Trapped in a campus politics.

Dear friends,
Here is one of the stories how a Ph.D student has been a victim of faculty and university politics. MB (a pseudonym) is a student of a well known university in Melbourne and his right to get a decent and suitable job was denied by the institution. I believe, some of us have also been denied when it comes to asking jobs to support ourself !

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Part 1. Getting Into Ph.D.

Once upon a time i was a happy 24 yo IT Management consultant who was earning well and had a generally happy life. I did not have a ph.d nor did i really require one :). My job was stressful but extremely enjoyable. The last thing I wanted was to go back to school. However, a horrible thing happened. As you know, Ph.D is an "intellectually-transmitted desease". Well, Somehow i caught the ph.d bug and I decided to email school of Information Systems at the R*** university and share my "research interests with them". Unfortunately, they did like my ideas. To make things worse they assured me that once accepted i will not have to pay fees, and will have a good chance to obtain a living allownce as well as tutoring/lecturing opportunities.

It sounded appealing enough so what did stupid Michael do? He decided to enrol! I was not sure whether i should persue the Ph.D full-time or part-time but once i got the full schoarship (including living allowance) as well as "assurance" that a "bright scholar like me" can get it all done in 2 years only my mind was set. I cut all my ties with the industry and decided to focus on my research. Life was good and sun was shining brightly....

Part 2. The beginning of the End.

My happy mood has not lasted for a long time. Shortly after my enrollment, my supervisor told me that he will be resigning from the R*** and moving to Deakin. He asked me if I wanted to stay on at R*** or move along.

Of course his departure was not a tragedy in itself. All that i had to do was to move my thesis from R*** to Deakin. I would still have my fee exemption but of course this move would cost me my living allowance. This is when greed took the better of me and I decided to stay on. And this was really the beginning of the End!

Part 3. Hope against Hope

Once my supervisor departed...I very quickly realised that i was in hot soup. My supervisor did not seem to leave R*** on "good terms" and since i was using his research methodology and linking my research to his...survival became an issue.

First of all, I was told that R*** "has no work" for me. I could not get any tutoring/lecturing work. I was told that there were "no teaching opportunities in the university for the person of my calibre". At the very same time while R*** did not feel like i was "qualified enough to be a tutor", I was not finding it difficult to secure teaching work at other universities. In fact it was quite funny - I was not 'good enough" to do tuts at R*** - at the same time I was invited to teach at another University. They did not seem to think i was underqualified and valued industry experience and knowledge of the subjects over research qualifications/number of publications. I was invited to become a lead lecturer for some of the IT subjects they were delivering, given opportunities to deliver my own subject content etc. In fact, i am still working at that "joint" and enjoying my work very much. Or yes, and at one stage i also happened to be teaching in one of the other departments of the R***. However, there was "nothing for me to do" within my own department.

As far as my "reseach progress" was concerned. Suddenly i was told that my research progress was "unsatisfactory" that i had no clue how to write a thesis, that there was nobody in my area to supervise me etc....At the very same time i had a research paper/article published, I have written a textbook....but nobody seemed to care about all this. It was made clear to me that "I do not beling at R***".

My supervisor was "too busy" to see me on a regular basis, so supervision was delegated to the second supervisor. The ways my second supervisor was trying to put me down were almost endless..

First of all, he was abusing me verbally and telling me that "my thesis is rubbish, even undergrad students cam write better tham me etc." This was making me very frustrated because i felt i was fully depedent on him and could not retiliate. If some person whould come to me in any professional environment ( e.g. workplace) and abuse me verbally i would have no problem with complaining. Would someone abuse me on the street...i would simply punch his face...but what could I in this situation? I was fully dependent on him :(.

I tried to secure another supervisor and i spoke to a number of people about it. At first they seemed to be ok with it but after "consultations" with my supervisors (who also happened to be in charge of the research funding for the schools) they would lose the desire to deal with me as a research student.....while remaining on good personal terms. The absurdity of the situation was that there were people who had no problem with me and my research yet they were not able to take me as a research student due to the "political reasons".

Part 4. I surrender

Well I was sick and tired of the treatment i was getting and finally on being told on numersous occasions in an abusive manner that " i am unlikely to graduate ever" i decided to quit!

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Epiloque (from MB)

Ok, do not cry for me! Now my R*** saga is nothing but an episode from the past. Its like a failed marriage -best to be forgotten. I am now enrolled at Curtin university and my supervisor appears to be sent "from heaven". Hopefully, i will be done with my thesis in a few months!

To MB, all the best !!