McDonnald's school of burgerology?

Apparently, if you get Ronald Mc Donald and Colonel Sanders as your external examiners, you've got a big problem.

>>I am a Canadian PhD student, and reading some of the posts on this site bother me due to the immature nature of the comments.
-If you don't read them then you wont be bothered.

>>Dont people have better things to do... like work on your research!
-No, some of us like to take a break from our work, we are only human after all.

>>On a regular basis I worked 14 hours/day in the lab.
-I also saw the comment regarding only a few weekends off. Well this sounds like madness. I do a PhD to get further in life, my PhD has not become my life.

>>Does anybody else feel the same fustration!?
-Maybe you should question why you are having to work so many hours, is this the case with all the other PhD students at your uni?

I heard something about that.. its a whole seedy love triangle thing.. Sanders is dating Little Chef... but Ronald had a once night stand with Little Chef which Sanders found out about when having a chat to Wimpy in Pizza Hut.. There was a huge Hoohaa so now Sanders hates Ronald and they both get heated in oral exams and they take it out on the examinee.

Ho ho you guys crack me up! I assure you that if my institute did specialise in 'Burgerology', minced meat would be so in demand that there would be no more cows in the farm to go moo.

Someone told me you were at UCL Mr BurgerKing. I've heard it's very good. What exactly do you research?

Ground states of beefburgers? McFlurry dynamics?

Seriously though, the best guy for the viva is the Weetos professor. He's a cool guy.

I went straight from a BSc to a PhD. I was intending on doing a masters but I spoke to my honours project supervisor about it and he said that masters are for people who want to change fields or for those who didn't get a good degree class. I got a first and wanted to work in the same field as my degree so I didn't do a masters. I did take a year out and worked in a lab to get hands on experience.

"Dont people have better things to do... like work on your research!"

anyone get the feeling that the phrase "Pot calling the Kettle black" springs to mind???
I also didn't have to do a Masters before commencing my fully funded PhD in science - you seem very whingy and bitter. Maybe you should get a boyfriend or will no one have you?

This is going to be long (and split over several posts), but hey, I'm a PhD student so I've nothing better to do ...

The original post was confusing. If it is a question of disparity between PhD programmes, that suggests the quality of research in different countries varies (a PhD being a research degree with the definition, in the UK, that the research is ‘of publishable quality’). If true, is it because of the people doing it or the resources available? The US might top the league tables, but is that because it invests more money in research (and so quite possibly attracts bright researchers from other countries). If it is suggesting that PhD students are of different quality, is that quality of students in or from a country (given student mobility). I’d suggest students are as varied as their number and there is as great a variation within a country as between countries.

You can’t make generalisations from the few students that post on a forum. And you cant judge the research that a student is going to produce from their attitude or how hard they appear to work – they might look like complete slackers but just be working very efficiently or be very bright and not need to work as hard.

But, I do think there have been changes in the UK education system, and I am not sure what the impact is going to be. In the UK, it used to be a very concentrated education. Two things have changed. One is less funding, so students are having to work during their education (as opposed to having a Saturday job to earn some pocket money, or a holiday job that was ‘work experience’). The second is that specialisation is being left later. 30 years ago, kids were basically deciding at 14 what they wanted to do, arts or science, fewer options taken at O and A level, then a degree and that was very focused to, there weren’t the modular degrees and optional units that tend to be the norm now (outside professional degrees).

PhDs now are moving to a four year (min) programme – in arts and humanities the research councils are demanding a masters prior to the PhD, in sciences there is the introduction of four year programmes with the first year being a rotation between different research groups. I’m not sure if this is because there is a perception that people coming from a UG degree aren’t ready to go straight to a PhD. But I think also the nature and purpose of a PhD is changing. There is a greater expectation that PhDs aren’t necessarily followed by a career in academia, and that students need a greater preparation for life in general, hence the introduction of ‘personal development’ and ‘professional skills’ training elements.

I make no comment on whether these changes are good or bad or what their impact is likely to be.

lol @ moomin, love that post!

glad I brightened your afternoon H