Dear Ken and everyone
2 points:
I am concerned that some of your comments indicate that candidates with
deficient doctoral theses are being passed by their examiners. I was
recently at a meeting where a senior academic said casually "has anyone
ever failed?" [the answer is yes]. The examiners are the gate-keepers of
quality in situations where either the student or the advisors cause
sub-standard theses to be submitted. So my contribution to this discussion
is "blame the examiners".
On the issues of naming persons: this would violate a basic principle of
research ethics. It is a regulation of my University, reinforced by EU
human rights legislation, that the subjects of research should be
anonymous. The list is discussing "research about doctoral supervision".
Therefore the names of those who feature in the research should not be made
public, irrespective of whether there would be an advantage to the
community to know those names.
Michael
At 20:00 11/10/2004, Ken Friedman wrote:
>Dear Rosan,
>
>It depends on what you mean.
>
>What good would be served by naming the doctoral candidate whose
>review of literature can be shown to be entirely deficient in a thesis...
>
>If I specifically criticize the thesis of so-and-so's student X, pointing
>out that the thesis contains specific errors of fact and a deficient
>literature review -- say, claiming that no literature exists when I can
>show several thousand relevant sources...
>one thesis project I used as an un-named example of bad
>work led me to another problem. The problem is this: I predicted that
>some of the bad graduates would get jobs simply as a result of having
>a PhD in a field where most people don't have them...
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Dr Michael A R Biggs
Associate Dean Research and Reader in Visual Communication
School of Art and Design, University of Hertfordshire
College Lane, Hatfield, Herts. AL10 9AB
UK
T 00 44 (0)1707 285341
F 00 44 (0)1707 285350
E <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes/research/tvad/biggs1.html
For information about University research in art and design visit
http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes/research/
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