Ironically, as the average time-to-degree increases, more and more graduate degrees require less and less work. Consider master’s degrees. While master’s degrees were once generally designed according to a two-year model and required the completion of a substantial thesis, today one-year non-thesis master’s programs abound. Universities will be happy to charge you tuition for such degrees, and faculty will no doubt be happy to graduate you without having to read drafts of your thesis, but you will have probably done less to earn that degree than someone who earned a master’s degree ten years ago. This is a secret to no one, so the real consequence of this development is the devaluation of master’s degrees. Everyone’s degree is worth less than a degree was worth in the past. And the trend will probably continue.
Meanwhile, foreign language requirements are being dropped or watered down, theses are getting shorter, and grade inflation is rampant. In fact, the range of “acceptable” grades in graduate programs has shrunk to such a degree that grades have been rendered effectively meaningless. In many programs, to be given a “B” in coursework is to be politely informed that you are not fit for graduate school. Students no longer benefit from the feedback provided by an honest and effective grade scale, because professors feel compelled (often for compassionate reasons) to assign inflated grades. In a purely intellectual sense, there is less and less to be gained from graduate school in and of itself.
Physical Sciences is the opposite. It is taking longer to get a graduate degree in most cases than the standard 2 years (MS) and 4 years (PhD) and the scrutiny is quite extreme.
ReplyDeleteHow long it takes to finish a Ph.D. (way longer than it used to take, on average) is a different issue. There's no doubt that modern grad programs are relatively easy compared to a generation ago.
DeleteApparently, to get a Master's degree these days, it's enough to plagiarize a 14-page "final" paper:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/23/us/politics/john-walsh-final-paper-plagiarism.html?src=me&_r=0
English communicate not need for academic excellence anymore! Science is language communicate all over world. Idea superiorly important more so over english. If problem then research copy make all 100% OK, no one know. Speaking english people so stupid they not know copy not copy even student has bad toefl score they no worry. Government even pay! So much jobs when graduate because speaking english people so stupid no one want pay or teach. Can become citizen possible no english need because english people so stupid and greed.
Deletei completely disagree. irrespective of grade inflation, in a purely intellectual sense, graduate school remains incredibly challenging. (at least in my dept.) true, there are many distractions from the actual 'life of the mind,' (teaching 50% and fellowship apps can take up 40+ hours a week far too easily) but that doesn't negate the fact that there are still a lot of intellectual challenges in digesting saskia sassen or whomever. moreover, the bar for dissertations is actually increasing, especially methodologically. the number of in-depth interviews people do these days for a diss seems to increase with each job talk i go to....
ReplyDeleteditto the disagreement: precisely because of the expansion in academe, there exists much more scholarship in one's field to contend with and address, even if only to "move beyond it" in one's dissertation. i look back to my father's and grandfather's generation of PhD and dream of so-elegant and simple an introduction. Imagine a lit review of just a few pages...
ReplyDeleteThese comments seem to be addressed in a following post:
ReplyDeletehttp://100rsns.blogspot.com/2010/09/9-it-is-still-very-very-hard.html
So yes, there are some master's programs that don't require theses...but so what? I don't really care if my nurse practitioner or the administrator at my hospital or the public historian at the museum has written a 200-page treatise...if they prove they can do their job through other means. Since more and more non-research related, professional positions require master's degrees...fewer of them will require research theses and more will replace those thesis requirements with capstone projects, practica, internships, and other practical applications of their jobs. I think that's an acceptable change for people who don't desire to go into a research career.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the point made about standards being dropped. In the olden days doing a PhD in natural sciences involved coming up with some new idea and showing considerable degree of independence. The PhD theses I have supervised for the past 10+ years have invariably required constant input on my part and even doing the students' work in no small part. Graduate Schools have become a lucrative industry and far too many people without a true "calling" go into PhD studies just because it is convenient. I'm talking from the perspective of someone living in the UK, where students in natural sciences have ample opportunities to get their studies fully funded fairly easily (they get £13,000 tax free per year + all tuition fees paid -- this is enough for many to take a mortgage if they choose to do so).
ReplyDeleteI also disagree to some extent.Look at the theses and dissertations from the past at your local university library. Odds are, the older ones were shorter and involved less in-depth research.
ReplyDeleteIe: in my dept. at my alma mater, a "thesis" from an MA candidate from the 1960s was equivalent to 2 chapters in a 2000s era MA thesis and involved much less primary research.
On the other hand, typing without correction fluid in the 1960s ensured that most theses underwent actual composition, editing, and proofreading prior to being typed.
Delete... and the age of word-processing and the Internet ensured much higher levels of incorrect word use (something Spellcheck doesn't catch) and outright plagiarism, sometimes running into tens of pages in a single "thesis."
Our faculty have actually commented about this, especially noticing a pattern in the last 5-10 years of declining academic standards both for admission (because fewer very strong students were applying for admission while more "slots" for graduate students were available), and coursework during the program. The PhD program I was in was in the Medical School of a prominent state university, and some of the faculty suspected that the students who would have pursued research were instead applying to professional programs.
ReplyDeleteyup when you get an A it isn't cuz you truly earned it so much as it's a way for the professor to pass you on to the next level.
ReplyDelete...and if you've earned that "A" then the joke's on you...
ReplyDelete