“This isn’t just about money. Reducing graduate education to graduation rates and economic benchmarks (such as job prospects or projected income of graduates) actually impoverishes the quality of PhD and MA study. A significant part of our education, as well as our professional and political identity formation, includes advocacy, activism, and participation within the university system; so, too, the capacity to explore new possibilities, recognize dead ends, and revise from a position of greater knowledge. This work is essential to the health of the academy, and it is also time-consuming, to varying extents for various students. The administration’s easy equation of time-to-degree with moral character is fallacious and misleading, just as fellowship packages are not the only factor promoting or limiting consistent advancement in scholarship.”
http://opencuny.org/gcadvocate/2013/02/11/my-phd-program-is-not-a-roach-motel/
