Dissertation: coming along
I am still working on my last exam for the semester, but have taken "two days" off. Yesterday I got my hair cut, as I mentioned, and today was a seminar regarding our master dissertation. The seminar pretty much consisted of us vocalizing our thought and ideas (if we have any) about topics, and the teachers present follow up with potential research questions/hypotheses/etc. The deal is that we have argued our way into this seminar...
When you consider the fact that they have at least 10 students starting their dissertations every year (probably more, too), they (or should I say he, the program coordinator) is extremely slow when it comes to executing the necessary steps along the way.
During our second week of school last fall, we had a similar seminar, just to get the thinking going. We were told then to start thinking about topics right away. Then nothing happened until February when we noticed that the description of the dissertation on the university's site says for us to hand in a research proposal on May 2. So, being the class representative (why do I always end up in such positions?) I went to talk to the program coordinator. He said that no, no research proposal on May 2. That's an error, and he would be correcting it. Come April and he still hadn't fixed it. When I talked to him in February I asked if we could get a meeting together to go over how a research proposal should look like (the university has no templates online, and none has been shared with us through the program). He said sure, he's write an e-mail about it right away.
Time went by, and no e-mail. Until three weeks or so ago. We're to set aside an entire day during our exam time. Umm... Ok.
Started at 10am, and was told we'd only be there till noon. Why on earth should we set aside an entire day??? There are two people in my class who travel from Haugesund and Oslo (other side of the country!) to be here. When you consider how little came out of it (at least for my part), I don't think they saw it as necessary to be there.
Either way, the program coordinator starts off with a short speech about how he can see the end of his career approaching, how he's working with a ph.d. student who will "take over" his field, etc. Not a great way to start. Considering the man is in his late 60's, I get that he's maybe not as excited about his job as he used to be. The only problem is that this really affects us. Best part is that he's only a temp - he's really the program coordinator for the bachelor program, but is filling in the position this year as the original coordinator is on research sabbatical.
So we start going over each person's ideas. I try to be as brief as I can about my plans, and say right from the start that I think Ingvil would be my best pick as a supervisor. The reason I haven't talked to her about it directly is because I didn't know until today (had a hint last week) if she would be an option. She is a ph.d. student, and thus I was unsure if they are potential supervisors. But last week she told the other ph.d. student in the Network (network for gender research) that they get extra time due to supervising and lecturing.
So I guess I have to ask her then...
Afterward the few teacher who were there presented themselves. Nothing new and exciting about their fields... We already know what they're doing, what they're interested in.
And then one of the students raises her hand and asks about the research proposal, and when we'll be getting a template or whatever. The coordinator hesitates for a moment before he admits that yes, there is a template, and sure, he can e-mail it to us. She asks again when this will be - they have today, as well, said that we need to get started. One of the teachers even said we should write the out the structure of the dissertation tomorrow and have a research question ready before summer (that would mean next week). He then says that he's leaving soon (for what I'm not sure), and then the other teachers butt in and asks if it takes that long to send that e-mail. He hesitates again and says it shouldn't be impossible to get it to us in the beginning of August!
Uproar.
Other teacher quickly goes through it on the board;
Wow. Long post. Sorry!
ETA: I forgot: All of this, the lack of system and control is extra ironic considering the frequency of utterances of the kind "Too many students need extensions on their dissertation", "We need to get you started to that you can finish within a year". The class of '10 says they didn't get any information before the end of August - and thus practically no one had a research disposal or research question before well into the semester...
When you consider the fact that they have at least 10 students starting their dissertations every year (probably more, too), they (or should I say he, the program coordinator) is extremely slow when it comes to executing the necessary steps along the way.
During our second week of school last fall, we had a similar seminar, just to get the thinking going. We were told then to start thinking about topics right away. Then nothing happened until February when we noticed that the description of the dissertation on the university's site says for us to hand in a research proposal on May 2. So, being the class representative (why do I always end up in such positions?) I went to talk to the program coordinator. He said that no, no research proposal on May 2. That's an error, and he would be correcting it. Come April and he still hadn't fixed it. When I talked to him in February I asked if we could get a meeting together to go over how a research proposal should look like (the university has no templates online, and none has been shared with us through the program). He said sure, he's write an e-mail about it right away.
Time went by, and no e-mail. Until three weeks or so ago. We're to set aside an entire day during our exam time. Umm... Ok.
Started at 10am, and was told we'd only be there till noon. Why on earth should we set aside an entire day??? There are two people in my class who travel from Haugesund and Oslo (other side of the country!) to be here. When you consider how little came out of it (at least for my part), I don't think they saw it as necessary to be there.
Either way, the program coordinator starts off with a short speech about how he can see the end of his career approaching, how he's working with a ph.d. student who will "take over" his field, etc. Not a great way to start. Considering the man is in his late 60's, I get that he's maybe not as excited about his job as he used to be. The only problem is that this really affects us. Best part is that he's only a temp - he's really the program coordinator for the bachelor program, but is filling in the position this year as the original coordinator is on research sabbatical.
So we start going over each person's ideas. I try to be as brief as I can about my plans, and say right from the start that I think Ingvil would be my best pick as a supervisor. The reason I haven't talked to her about it directly is because I didn't know until today (had a hint last week) if she would be an option. She is a ph.d. student, and thus I was unsure if they are potential supervisors. But last week she told the other ph.d. student in the Network (network for gender research) that they get extra time due to supervising and lecturing.
So I guess I have to ask her then...
Afterward the few teacher who were there presented themselves. Nothing new and exciting about their fields... We already know what they're doing, what they're interested in.
And then one of the students raises her hand and asks about the research proposal, and when we'll be getting a template or whatever. The coordinator hesitates for a moment before he admits that yes, there is a template, and sure, he can e-mail it to us. She asks again when this will be - they have today, as well, said that we need to get started. One of the teachers even said we should write the out the structure of the dissertation tomorrow and have a research question ready before summer (that would mean next week). He then says that he's leaving soon (for what I'm not sure), and then the other teachers butt in and asks if it takes that long to send that e-mail. He hesitates again and says it shouldn't be impossible to get it to us in the beginning of August!
Uproar.
Other teacher quickly goes through it on the board;
- Topic
- Research question/hypothesis
- Actuality, both academically and societal
- Theories
- Methodology
- Study population/sampling
- Analysis: how to
- Where am I going with this? (this point is in dialogue with point no. 2)
Wow. Long post. Sorry!
ETA: I forgot: All of this, the lack of system and control is extra ironic considering the frequency of utterances of the kind "Too many students need extensions on their dissertation", "We need to get you started to that you can finish within a year". The class of '10 says they didn't get any information before the end of August - and thus practically no one had a research disposal or research question before well into the semester...