Ex-student, 52, suing university for AU$3m after PhD rejection destroyed 'sex drive' "Not tonight, love." We've all been there – sometimes life throws you a curveball and the ensuing despondency firmly shelves making the beast with two backs for a while. In the case of 52-year-old Kuldeep Mann, it was failing to get on a PhD course at James Cook University in Queensland that demolished his sex drive. At least …
Australian universities require (or are supposed to require, lately some have been doing /very/ dubious things in that regard) a certain level of English proficiency, but not fluency - enough to be clear and unambiguous within your chosen field is (I think fairly) considered sufficient. Whether this applies to this individual is difficult to say on the info given.
Also, while Bootnotes has singled out the sex-drive comment (as bootnotes is chartered to do, and he is certainly being a drama-boss about it, so I can't fault them), the overall merit of his case might depend on if the university in question is one of the above-mentioned ones that have been caught side-stepping (their own!) English proficiency standards and generally over-promising what they can do for overseas students.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-06/universities-lowering-english-standards/11063626
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-07/emails-show-academics-concerns-over-students/11073166
"The 7/11 staffer said he paid AU$20,000 and studied two subjects to get on the
Social Sciences PhD in 2015, but claimed he was accused of plagiarism and told he wasn't "up to the mark""
I'm sorry but the Bot that comes up with these stories is hilarious ...... .wait wot??
Man he's almost my age, what a putz.
" To get the PHD you have to have your BS. So, he has a BS and works at 7/11?"
"Worse looks like he has a BA (Bachelor of Arts/Bugger All). Just how bad do you have to be to fail Lesbian Dance Therapy(Social Sciences)?"
I bet if he appeared in court dressed like Shirley Temple he could make a case for discrimination and win.
BAs get an unfair rap because of the number of businesses (this is what universities ultimately are) fronting "bait" degrees for hipster idiots.
In reality BA can cover subjects including History, Psychology, English Literature, Economics, Political Science, Anthropology, Archaeology, et al..
As noted in one of my replies above (with relevant links), there has been issues lately with Australian universities determined to trash Australia's traditional very high international reputation in the tertiary education field, in the name of a quick short-term buck.
Maybe he was genuinely misled as to what the course was offering, and/or not provided sufficient support to pass even with reasonable effort on his part (which has also been strongly suggested, even from academics within certain universities).
Maybe he is just a crappy student who expected a pay-for-pass degree (the DEFINITELY do exit).
Courts will have to decide that one.
And he's saying his failed PHD led to his other HD failures? If I were the judge, I'd make him submit to a full medical battery (strip naked and get on the probulator) to determine if there may be a lifestyle related issue. Don't most PHD candidates sit on their ass all day? I dislike the courts as much as the next guy, but in this case, due diligence is required.
Don't most PHD candidates sit on their ass all day?
I don't know about Australia, but not in the US. Of the hundreds of PhD students and candidates1 I've known, none were sufficiently independently wealthy to avoid working during their programs. Most have teaching jobs, and if your teaching doesn't involve a fair bit of moving about, You're Doing It Wrong. (And, frankly, on most US university campuses, you'll do a good bit of walking just getting between the various places you need to be.)
And, of course, in many PhD programs research involves something more physically strenuous than reading and writing (not that those can't burn many a calorie). Even in a text-intensive field like rhet-comp I've known plenty of PhDs who did dissertation research that involved a good bit of physical activity.
Now, if your field of study is riding donkeys...
1In the US system, you're a PhD student once you're admitted to a PhD program. You don't become a PhD candidate until you've completed coursework and passed your comprehensive examinations. Candidates file (and, depending on the program, defend) a prospectus, do research, write a dissertation, defend it, and file it; then they're granted the degree.
A friend backed his stuff up. It was created with Friend1.0 wetware. Unfortunately, he's now running Friend365, and trying to restore his stuff returns nothing but error messages ... on the rare occasion that Friend365 is up, that is.
More reasons that us UNIX are happier than the marketards FUD would suggest ... Our stuff is always up, and restoring old backups is no problem whatsoever.
but claimed he was accused of plagiarism and told he wasn't "up to the mark".
Wondering if being accused of plagiarism has the same "seriousness" as it did back in my day ?
He's Linkedin profile is an interesting read
"I thrive in a high-pressure environment, enjoy the challenges of meeting deadlines and managing a team, and am comfortable researching, writing and editing on a wide range of topics.". I guess he can't say that anymore.
Want a bigger laugh, check the "university" reviews , a majority of which are related to the student food centre.
I'm starting to think that the only original work he has composed is his online profiles and the law suit
OK its 16 years ago now, but during my bachelor degree I knew 2 girls that were kicked out of the Uni (a different Aussie uni) for plagarism.
I also saw during my masters in the UK, people getting a zero on assignments for "failing to properly reference quotes", so not so much plagarism but forgetting to appropriately attribute info. They also tended to receive warnings that if they did it agian that the next time would be a plagarism charge and probable dismissal from the Uni.
So at least in the 3 universities I've been through, Plagarism has been taken very seriously.
I'm doing my Masters right now with the OU, and plagiarism is still considered a big no-no. With the advent of the internet, and advances in other computing technologies, they actually have the capability to map your work against almost everything else, just to see if you have claimed someone else's idea as your own.
It is possible to get a PhD without actually having completed what you set out to do; I should know since I did just that. It is also possible to get a PhD with original research that is entirely negative, on the lines of "I tried this, and turns out this isn't the case" sort of thing.
The point is, it has to be original, publishable research and the best way to demonstrate this is to publish your research in a proper, peer-reviewed journal. The research doesn't have to be good, or prove anything useful, or indeed demonstrate anything other than that the author's methods are complete bunk (and yes, papers of this level of direness have even been published in Nature journal). It just has to be original research.
^This
An original, significant contribution to knowledge.
Plenty of PhD colleagues that got to the end of 3 years and had stacks and stacks of results that showed that something doesn't work, but have still improved understanding of a topic.
There's a good movement to have research papers that document test methods that don't work (but are theoretically sound) because people don't normally talk about that part. Helps prevent a dozen groups working in the same field all trying the same wrong things wasting time and money.
Its the same in the UK - the ISIS child bride can get legal aid after she worked as an enforcer and picked out individuals to be murdered by the caliphate but the victims of the Manchester bombing or the London Bridge attacks are not entitled to legal aid.
Clown world we live in, HONK HONK
So he tried to get the entry qualifications for the PhD course, got caught cheating, and didn't get in - that is normal.
He clearly thinks he can just turn up, pay a fee and get in - perhaps he had heard of how rich or famous Americans get their kids into university before the recent cases got well publicised. Sorry, but that's not how it works.
Again, back in my day pay the very ugly rumour was that you could basically pay for a degree from a lot of Indian universities. No skill or knowledge required, just a big enough cheque book. The more I am reading on this story, the more I suspect he is one that has taken advantage of this.
The big question he has yet to answer is that with all of his "years of experience" in Journalism, why a 7/11 Clerk since arriving in Australia Australia has a large Indian Community and a number of independent newspapers.
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