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Dear All, I find this to be a very interesting discussion and it seems to highlight the need for some sort of unified international education standards. I am nearing completion of my BS under the American system and am going directly to a PhD program rather than obtaining a masters degree first. As long as a student has proven his or her dedication to research and scholarship and backed that up with stellar grades there should be no reason to add additional time until studying for a PhD. In the end it seems that a constant influx of fresh minds into the research realm would ultimately benefit science as a whole. Respectfully, Michael Farner On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 3:28 AM, Ryan, Paul (EOS) <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > I should add that although Europe is developing tools to assist in the > recognition of degrees, this does not > take away the right of an individual course director to select students > according to the advertised pre-requisites. > > In that academics are still 'free'. > > Paul > > Professor Paul D. Ryan > EOS, NUI, Galway, Ireland > tel:+353(0)91794599 mob: +353(0)872956190 > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tectonics & structural geology discussion list on behalf of > Mary-Caroline Burberry > Sent: Fri 8/5/2011 1:14 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: BSc to PhD? > > It seems to me that it's not the official "name" of the degree that is the > pre-requisite for a PhD but the amount the student knows and time they have > actually spent studying geology. > > I trained in the British system where we studied next to nothing but > geology for the 3 or 4 years of the undergraduate, and am now teaching in > the US system where my students have to take a large amount of general > education classes and therefore spend around 40% of their time actually > studying geology, over a 4-5 year average time in undergrad. After the > undergrad degree, my US students have to go on to a Masters pre-PhD so that > they can improve their knowledge of (often) core geology. We currently have > at least one MSc student here who has never had a structural geology class. > I'd be very skeptical indeed of taking on a student as a PhD student with > the 50% general education credits that many of my undergrads have, even if > the student in question had been in university for years. > > I don't know how these systems compare to the EU system, having never been > a part of it. > > -- > Cara Burberry > > < > http://greatamericanphotocontest.com/voter1/index5.aspx?p=2932213&x=.jpg&referid=FB > > > < > http://www.komennebraska.org/site/TR?px=1196900&pg=personal&fr_id=1030&et=z9nKoQAnMK3tVSV8SjLcaQ..&s_tafId=1720> > Donate $13.10 FOR THE CURE!!! < > http://pages.teamintraining.org/ne/omaha11/cburberqb8> >