My missus finally submitted her doctoral dissertation yesterday for examination. Her thesis is on world views and how it functions in the life of a school teacher. She also wrote plenty of papers on colonialism and its effect on childhood education. It was an 8 year project. In the last two years we practically did not have any weekends. On weekends, I would go with her to the university so she could write and I could be with her. I did not like to be separated from her so it was a torturous experience, like being chained. So I hang around do my work in her office. I had to do it otherwise I won't see her on weekends. She is a Research Fellow at Melbourne Uni, my university's nemesis in Melbourne. They got more money than Monash Uni. They have really nice offices for their staff and new buildings. That is why they are the premier uni in Oz. So if someone wants an academic career when they graduate they should go to Melbourne Uni. If you want an industrial career, hehehe, come to mine.
BTW, Melbourne Uni has plenty of American students too. They have a nice tradition of giving you a balloon when you submit your dissertation. Now we have to wait 4 months for the examiners to report their findings. I am still processing this as to what this means, no more agony of thesis writing. What do we do now on weekends?
Australia is an amazing country. Where will you find a country who will encourage its people to do a PhD and pay them for doing it? I paid zero dollars for mine, but instead they paid me roughly $20,000 a year, tax free for 3.5 years. After that you are on your own but having lapsed, that still entitles you to graduate. On top of that they give you office space so you can study privately and computers, books and money for going to conferences. They did not even charge me amenities fees. None. I just had to show up and study. How amazing is that?!!
Where will you get a deal like that? Today, I still could not believe I got mine for free.
4 comments:
Congratulations for your wife. That is quite an accomplishment, a watershed.
You do have a unique system. America's will not last the way it is. Vast amounts of student loan money have kept professors in posh jobs with little work to do.
Congratulations and blessings be upon you!
But it was not really free, right? The government coerced money out of other people's pockets to subsidize your studies.
Please don't misunderstand, I don't blame anybody for taking advantage of such offers. It's a way to get back some of the money coerced out of one's own pocket through the organized robbery that is taxation.
Pr. Greg/Joel,
Thanks for your thoughts.
Yes, all the scholarship came from our taxes.
We are taxed heavily here, a regular worker gets taxed 32-45%. That is stiff.
This is the reason why we did not feel any guilt going to the system, we reason, that was our money anyway, hehehe.
LPC
Bravo!
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