made easier by my brother insisting on doing all the driving or by the tendency of Google Maps to route you randomly through werewolf haunted deserted French villages for no apparent reason.  In a way the trip helped other things as well.  Before my operation last year I had told my brother that I was bi, and the family gossipnet had told him I was Aspie.  We had a chance to have some long, and long overdue, conversations.  He more than anyone in my family is now trying to understand my point of view.  Dad just continually finds ways in which he can convince himself that he was right all along and there isn't a problem.  Mum, who worked as a SENCO for many years is convinced she knows how Aspies think etc.  Unfortunately she only ever dealt with the low functioning classical Aspie not ones who have invested continual effort into disguising their condition with coping strategies which have literally driven them insane.  Bruv actually wanted to find out what it was like.  He did mention that my "symptoms" have been getting worse but put it down to stress.  This is undoubtedly a factor but also I am now starting not to use masking strategies at all and to go with my first thoughts.  This makes me look more weird in others eyes I suppose but fuck em.  Bruv is aware that I live in a different world to him and that things he takes for granted are sources of extreme trouble to me.  For example he rang home to tell people when we left Zurich, despite my panicked waving.  The conversation afterwards went like this:
Me: What the hell was that for?
Bruv: To tell them where we are
Me:  Why?
Bruv: So that they know.
Me: What are they going to do with that information? It is too early to set an ETA, they cannot influence our journey in any positive way, they cannot use the information so why are you spreading it?
Bruv: They like to know things like that.
Me: And this is behaviour you think you should encourage?

And so on. To me (and many Aspies) life is hideously complicated by people acting on emotional impulse.  I find it a thing of wonder that neurotypicals are allowed out of the house on their own.  Seriously they are a danger to themselves and others. To simplify life we compartmentalise.  Work people are work people, wee do not socialise with them etc. so we can split our time into behavioural boxes where we know the rules.  This approach requires the absolute restriction of information flow to the bare minimum.  I never told my wife that the Unis I worked at had Xmas meals and balls etc.  This meant I never had to go to them.  Information like that is dangerous.  This random sharing of information that people use as social glue is inexplicable and dangerous to my eyes.
Bruv was also just about coming to terms with the bi thing, which was forced on him a bit.  I have updated my Grindr pic to include the beard and this has turned me into a very desirable object apparently.   At any rate as we drove through France the relentless barrage of offers of sexual congress from the locals (many of whom smouldered) showed him a glimpse into life on the other side that he wasn't ready for.  I managed to fetch my guitars back, which I have missed very much.  There is still stuff in work there but thats one thing sorted.  But it made me feel awful. Really awful.

3)bikeystuff.  As I may have mentioned I have been learning to ride a proper bike.  Now I have passed and am licenced to ride any bloody motorbike i like.  More of this elsewhere

4) Xmas.  This is a post on its own I think.

So apologies for all that.  I hope to be filling in the gaps a bit soon.