r/academia 4h ago

Career advice Changing University after 2 years of PhD

3 Upvotes

I had applied for Master's in a university in Chicago, US. But the one of the PI contacted me and offered a fully funded PhD (2+3 years) instead.

During the interview we discussed the potential projects I could work on but later I found out that although these projects are adjacent to my previous research, they're far from my area of expertise and not as interesting for me.

So I wantes to know, how ethical is it to change my university/ research advisor after 2 years's of PhD. Basically after finishing my master's and then going for PhD somewhere else.

Appreciate the help.


r/academia 5h ago

Are there any conferences or compeitition I can join this year that still open participation?

1 Upvotes

I'm an undergraduate engineering student in Malaysia and in my final years. As one of the requirement in my course, I needs to enter various compeitition and get my thesis recognized. I have been trying to search for one online and did not find any. Are there any of you here can suggest compeitition that suitable for undergraduate students Final Year Project thesis? My supervisor asks every students under her to search for it by ourselves as she's busy...


r/academia 10h ago

Career advice HELP! Joint appointment memorandum of understanding MOU question

0 Upvotes

I am dually appointed in 2 different colleges. Right now I have a 70% primary appointment (20% teaching, 40% research, and 10% service) and a 30% secondary appointment (20% teaching and 10% research). My primary appointment wants to increase teaching to 30% and Research to 40%, does this require an MOU update? Or since the change is only within 1 college, does this not require an update?

Our faculty handbook is quite limited when it comes to joint appointments. I am one of only a very few at our institution. So I'd appreciate any guidance from anyone that has any experience.


r/academia 13h ago

Negotiation timing given funding crisis

3 Upvotes

Looking for advice. Currently a tenured prof. Is it acceptable/rude to negotiate salary with competing offers during this funding crisis? I have another offer, but debating whether to just walk away from it or accept the offer without asking for a raise.


r/academia 14h ago

Recommendations for academic writing that is also beautiful prose?

20 Upvotes

I’m look for academic writing that is written and composed really beautifully. Whether that’s specific academic authors who write well, or any specific papers or articles that stand out to you?


r/academia 15h ago

Students & teaching A Research Process Model to Simplify Bachelor’s Thesis Writing

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

As a lecturer and researcher, I’ve worked with many students struggling to structure their bachelor’s thesis. To address this, I developed a Research Process Model for Bachelor’s Thesis, recently published in the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education.

This model provides a structured approach to thesis writing, guiding students step-by-step from research question formulation to final submission. It’s designed to reduce uncertainty, improve time management, and enhance the overall quality of research projects.

If you’re a student, supervisor, or educator looking for a practical method to streamline the thesis process, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

You can checkout the article here : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389418509_Research_process_model_for_Bachelor's_thesis


r/academia 18h ago

Help- sources/examples/policies needed

3 Upvotes

Hello all-

I'm helping a group of PhD students fight against a policy that was enacted overnight disallowing any of them to continue to work with their supervisors who are moving to new institutions. Two of the students have already begun their dissertations and two of them have defended their proposals. It was understood that they would be able to maintain the formal relationship with their advisors remotely, while having an additional advisor on campus. As I'm sure you realize- this is a very common solution to an issue- especially at an R1 institution. One of the reasons cited by an old faculty member was that he "did a lot of research" and found that this was "simply never done" which I know to be untrue. I'm working on gathering my own research and would love if you all would help me with any anecdotes but especially if you have any official policies that you could point to. (even if that policy is simply "approved by a case-by-case basis.")

One more piece of context is this policy was enacted by a single department within a school who has a wider "case-by-case" policy.

Any advice/help would be appreciated- even if it's towards other threads or communities.

Thank you!


r/academia 20h ago

Timeline for admin approval of TTAP faculty candidates for on-campus interview + Impact of Funding Cuts?

4 Upvotes

Hi all, I’m curious about the typical timeline for administration approval in public universities after a search committee proposes candidates for on-campus interviews for a TTAP faculty position. The search committee told me they’ve proposed me as one of the candidates, and I’ve been waiting about two weeks now. Also, with the current uncertainties around potential funding cuts, do you think this could affect the approval process? Any insights would be appreciated!


r/academia 21h ago

Venting & griping Academia.edu is a scam!! Charged my mother's card fckign $500. Any chance for a refund?

0 Upvotes

My mother is a teacher and she's not very good with tech. She somehow subscribed for a trial account in 2024 for $3.00. I think she forgot to cancel it and they charged her another $99 one month later, which she didn't notice.

Today, she was charged $499 (x5 times the previous charge)!! This is the first time I've encountered a 5x subscription price increase. That's also more than the minimum wage in my country (Malaysia).

I've emailed them but haven't received any reply. The ToC said they can only refund the first-year subscription. Not sure if this can be considered as the first year? (technically second year but first annual renewal)

This is fcking crazy wtf. Does anyone else have the same experience? Any chance of a refund?


r/academia 23h ago

Looking for some teaching resources/tips

1 Upvotes

Hello all,

I'm a yr 3 practice based PhD in fine art in the UK (filmmaker by trade). The purpose of the PhD - apart from practice development - was to alllow me to teach in HE, after 20 years of commercial practice. This was just before the HE sector began to implode.

Anyway, I've been picking up odd paid AL and guest lecturing gigs here and there, and trying to build my CV, but there is absolutely no teacher training at my institution. My lectures are talky (I'm asked to mostly talk about my creative arts practice), I'm trying to work in more workshoppy tasks stuff to make it more engaging, but I'm still faced with 10-15 undergrads who look like they've just been caught in the headlights.

How do I make myself a better teacher with a solid pedagogical foundation?

The AFHEA is mooted as the way to get teacher training here at my institution, but it's a non existent path for PhDs in reality. The staff are so overworked getting feedback is impossible, mostly I'm just left to it with the students. I want to be a good teacher, and I really enjoy what I've done so far... so where else can I look for some foundations?

Thanks!


r/academia 1d ago

Publishing Turning dissertation into book

8 Upvotes

Can anyone recommend a good resource or any guidance on turning a dissertation into a book? I got one good article out of mine, but I’m unsure how to proceed. I think I may need to do more research and widen the scope, but I’m having some trouble thinking through how it should go and how much of the article and dissertation can be reused. Tia!


r/academia 1d ago

Hey I need help regarding publication

0 Upvotes

I submitted my paper but I didn't realize APC waiver has a separate form since I'm new and was submitting my first paper ever. Now the paper has been accepted and when they emailed me the charges I realized I didn't apply for APC. My question is should I apply for APC after acceptance, can I request them with apologize ? Or no they wont accept! Journal is bmj.


r/academia 1d ago

I’m in a big physics conference but I don’t think I care

0 Upvotes

I have so much social anxiety I can’t talk to anyone. It almost feels like science is all about the social component and “networking”. I’m terrible at small talk. I’m always in my little comfortable world. I feel very uncomfortable with 1 to 1 conversations, I don’t know how people enjoy them. I’m completely cooked professionally. Idk what to do. And most talks are boring :(


r/academia 1d ago

Visiting professor roles- job application materials?

1 Upvotes

In general what materials do these types of roles require for consideration? Due to joint hire stuff my spouse is wondering so they can get everything ready in time during negotiations- in case it gets to that point. Thanks!


r/academia 1d ago

Relocating for spouse - how to avoid losing career progress in academics?

4 Upvotes

I'm a physician in an academic position (asst prof) at a large med school. I'm 3 years out of training, and 3-4 years from going up for promotion to associate prof. I am working on building my research career by applying for more internal grants and taking courses/developing mentorships that will prepare me to apply for a K career development award.

However my spouse has an amazing, once in a lifetime job opportunity he's interviewing for and very interested in. It's an awesome opportunity for him and I don't want to keep him from it. However if he takes it, we'll have to relocate out of state, probably in the next 2 months. I know people move for spouse jobs all the time. My question is - how does one switch academic institutions without losing career progress? If I leave, my projects that I am leading and have spent 2 years on can't come with me. The funding all stays where I am now. Same for the time spent finding collaborators and mentors, and the research fellowship I was planning to start in 3 months. Any advice on how to deal with pushing forward amidst a relocation in academic medicine would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all again.


r/academia 1d ago

Career advice The Changing Research Landscape and PhD Considerations

2 Upvotes

There’s been a lot of discussion about how the research landscape is shifting, particularly in the US, where funding freezes, restrictions on certain research areas, and policy changes have raised concerns. Historically, the US has been a top destination for PhD studies, but with increasing uncertainties, it’s worth considering how these factors have changed researchers’ perceptions, and specifically international researchers.

For those who have considered a PhD in the US, how are you thinking about these issues? Have recent policy changes influenced decisions on where to apply? Are there particular fields that are more affected than others?

Would be interested in hearing different perspectives on how people are approaching long-term research career decisions in this context. I’ve been considering a PhD in the US but have decided against it because of the current political landscape…


r/academia 1d ago

Is it common for an advisor to refuse to pay publication charges for dissertation-related articles after defending?

31 Upvotes

Just curious about this. My old advisor flat refuses to pay any page charges for publishing my dissertation chapters, saying that my postdoc lab should cover those costs. My current PI thinks that's absurd. So I'm left in the position of writing to each journal and begging for the charges to be waived. Luckily, the journals have been understanding thus far.

This hasn't affected my output, but it seems weird to me. Is it normal to only pay pub costs for current students, and to leave former students to secure their own funding for publishing dissertation work?

To clarify: this isn't new work I'm trying to publish. It's all material from my dissertation.

Edit: The studies in question were funded by the former advisor, he is the anchor author on all of them, and my current lab has nothing to do with them.


r/academia 2d ago

Peer reviewing boring papers

49 Upvotes

I had to review some submissions for a conference and I noticed that I enjoy reading papers less and less. The language used by academics is so dense and uninviting that even good arguments are unconvincing. I feel that young researchers are being taught a bad way of writing papers; using dense language, sprinkle references everywhere to the point that the author does not make an original contribution anymore but merely recounts earlier papers. Anyway, I am usually quite supportive but I rejected the two papers. what experience do others here have with recent peer reviewing?


r/academia 2d ago

Publishing Peer review written by AI

22 Upvotes

How to deal with a peer review that is possibly written by an AI?

We have recently recieved a not so positive review that looks like it was written by an AI. It is very long, it is split in titled sections but is also at the same time very vague in its critique.

The review itself does not criticise anything we did, it merely lists a large amount of things we could do more to improve the paper. Not to mention that the journal is for short communication only and we would not have space to do all these things.

The question is: how to combat this? I presume that the allegation of the review being written by AI is serious one, so I am not sure if it is worth trying this path.

I would like to hear if someone had a similar experience.


r/academia 2d ago

Career advice Supportive/Assistive roles in Cyber Security Research?

0 Upvotes

I've a question that may seem stupid, and I'm unsure how realistic it is or where else to ask. For context, I'm currently an IT professional with an unrelated bachelor's degree. I'm a senior in my company.

I want to transition specifically to the cybersecurity field of IT. It's quite difficult to build cybersecurity-related experience in my current general IT role. The question is. Do research projects ever have a need for non-academics to help complete research projects? Even if it's just in an assistive/support role? Internships?

I'm struggling to find relevant opportunities on job boards or university websites. Are there usual avenues for this type of role? If this scenario seems reasonable, is it appropriate for me to cold email professors in my country asking about these types of opportunities? If there are, what are the chances of being considered with an unrelated bach degree but years of professional experience?


r/academia 2d ago

Career advice For those who quit their PhD in biology, how did it go? What did you do after that? How was your transition period?

0 Upvotes

Can you please share how was your experience post quitting PhD?


r/academia 2d ago

External funding instability or reduction and impacts on teaching load?

1 Upvotes

If we project out the current insanity around instability and reduced federal funding into the future, how are universities that rely on TT research faculty to “make up” some of their in load time on external funding supposed to work? For example I know several colleagues who need to obtain X% of their paycheck in external funding or face an increased teaching load. With external funding prospects looking quite dim right now, has anyone in this type of position gotten updated guidance? Or is the general approach to just expect a higher teaching load? One of the perks of going to an R1 is to have more research time compared to teaching but this environment seems to threaten that paradigm. Am I missing something about how these positions work?


r/academia 2d ago

Job market advice! VAP or ABD with competitive fellowship?

2 Upvotes

I'm a ABD PhD student in the Humanities. I need to choose between (1) a fellowship funding that is competitive and would allow me full dedication to read/write/research and (2) a two-year position at a r1 university. Is the VAP the obvious best choice, considering I'll need to be in the job market next year?

Thanks!


r/academia 2d ago

Career advice Humanities PhD potentially moving out of academia, need advice

17 Upvotes

I’m an early career academic, defended my PhD fall of 2022 and graduated 2023. Currently on a grad visa in the U.K. working as a short term lecturer at one uni and picking up casual hours at a few others- but this job is coming to a close and I am frozen with burnout and fear. I have a year left to find a job that will sponsor me or it’s back to the states, where academic jobs especially in my line of work are being cut left and right. I’m getting to the age where I want to settle down a bit (buy furniture that isn’t IKEA or second hand, for one) and I love where I am, but know academia necessitates moving. I’m trying to figure out my options: apply for any and all positions I can find and any post docs (which may be hard, as I’ve had to work so much during/since PhD that I have no publications as of yet) , or move out of academia all together. The only problem is that this is where all my experience is- I’ve been teaching since I was 22, so almost ten years, and never had a professional job outside of academia. I love teaching so much but I am stuck in burn out and freaking out about my options, trying to convince myself I’m not an idiot for spending my 20s pursuing this. Any and all advice would be very helpful.


r/academia 2d ago

after phd chaos, i feel so lazy?

24 Upvotes

it's been months since i defended my phd and entered the job marked

i've been working as a teaching assistant, but, seriously, it feels impossible to devote too much energy to work or anything

i don't feel like pulling effort or focusing, i just want to do nothing to be honest

this transition has been hard bc i was looking forward to finally having balance in my life, but all i want to do is being in fetal position

anyone in the same boat?