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What should I do after my PhD supervisor calls me a retard to my face?
I am in the 5th year of my Ph.D. studies. My Ph.D. supervisor always likes to mentally and verbally abuse me and some of our group members. This time, I really could not take it anymore and I want to share my story here.
I started my Ph.D. program with a slow start and only published my first paper in the 4th year. Got many unlucky rejections and now I have one paper almost finished and one in submission.
I was asked by my supervisor, several times during my 3rd and 4th years in the program, to quit. It was very personal. But I sucked it up and remained in the lab because I am an international student and could not afford to quit after that much effort was put into the program.
I was hoping to graduate this year but something really bothersome happened. During one meeting with him this semester, he questioned my progress and asked me tricky questions like he usually does. I learned over time to keep silent otherwise we will exchange arguments without meaningful discussion. He then told me to my face "Why do you look like a retard?" I was totally stunned and didn't know how to respond. This kind of personal attack is not something new but calling me a retard was a first. I really cannot let it go this time.
I would like to seek some advice. Should I report this to the department? What should I do since I just can't let it go? I feel very bad after this incident.
Background: I am in a good US university with a good CS department.
Update: I graduated and now work in industry!

Recommend checking our archives, there are many "abusive advisor" questions here, such as this one and this one.

Do your supervisor's colleagues know about his behaviour?  How do they feel about it?

@David He's super polite when talking to other professors and their students. When the door is closed, only he and me, he talks the way he wants - abusive. He's so knowledgeable to know how to play the game.

Does this answer your question? How to deal with an abusive advisor?

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How far are you from defending your PhD? The end of the 5th year would be the normal time for that (in the places that I know). If you are finishing this year, do you have any job offers? If not, would you be able to stay for another year?

Is the supervisor on the defense committee? Do they grade your thesis? In some countries, this is the default, in others the grading is external.

Your supervisor has a problem, seriously. He shouldn't be doing this. Don't internalize it. It isn't you, it is him.
Do what you need to do to finish. After you finish and find a position is the time to make a complaint. Making one now will only slow you down.
If there are other faculty that you do trust, you could seek advice from them. It is good to have a faculty advocate in such situations.
Good luck.

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Don't do anything.
Finishing your Ph.D. is more important than reporting your supervisor's behavior.
Just finish your Ph.D. and get the heck out of that university and never come back.
Even though I am writing it very easily, I am also wondering what I would have done in such a case! I feel extremely lucky that I have a very polite and cooperative supervisor.

Would you really give this same advice to someone with an abusive spouse, parent, or manager? --- It really depends. In the case of a spouse, I would suggest getting a divorce and that won't affect anyone's career. In the case of parents, leave home and that won't affect someone's livelihood either. Dealing with an abusive manager and an abusive Ph.D. advisor is almost similar - the career is affected. So, yeah, it depends.

Yes I feel lucky that I had a polite and friendly supervisor, I have seen how other people's supervisors speak to them and it's really just unacceptable.

This is honestly the reason why I didn't pursue a career in academia and I'm glad i didn't. I just can't fathom how a slight plagiarism accusation can ruin your career forever even if it was unintentional at the time but it's apparently ok to mentally abuse students because "it's too risky to report him, better to just ignore it". I'm not saying any of those things should be acceptable, it just seems to me that there is a big mentality of "It's ok to sacrifice your mental health" and "the end justifies the means, professors shouldn't ever be confronted" that's really off-putting sometimes...

The same things happen in private industry no less than in academia. It's just considered noteworthy when academics do it because society still holds onto stereotypes of the ivory tower sage. Getting on the wrong side of a supervisor or making a minor mistake can destroy your career in private (and public) industry just the same. "It's too risky to report the C#O/director/manager/HR/supervisor, better to just ignore it".

@Nij I think one complication is that it is much harder to fire a tenured professor than somebody in a company. Another is that if you have a good profile, industry jobs are much less scarce than academic ones and they don't know each other, so saying f*** off and moving to another employer without loss is much easier

@Nij I rarely, if ever, see someone say to just ignore an abusive manager in industry. Reporting someone may be somewhat viable (but still risky) if they don't have too much power in the company (and more so if there's an option of working under a different manager). But the usual recommendation is to find another job. The problem with academia is that you typically can't just find another university, so you may be stuck between a rock and a hard place of accepting abuse or significantly damaging your academic career.

This is absolutely the most depressing answer. It's abhorrent that this is the culture of academia; be silent, don't take action against your abusers, and perhaps they will let you graduate.

@NotThatGuy Degrees are also usually timeboxed. If you just stick it out for another n years, you'll have your degree and then you'll be free. In industry, why would you stick around? There's no magic milestone you aim to reach before leaving. You're always going to switch companies eventually (unless you're close to retirement) so there's no difference between switching ASAP vs switching in n years.

@academiaTA And then they wonder why there is no funding...

@Nij Industry can be vicious but one has 2nd chances. If one's advisor gets upset, one's academic career is over. In industry, one can quit, spend a few years working with friends and recover.  In academia, one has to wait till the advisor has died to try a 2nd time.

@Nij I have worked in various places in industry since leaving academia, including some that did not rate highly in terms of management (dissatisfaction, very low staff retention, etc.) and the behaviours I saw being tolerated and normalised in academia would be career-ending almost everywhere. My worst corporate manager was roughly on par with my best academic supervisor in terms of abusive behaviour. And I could leave that corporate job with far fewer consequences.

This is the "safe" answer, but it doesn't fix the problem for others, including those who will follow. And it will likely continue to spread, with people thinking this behavior is not only acceptable but also standard. Letting an abuser continue the abuse because people are afraid to speak up only keeps the abuse coming. Would you really give this same advice to someone with an abusive spouse, parent, or manager? I hope not.

@computercarguy, Would you really give this same advice to someone with an abusive spouse, parent, or manager? --- It really depends. In the case of a spouse, I would suggest getting a divorce and that won't affect anyone's career. In the case of parents, leave home and that won't affect someone's livelihood either. Dealing with an abusive manager and an abusive Ph.D. advisor is almost similar - the career is affected. So, yeah, it depends.

@user366312, so you are saying that a person's career or current livelihood is the most important thing to consider in life? A career can definitely be repaired, continued elsewhere, or changed, but it can absolutely be damaged by a person believing their deserve to be treated badly. A livelihood can be found somewhere else, or under a different manager/supervisor. There may even be people at the OPs uni that know the situation and want to help or even take over the supervisors students, but can't do anything about it without a formal complaint.

@computercarguy, Yeah, except, that totally isn't. I am a living specimen of that victimhood. I am still fighting to regain my lost career.

@user366312, unfortunately, your comment is ambiguous. Yeah, except, that totally isn't. What isn't? that victimhood Which victimhood? We were talking about spousal, parental, job, and academic abuse, so I'm not sure which one you are talking about. I get that a career is tough to fix, but not impossible. Also, plenty of people change careers (including me) and start from scratch, so it's more than possible. I also get that it's tough to have a career if employers expect to abuse employees, which is why I switched careers a decade ago.

@computercarguy you're not wrong, but I suspect you haven't factored in the fact that the OP is in a foreign country and one which is notorious for being very strict about immigration. Complaining would not only jeopardize their career but their entire life plans since it could result in their being deported. You're still not wrong, but this is more than "bad Academia culture": someone who is living in their home turf has more options than someone living abroad. And switching countries isn't easy for everyone. I've done it 5 times so far, and I love doing it, and it's still not easy.

I get PhDs are a helluva process, and achievement, so potentially derailing one is a bear of a choice to confront. But I have a question for all these people advising OP to stick their head in the sand and stomach this level of abuse from someone who is supposed to be in a mentor position.... What exactly makes any of you think this person will act fairly when it comes time to review OPs work and assign them their PhD? They could be putting up with this garbage for their work to amount to literally nothing. And what will they have to show for it? Oh yeah, learning how to roll over and say "hit me again Ike, and this time put some stank on it." That is seriously y'all's advice eh? Wow ... Just wow.... Milksops is all I gotta say about that.
OP it is ultimately up to you. However universities usually have a plethora of avenues for resolution. Talk to your student advisor (which you should have already btw), talk to other faculty, talk to the faculty supervisor, hell talk to the dean! Bring all the other students that have had this person disparage them with no provocation. Look up former students and see if they have had similar experiences. Point out to anyone in the higher ups (I forget how the  command structure works at proper unis, but make stinks on desks of people that shouldn't have to deal with this. Don't be afraid to jump rungs on the ladder if the one you're at isn't listening) the money, time, and resources wasted, not to mention the mental and emotional stresses experienced by the students exposed to that treatment, will not benefit the universities image should the story of a professor (er whatever that supervisor is) calling their students "retard" get too much traction publicly. I imagine there's a handful of benefactors that would not like to hear what's going on at the school they are dumping money into.
Sure, if you want to wait to drop the bomb, that is entirely your call. In this day and age it's not unusual for young people to avoid the prospect of rocking the boat. But remember, the only thing needed for evil to flourish is for good to do nothing. If there is one thing we need to fear above the tyranny of evil men, it is the indifference of good men. Whatever you do, do not stay silent. Do it tomorrow, do it after you (hopefully) secure your PhD, just do it! To do nothing is being complacent with the abusive nature of this person. Being complacent is endorsing treating others that way. It will directly lead to others also being abused, disparaged, made to feel like lesser beings which no one deserves especially at a university particularly by a member of the faculty.
I understand if you are stressed, I understand if you are afraid of confrontation, I understand if you just want it to go away. All of those feelings are entirely natural, everyone who has ever needed to stand up to mistreatment has felt those feelings and more. But ignoring this behavior before is what lead to you to being treated this way. Embrace the disappointment, dissatisfaction, and anger towards those who fostered this absolute wretch of a human and allowed them to continue verbally attacking students, turn it into motivation to save future students from such treatment at the hands of someone who is supposed to be fostering and inspiring the next generation of educated individuals needed in the world.
You will be afraid, you will be scared, you will feel small and a loss of worth and unimportant. Most importantly.....you WILL be doing the right thing. Never loose sight of that. You're not alone. There are people who will help (try reddit, both the academia, and legal advice subs). You only need to seek them out.
My final bit of advice is to always keep this in your mind: no matter which avenue you choose, You CAN do this. And I believe in you. Now, go carpe that diem BY THE THROAT!!!

This is an international student. Their visa will probably depend on them staying on the programme and finishing. Their supervisor will know this. Unless they have an ally among faculty they might be on the first flight back when the shit hits the fan.

I would say that the other advice is coming from some considered game theory. Fighting back openly comes with some chance of vindication and is likely the best outcome for other students, but comes at a huge risk to OP. This sort of thing comes up a lot, where targets of abuse or sexual assault are blamed for not "doing enough" to confront their abuser: it's not really fair to the victims/survivors because there is great personal risk in doing so, and they haven't volunteered to be martyrs.

I think nothing will make the supervisor act "fair". However, if the PHD project/dissertation fails, it will stick with their reputation (I myself avoided a specific professor due to seeing an PHD student leave without results and in an direct confrontation with the professor) and actually cause an measurable direct economic damage to the student should they come forward later. So from their viewpoint it may be wise to just wave the PHD thesis trough with a moderate grade, even if they are not convinced.

On an abstract level, this is the ethically and morally correct course of action. However, it requires great strength from the victim. If the victim has that strength then great! But we should never just assume that anyone has unlimited pools of strength available to them. And in particular, victims of things they didn't choose being strong should never be the final solution to anything.

I removed one "aside" that was not relevant to the answer (and likely violates our CoC). To be clear: this is not a suggestion, this is a moderation action that should not be reverted. If you have concerns, please post on [meta] (rather than this comment chain).

OP is vulnerable here. Their first duty is to themselves, then to others. Heroism is laudable but not ethically required. As they say in every first aid class: "Help yourself first then help others". I agree, however, that OP should consider that their supervisor might be on the examination committee. Yet the supervisor might still be on the examination committee after OP has "raised a stink", and this will not bode well for graduation. The best course of action would be to carefully seek options to find a new supervisor and get the current one removed from the committee. Then raise a stink.

I think you should report them to someone higher up or someone who is in charge of the welfare and wellbeing of PhD students (or someone in HR if necessary).  Universities have recently started to realise that wellbeing of students is important so if you make it known to someone that you are not happy, they will probably have to do something about it.
The original supervisor on my PhD (who was also Head of Research) was being very rude to me, including in front of other people.  I went to the guy who was in charge of well-being of PhD students, I complained that that my supervisor was being rude to me and asked to change supervisor.  I know that you are right at the end of the PhD but you should still report him (this is just my opinion).  If you don't challenge it, he will continue to do it to other people for his entire career.  It's important to make someone else in a position of authority know that this is going on, as they won't know if you don't tell them.
These people deserve to be reported.  It doesn't matter that the supervisor didn't like it, I just found alternative references to get to my postdoc.  You can use the examiners for your PhD thesis, other collaborators or other people in the department.  Why would you want to use them as a reference if they call you a ''retard'' to your face anyway?  What do you think their reference letter is going to look like?

You'd have to check the local laws, but personally I would begin to record conversations regardless. Some places allow recording conversations and phone calls if it is for personal use. In that sense, recording meetings to make sure you catch all the suggestions is plausible deniability.
You don't have to report and share the recordings at any time if you don't want to. But when you're getting it all on tape, you won't be worried about him escalating this abuse. You'll be looking forward to gathering more and more evidence.
Moreover, recordings would give you leverage in worst case scenarios such as him not letting you pass for his personal reasons.
With this approach you can both continue working on your PhD without drawing attention and report it only if he intentionally fails you. You'd be able to show a pattern of behaviour if needed. It would be very silly of him to take his sadistic games to that extent, but he'll only have himself to blame for the consequences.

Actually recording might be tricky, but, at the very least, writing a time-stamped contemporaneous account of the incident is a good call. And other incidents going forward. Heck, even recent past incidents that you think you can recall accurately.

Very good point, Dawn. I agree recording is tricky (I would add that using a second, old smartphone for this purpose would help, if available), but recording these past incidents in written format is very important too. Not only because we do forget details if only to keep calm, but also it can be a mental release, helping to move on with the goals. And an email one sends to themselves will provide the timestamp needed with little hassle.

This isn't the answer you or anyone wants to hear, but I'm offering it has a matter of perspective. Lots of people give up on their PhDs for a wide variety of reasons. Everyone understands how difficult they are. But, there are a lot of companies who would be happy to hire anyone with any kind of CS degree, and sponsor them.
Despite how it feels right now, you've already had amazing academic success. You should be very proud of everything you've already accomplished. The reality is that you may be blocked from getting your PhD, and it might be time to pivot. There's nothing wrong with that.
Regardless of whether you choose to fight for your PhD by plowing forward, or by reporting your supervisor, you should think about backup plans as well. Simply knowing you have other options will likely reduce the stress and pressure, and make your remaining time easier.

@WilliamMartens Thanks!

Where I am doing my PhD, there's a special spokesperson at the graduate office that is specialized in exactly those things, maybe something smilar exists where you are?
Also, I disagree with people saying push it through, especially if your supervisor has a direct say in your final grade! Then I suggest you definitely speak up before you finish your PhD!

Since your supervisor is not supportive of your efforts, find another supervisor ASAP. It's pretty much the only way out if you want to obtain a Ph.D. A supportive, trustful supervisor is a must. In retrospect, I think this is what you should have done long time ago.

Finding another advisor in the same department is not easy.  Often, professors would rather sacrifice an expendable graduate student than to damage the relationship with a colleague whose existence they will have to endure until they retire. Finding another advisor in another university requires letters of recommendation.  Of course, the strongest letter of recommendation would be from the abusive advisor himself.

@Trunk Finding a new advisor without a strong LoR may be hard. It depends on how many professors one has impressed in the past

You must finish. You say you have nearly two papers that's good you're ready to finish.
Do not try to leave your institute and do not complain at least for now. You need to show your supervisor you've got what it takes to finish.
Once you have your PhD you are then on the same level as him. In other words you can take on research working on your own or supervise others. Then this is your chance not to be like him towards others and for as long as you work you can make a positive difference to others something your supervisor seems to have lost touch with.
If this bothers you somewhere down the road you can raise this politely but firmly with your PhD complete.

Along with the already good advice to finish your Ph.D first and then report them to the campus afterwards, you should find them on a Professor Rating Site and give them a review (Also after you finish your PH.D).
Include details such as how they were rude to other students and how they were rude to you specifically - but do not name yourself or any of the other students who took his class.
It may not help resolve anything for you, but for the especially wary college student it could help them identify a bad professor and avoid taking his courses, which would also mean less power for him in his academic position.

The highest rated answers say do nothing, suck it up, finish your PhD, and then launch a complaint.
I have to say, I understand that impulse. But really, you should report your professor. His behavior is inexcusable. If he were outside of academia, he would have lost his job by now for creating a hostile work environment for subordinates. Yes, this may slow you down, but your professor is a bully! You really should stand up for yourself. Give him a big middle finger by launching complaints against him with anybody in the university that will listen. Seriously, consider legal action, especially if he retaliates against your complaint in any way shape or form.
You've published a paper, you have two more in the works. You are smart enough. The next time that you speak with your advisor, let him know that you will NOT be treated like this any longer. Tell him that he needs to stop, and then document that this conversation took place. This is for evidentiary reasons. On no uncertain terms, you need to tell him that he is creating a hostile work environment for you and all of the other students in the lab. Stand up to him. Let him know that you are also launching formal complaints into his behavior as well. Say nothing about progress on your thesis, say nothing about progress on anything going on in the lab. This meeting is about putting him on notice that YOU believe that he is violating employment laws. That seems extreme, but what you need to do, following this conversation, is to launch all sorts of complaints. Complain to the department administration, to the university administration, the labor relations board in your state, hell talk to a lawyer and/or threaten a discrimination suit based on your status as a foreigner, that will make the administration sit up and pay attention really quick. Bring down hell on your advisor not advisable for finishing your degree, but you basically need to figuratively give this dude a black eye.
Don't let people like this get away with what they are doing. Because they will do it again and again an again.

Repeating my comment on another answer: "I would say that the other advice is coming from some considered game theory. Fighting back openly comes with some chance of vindication and is likely the best outcome for other students, but comes at a huge risk to OP. This sort of thing comes up a lot, where targets of abuse or sexual assault are blamed for not "doing enough" to confront their abuser: it's not really fair to the victims/survivors because there is great personal risk in doing so, and they haven't volunteered to be martyrs."

It's easy for you on the internet to say "go confront them", because you don't experience any consequences for doing so. On one hand, I totally support someone in OP's position if they go that route. On the other hand, no one else should compel them to do so. Definitely talk to a lawyer before attempting any legal action, but 1) OP may not even be considered an employee by the law, and 2) the legal system is about getting relief, not punishing others. It's necessary to show harm that the legal system recognizes, being called "retard" is not going to get you anything in court.

Somewhat, respectfully disagree. Like I said, I completely understand the impetus to suck it up, and OP certainly could. But really, advisor IS creating a hostile work environment, and odds are that the OP is an employee given recent rulings around graduate students, especially if OP is getting paid as an RA. Any retaliation would not be looked at kindly by the courts. Fear is real, but there is a real cost for doing nothing which should be recognized as well.

That being said. I'm certainly not blaming the OP for not doing something. Just saying, that it isn't right to allow someone on the high side of a power differential to continue abusing those on the low side. It isn't right, and the OP does have options. To me it seems like everyone is telling the OP there isn't anything that they can do. They have to ACCEPT being a victim in this situation. That isn't true either. I feel like it is such an insult to the OP who has done nothing wrong, and is obviously very intelligent. OP has options and can fight, if they choose to do so.

No, it definitely isn't right, but OP isn't the person in the position to change the system. Can you point to examples of a legal case where a court has ordered an institution to grant a PhD to a student whose advisor did not agree? Certainly it's inappropriate for an advisor to use the language they did, but if they had conveyed the same information as "I do not think your intellectual achievements qualify you for the degree", well, that's the main determining factor by whether a student graduates or not, and that's what they're going to say in court, fair or not.

I disagree with everyone in here.
Don't let that get into your soul and mind.
You decide how to react and what to learn form this. There are jerks everywhere, but some jerks are useful. They make you strong!!
Pause and think this person has good intentions wanted you to communicate something.
Concentrate in the message in the letter not the color of the paper.
Have friends, walk with them. Grab a beer. Send love and kisses to your family.
Have a great rest and then come back and kick ass!!
Good luck!


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Does a second degree disvalue the first one?
What are your thoughts on someone with a math major (or physics or CS) who has a second degree in quantitative finance or financial engineering? Could you ever take someone like this seriously as a mathematician in the quant world (or physicist or CS), or would you laugh at them deep inside yourself?

Why do you imagine that such a person would not be taken seriously? Please clarify.

Also, is this on topic for Academia Stack Exchange? It seems more something to ask potential employers in the relevant industry (e.g. finance). Or have I misunderstood the intent of the question?

@JW I feel like when you have a second degree, it seems like the first isn't as authoritative anymore. Let's say you have a bachelor's and a master's degree in mathematics and then a second master's degree in a business-related field. I have the feeling that someone like that is no longer so strongly identified by their first degree.

This may sound far-fetched, but I prefer to "take mathematicians seriously" based on the work they produce, not the degrees that they may have taken in the past.

People who do a second degree often do so because they want to change their specialization. If you change your specialization, you typically choose not to keep up with your old specialization (there are only 24 hours in a day). This is why such a person will eventually become less and less relevant to the old discipline. It is not because such a person is laughed at, but just because that person chose to become less relevant in this field (and more relevant in another field).

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research statement/proposal for a (pure-)math-PhD?
When applying for PhD programs outside your home university, the university you apply to usually requires a research statement from you.
However, this isn't the case when you reach out for a Bachelor's or Master's thesis topic to a professor you know from your home university (in mathematics). You would just approach a supervisor and express your interest in certain topics. They would provide you with various directions to choose from, and the exact problem you would work on may crystallize while working on your thesis. The same principle applies if you pursue your PhD at your home uni.
Nevertheless, when applying somewhere else outside your home uni, they will ask you for a statement.
How should this statement look like?
Typically, most students completing their master's thesis have no exact idea of what they will do in their PhD. They may only have a vague notion of the topics they like or an unspecific direction in which they want to focus.
I mean, how can they ever come up with a detailed research proposal?
Especially in pure math.
Since research in (pure) math is like being a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat, which isn't there.

At least on the US, it is a personal statement, not a research proposal. Many applicants do not even know which area of mathematics they want to specialize in.

It would help to know where you are.  As Moishe points out, most US universities do not expect applicants to have past research, or to write a research statement---the point of the PhD program (in very broad and general terms) is to take students who have acquired knowledge but haven't conducted research, and turn them into researchers.

In my experience, a research statement has the intention to be a formal declaration of interest. The way in that this may be made is, at the beginning talk about you, your academic background and specific knowledge focus areas, and, in accordance with the field of the receiver, use the rest of the statement to prove knowledge about the work that is developed by and how your background and expertise can contribute to solving problems in the research. In that way can you demonstrate knowledge and interest more than a random search for opportunities.

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Should I follow up on my admission status if I have a deadline to respond to a competing offer?
I've applied to two engineering research masters programs and contacted potential supervisors for each one.
For my first choice program, the supervisor I contacted has expressed that he would be happy to supervise me, and my understanding is that he is going to ask the university to send me an admission letter soon. It has been almost two weeks since then and I have not received anything yet.
I received an offer from my second choice program last week and the deadline to respond is in about two weeks.
While it seems likely that I will get accepted to my first choice program, I am hesitant to reject the offer from my second choice program before having an offer from my first choice, just in case the professor changes his mind or the funding is not as good as I had hoped.
Would it be frowned upon to send a polite follow up email to my first choice prof, letting him know of the deadline for the other offer and asking for a status update? I don't want to come across as annoying or pestering.
Thanks for your help.

Yes you can ask for an update and an estimate of the time to completion. You can say that there is another offer that has a deadline. You probably should say that the one you are writing about would be your first choice.
You can ask if there are any potential issues or whether you should just relax. I suspect you will get enough information (hopefully happy information) to guide you further.
But you don't need to make important decisions in the dark.


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Lectureship application teaching reference?
I am applying for a lectureship in Engineering at a research intensive Russell Group university. The position involves both research and teaching, roughly 40% research, 40% teaching, 20% admin.
I need to provide three references. I have references which are very familiar with my research work but know very little about my teaching experience. I also have a reference who is the opposite (knows my teaching experience but not research).
I could provide 3 research references, or 2 research and 1 teaching reference.
Should my references focus solely on research, or is there value in including a teaching only reference?

If it is a teaching position then you should provide some teaching reference.

@PsySp The position involves both research and teaching. Roughly 40% research, 40% teaching, 20% admin.

then definitely you should provide teaching credentials in conjunction with research. There is nothing wrong if one reference is exclusive on teaching and the other two exclusive on research.

PsySp, I think that in this particular context (UK Russell Group position) the answer given below by @csp is more relevant.

Can you ask the admissions contact person?

For Russell Group? Research is king - this is not a teaching post, it's a research position (UK Russell Group lecturer is broadly equivalent to an assistant prof at a US R1 - the job titles are different).
Your CV should mention teaching experience, certainly, but your reference letters should be talking about your research skills, and your likelihood of securing funding. What are your REF 4* papers, what funding do you have – those are what matters.
(Source: I'm an SL at a Russell Group Uni, recently on interview panel for lecturer posts)

Although the time-split may suggest the teaching and research are equally important, in practice, as you know, your research is what will wow the appointing committee.
What you need to do on the teaching front is provide evidence that you'll do it effectively (good student feedback, good vibes from those running courses that articulate with yours, minimal problems generated for department) and also efficiently (that is, not likely to bite into the 40% research time - preferably contrariwise). A reference is good, but a reference alone probably won't deal with all this, but you can prepare your pitch to get these messages over; and if you have to give a class or whatever as part of the interview process, do it in such a way that conveys the right message. It's become pretty standard for people to have to hand a teaching portfolio or the like, and if quizzed seriously on this front, be able to offer a sight of it.
As to the admin, I think that again it helps if you've run a conference or helped organise a course or whatever, and it's known that you can do these tasks without taking your eye off the research ball.

This is good general advice but I think it is more relevant to e.g. North American applications than UK ones (speaking from my own experience having applied for jobs in both systems)

@YemonChoi, thanks.  I meant by my first sentence to make clear that the research was the key consideration, I should have made that clearer.   But even some "top" Russell Group universities (my only experience) may check out the teaching in the minimal way I have suggested -- and some may even build a specimen teaching session into the process. No harm in being prepared!

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
What are the citation styles used in these articles?
I am a CS student, and journals I think of submitting my article to recommend to use IEEE, ACM or APA on their websites. However, I read some of their articles and in their references, the do not use these citation styles. An obvious difference is that they put the year in the end. Have a look at some examples:
Article A:

Pinto, L., Gandhi, D., Han, Y., Park, Y.L., Gupta, A.: The
curious robot: learning visual representations via physical
interactions. In: ECCV (2016)

Article B:

Tripathi, A., Klami, A.,
Oresic, M., and Kaski, S. Matching samples of multiple views. Data
Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 23(2):300-321, 2011.

Article C:

Paulina Hensman and David Masko. The impact of imbalanced training
data for convolutional neural networks. Degree Project in Computer
Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2015.

Of course, on the articles, some parts are in italic. I am very confused about this, any suggestions?

If you know what venue the paper was published in, you could search for their LaTeX template, which should provide details on the format.

What is the question?

Please mention the titles of the journals for which you want to submit a paper, otherwise it's difficult to answer your question. It is somewhat common for a journal to use a modified version of a reference style such as IEEE. If you are unsure what to do, either send an email to the journal in question to ask for clarification, or just imitate the same reference style that you saw printed in the actual paper. Italic text is normally used for journal titles, book titles and proceedings titles (double-check each journal's guidelines for more info).

In some systems, italics are used to show that the referred text is a book rather than a journal, and in those cases you will also see the title of the chapter within the book as normal non-italicised text.
The IEEE style is to show the bibliography with the 'year at the end'.  The in-text citation format and that of the bibliography list, are different.
IEEE REFERENCE GUIDE (.pdf)


text:
How to refer results from my project thesis for my master thesis?
I am continuing the topic from my project thesis as my master thesis with more additional work.
I have to refer/cite to some of my own results from the Project thesis in my master thesis document. Is there any standard way to follow? Or is it no different from referring to other research papers and so on?
Google did not help.

You should cite as usual (see below). If the project thesis is unpublished then mark it as such. If it is available through some means, such as the university library, it would be helpful to note that, such as in a footnote.
Note that in general your own unpublished work can simply be incorporated into later work for publication. But this seems to be an intermediate case in which the work is "sort of published" as it was submitted for some course work.
But I suggest doing citations and references because it is good practice and avoids all questions of possible self plagiarism. It may be erring on the conservative side, but that is, at least, academically "safe".

Not only you can refer/cite to your project thesis results (if published), you can also reproduce some parts of that (if not published) in your master thesis. That is your work and you have the copyright.


text:
Should we update time periods in a Bibliometric analysis even after completing it, if it's found to be generating biased results due to recent study?
Suppose a bibliometric analysis was conducted to uncover new research discoveries, but it was later discovered that similar kinds of research had already been carried out. In such a scenario, what would be the appropriate course of action to pursue?

Shall we update the time intervals?
Should we update and rewrite both the findings and the article?

Yes, a bibliometric study or literature review needs to be updated continuously during the peer review process. When I have published literature review articles, peer reviewers normally ask me to update the search to be as recent as possible. This is somewhat difficult to do, but it is a unique challenge for this kind of study. However painful to carry out, it is a reasonable expectation. A bibliometric study or literature review should be as current as possible at the time of publication.

Thanks for your kind reply. I'll follow your words.


text:
How can I check if a professor who holds a second appointment as a faculty researcher is being paid a full salary?
A professor at a University X is holding a second appointment as a researcher on leave at another University in a different country with his full salary being paid from his funding there.
The professor in question is likely being employed and paid as a full-time assistant professor at uni X despite rarely showing up there which may be illegal.
How can I check if a professor who holds a second appointment as a
faculty researcher and is being paid full time in both appoinments?

I've had short term "on leave" situations where I maintained my relationship and tenure with my home institution, but without pay, while visiting another university that paid me for my services.

@Buffy This guy has been "on leave" for more than a year from his previous insitution. Almost all of his research was written by his students and was published at workshops(since it tends to be summarily rejected by the conferences) and was also found to have plagiarized text in his earlier research.

@Nicolaus This is not going to be a productive venue to make your case. You've asked a question, you've gotten answers. If you're not here to learn from the answers others provide and instead want to argue or make a case for doing something different, you've come to the wrong place.

@BryanKrause I feel that the answers contain several implicit biases of the answerers perhaps based on their own experiences. By discussing this subject a bit more we may uncover some of these biases or encourage future answerers to avoid these biases.

This is not a discussion forum.

@BryanKrause But there are tools enabling discussion based on the answers, which may lead among others to better answers.

The answers you received are good and reasonable, I don't understand what kind of bias you are complaining.

I think the downvotes are because the question your purport to be asking is not the same as the question you would like to have answered. The question you are, ostensibly, asking has a common sense answer: ask him, otherwise it is private. The question you want answered pertains to how to gain more information about this colleague's ethical practices and what to do about that. Maybe you can ask a new question which addresses this issue, which I believe would be a valid question.

In what context are you looking to find out?  Are you their department chair, or an HR investigator, a journalist trying to uncover a scandal, a labor regulation officer, etc?  Are you merely a citizen concerned about possible illegal behavior?  Are you just morbidly curious?  How would you use this information if you were able to obtain it?  All of these would affect the answer.

The only reasonable way to know this information is to ask him, though it seems unlikely he will answer. You could also obtain this information through unreasonable or unethical means such as gossip, espionage, or theft but these are not advisable. Be aware you may be violating the privacy of this individual.
You suggest that this activity may be illegal. Legality will depend on employment law in your jurisdiction. I am not sure from your question if you have admissible evidence to make this claim. If you believe illegal activity has been committed, you may report it to HR, institutions which handle employment oversight, or even the police. They may not be able to pursue it without first being provided evidence. HR may be the best bet in the case that you do not have evidence, since they might be motivated to obtain evidence. It may be advisable to make any report anonymously as a whistleblower in order to minimize your exposure.

Basically, it boils down to whether OP has a vested interest in the matter, whether as responsible officer or as bystander interested in the integrity of the process. However, the "behind-the-scenes" information makes the OP look like they are looking for material to create damage to the target person as punishment for other wrongdoings. Anything but initiating investigation and possible punishment for the specific misdeed in question is vigilantism and morally very problematic. Cross-punishment in civilized societies is not permitted for very good reasons.

@CaptainEmacs Do you suggest I edit my answer to include some of these points? Or maybe an edit to the question? I am not sure whether vested interest is relevant or not; as per the question, they have some interest. Of course, we can read between the lines here and make assumptions about OP's position and motivation (as you have, and as I have done in my comment on the question).

Why does it matter to you? The details of employment are between the employer and employee. If both sides (or in this case all three sides) are happy with the arrangement, it is nobody else's business figuring out who pays whom and how much. If one of the two universities are unhappy with the situation, it is their job (not yours) to make inquiries.

A German professor was caught having two paid professoral jobs in Germany (which is not permitted). This was because he had two websites. I do not think it is inappropriate to investigate that for - say - a student, and to inquire about that.

@CaptainEmacs Then tell the authorities about it. I'm just not a fan of vigilante investigators. (Besides, of course, the practical difficulty that Joe Shmoe will not get very far with getting access to documents that prove/disprove that something illegal is happening.)

I do not disagree with your stance on vigilantism, but I think the problem is not the reporting per se, but the motivation behind it (see my response). I think the prof can not complain if someone notices something off, asks around and it comes back to bite them. However, if that's as a consequence of a directed cabal seeking to dig out dirt, it's quite a different issue. In my opinion, that's the actual problem in the present case.

@CaptainEmacs Yes, of course, someone doing something wrong cannot expect not being called out on it. But I just don't see how OP would have any evidence that that person is actually paid twice. They state that that is so, but I fail to see how they would have a reasonable belief that. It just sounds like they're holding a grudge.

They hold a grudge, that's for sure. I am also not a fan of prying into other people's business, but that's what whistleblowing is about, in the end. Only, here, it's with a problematic motivation and thus not true whistleblowing.

You don't get to check anything. The arrangements made between that professor and these universities are none of your business.
If you are really really worried, you could give what you know to the HR department of your university. However, assuming they are professional, they will not tell you anything. They may or may not already know what you know. They may or may not have an arrangement in place. They may or may not take action against it. But they will tell you nothing, because it is between them and the professor.

There are some reasons to believe that the arrangement is not legal and given that nobody really cares beside those responsible for it I think something should be done about it. Also that professor has embarked on a career of fraud a long time time ago and has been assisted by another more prominent full prof of low moral standing who would reward loyalty above everything else even if the person being rewarded showed kindergarden level understanding and research output in their field. So I feel I should do something about it.

If you feel that way you can tell the HR department of your university. They are the ones that can take action. Just don't expect them to tell you what happens next.

Unless there is an independent actor/investigator in this matter nothing will happen since the professor in question has comitted a number of fraudulent acts before when he was just a researcher and was covered up every single time. If you have a small clique of influential professors determined in assisting you very few people from the same academic environment will be willing to attack you given that they will risk their own careers.

That is not how universities work; not that there aren't any problems, but the problems are not what you describe. Even small universities are big bureaucracies, and the careers of people working in HR do not depend on professors: the academic hierarchy is completely separate from the staff hierarchy.

People in HR can't check certain types of misconduct which at best is outsourced to other institutions.

Your question was about a person being employed by two universities. HR is the obvious department to check that. So I don't get your point.

@Nicolaus See my comment above. If the person in question did plagiarize or other academic misdeeds, these should be reported as such to the relevant entities. If the person has a fraudulent employment status, that may not be your business, but it's also your right as upright citizen to report that. But what I found very questionable is that you seem to intend to cross-retaliate against the alleged academic misdeeds of the prof using a completely unrelated employment matter. That would be ethically very questionable and you would be playing private avenger.

@CaptainEmacs This is a really important point - maybe you can consider adding an answer? Or I can edit my answer, now selected "best" answer (although definitely not "best" IMO).

@psychcphyscst I followed your suggestion and merged my comments into an answer, thank you for the suggestion. Your answer is perfectly legit, and it's good to have a spectrum of viewpoints available.

Basically, it boils down to whether OP has a vested interest in the matter.
This can be as responsible officer or as bystander interested in the integrity of the process.
However, the "behind-the-scenes" information that OP gives makes them look like they are looking for material to create damage to the target person as punishment for other wrongdoings. Anything but initiating investigation and possible punishment for the specific misdeed in question is vigilantism and morally very problematic.
Cross-punishment in civilized societies is not permitted for very good reasons.
Concretely, if the person in question did plagiarize or other academic misdeeds, these should be reported as such to the relevant entities. If the person has a fraudulent employment status, that may not be OP's business, but it's also OP's right as upright citizen to report that.
But what I found very questionable is that OP seems to intend to cross-retaliate against the alleged academic misdeeds of the prof using a completely unrelated employment matter. That would be ethically very questionable and you would be playing private avenger.


text:
Can I include a solution my advisor came up with in my PhD thesis or be a co-author for a paper?
I'm a PhD student in math and currently I'm stuck at a problem. But my advisor has some idea and it seems to me that he might even solve it soon.
Earlier I had an idea which seemed to be working, but a few days back we found a gap in that idea.
If my advisor solves the problem, will I still be able to include that in my thesis or be a co-author in the paper?
My guess is no, because that would be plagiarism. But I don't understand what would happen in that situation.
Having this conversation with my advisor seems awkward. That's why I'm asking here.

"Having this conversation with my advisor seems awkward."  It shouldn't be. Communication is important. Not having conversations with your advisor is more awkward than having them.

It depends on how much work you have done in the process and how much the work the solution involves. There is a difference between "I did a puzzle but couldn't place the last few pieces, but my supervisor could and finished the puzzle" and "I could only place the corner pieces of the puzzle so I gave it to my supervisor who completed it"

If your advisor essentially scooped you and published the results on their own, then you and your advisor have much deeper issues in your working relationship than this paper.
In reality, I imagine that your advisor does consider you a key contributor to the paper. When collaborating on a project, it's not uncommon for one of the collaborators to have a key insight -- but often that insight is only possible after months of working closely together trying approaches that do not work, making partial progress, and learning from these experiences. It often becomes very difficult (and pointless) to really decide who contributed what. Additionally, there are many "routine" tasks that need to be completed in any project that you can contribute to, such as filling in the details of the argument, carefully writing and editing drafts of a manuscript, making suggestions on how best to present the ideas, and so on.
I also would not feel awkward about simply asking your advisor about this. It's completely within your rights as a researcher to ask for clarity about plans for publication of the work you are doing. And it would be quite a poor advisor indeed who did not have some picture in mind of what publications their students were involved with.

As your advisor is partly responsible for the success of your thesis, there is nothing awkward about discussing what work would you be presenting as a part of it.
But now it seems a bit early for that. Do not count your chickens before they hatch; you should be a co-author on the paper, but the story with this proof does not end there. Indeed, the results and ideas are bound to be connected to some other interesting problems, and being able to recognize these new problems and approaches is a big part of your education as a PhD student.
In other words, "I obtain proof of this theorem all by myself or I will get no PhD" is not a great approach overall. It is perfectly normal to only make a little dent in a bigger problem, to collaborate, to present a collection of smaller results as your thesis. You do not have to be unethical and lie about personal contributions; it should work out without that. And, again, there is nothing wrong in seeking advice on further research direction from your advisor - the clue is right there in the name ;)

I imagine this problem is a subset of an even larger problem, and that larger problem is going to form the bulk of your thesis / paper. If so, then you'll still be able to include the result in any publication, and you'll still be an author (the only author in fact if it's your thesis), but your advisor will be a co-author (they almost surely already are going to be a co-author anyway).
Even if the problem is large enough that it can be a paper on its own, you'll still likely be a co-author because as you wrote, "Earlier I had some idea which seemed to be working, but few days back we found some gap in that idea." It's not that you didn't do anything.
Finally, there's a decent chance your advisor will solve some but not all of the problem, and leave you to fill in the gaps. If so, then you'll be at least a coauthor - your advisor might even argue you should be the first author.

My answer here is intended only as an addition to the insightful answer already given by @Allure.
During the course of my own PhD, I worked with a colleague (here called Q for convenience) of my supervisor. I had collected a large body of empirical results concerning a particular perceptual phenomenon. Q is/was exceptionally experienced at the development of mathematical models to describe perceptual phenomena. I worked together with Q, largely as a provider of the empirical data for, and verifier of, the model. The model was ultimately discussed in one of the chapters of my thesis, and presented in detail in an appendix.
Critically, at the beginning of the thesis, where the declaration of originality was required by my university, I explained that the model was essentially developed by Q with some contributions from me. The model forms a very useful part of the thesis ... but the thesis itself was substantially more than the model. Moreover, just as with the thesis, the model formed a part of a larger peer-reviewed publication on which Q and my supervisor argued (as @Allure commented!) that I should be first author.
As @Allure also remarks, no matter the problem your supervisor is working on, and might solve, it almost certainly a subset of a larger problem, just as the model development represented only one part of the research in which I was engaged. There are likely to be many more reasons to be delighted than to be despondent.


text:
A student keeps using a native language while asking questions in the class when the course is taught in English
I am assisting a statistics course in a university, and my main job in the course is conducting problem solving sessions. The course is taught in English, and students interact with me in English. However, there is one particular student who keeps using their native language. Whenever he does that, I reply in English, hoping that he would start using English. But he doesn't.
I am sure that everybody does understand what he says because all the students are from the same part of the country. But I find it quite awkward. On the other hand, I feel that if I request him to use English, he might take it offensively, or he might not be able to express what he wants to say clearly. Should I simply ignore this particular case and move on? Or should I tell him somehow? If yes, what is the best way to convey this?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

My suggestion is that you either let it go, if everyone understands what the student has said, or that you explore the situation with the student during office hours. Perhaps it is just easier for this student to say subtle things as needed in his/her native language than in English. It is fine if you make an explicit request, but be prepared to yield if the student has good reasons.
It is fine that you continue to reply in English, but it wouldn't be fine if you somehow embarrass the student about language use.
Be thankful, actually, that the student is willing to participate and ask questions no matter the language. Too many students leave questions unasked when other students have the same questions but also don't ask them. That makes education less efficient.
If this is the US, by the way, we are a multilingual country already, in spite of what some "nativists" want you to believe and want to impose on you and me.
Of course the answer would be different if this were a language course, rather than statistics.

@NicHartley I beg to differ. One thing is to impose the native language of a country even though many people in the class are foreigns, another totally different thing is to impose a foreign language in course taught to native tax payers that are being taught in their native homeland. When that is done in a foreign language course that is just fine (because it will improve learning that foreign language). Maybe the OP question should be: How to deal with people that don't accept pointless and random impositions? Human nature explains the later quite well.

@NicHartley Apparently the course takes place in India. All (almost) students are Indians, the teacher is Indian but for some reason (well the reason is that someone in charge said so) they are not allowed to talk in Hindi.

I've participated in university level classes taught in English in a non English speaking country. This had a purpose: to help people get fluent in the English terms used in this particular field of study.

@Mandrill How do you know that the University is in India?

@NicHartley, sorry but I don't agree. I think that you have, maybe, a too USA-centric view. Different countries have different realities and the question of the OP may have some country-specific twists. I leave in a multi-language speaking part of Italy, where linguistic issues have strongly shaped the history of this province (there where separatists issues and even bombings some ~60years ago). We have a local university where classes are thought in three different languages (German, Italian and English). ...

@NicHartley ... Although officially you should stick to the language of the course, I suspect that forcing the issue could backfire. There are local laws that give you the right to speak your native language (German/Italian) when talking with any branch of the local government or administration. The local Uni circumvent this by being legally a private institution, but actually it is 50% funded by the local government with public money. So, officially, the uni is not part of the local government. ...

@NicHartley ... Anyway, I suspect that someone with enough money, time and will could take a case to the high courts (IANAL) if the language of the courses would be the primary motive he fails to get a degree. All this to say that the right answer to the OP's question maybe require the knowledge of local laws and policies and might not be so straightforward.

@NicHartley I agree with you on the "moral" point that the course, if meant to be taught in English, all the communication should be kept in English. My long comment was just meant as an example of how other issues could influence the situation. I agree that cultural issues are more relevant, but culture is, by its very nature, dependent on the country you live in. I just wanted to stress the fact that, without knowing the country where the OP teaches, we are not in a position to give clear-cut answers.

If you want a non-confrontation approach, simply repeat the question in English before answering it.
Hearing the translation may help the student in question see how to phrase their questions in English. It also give a polite hint that the question should have been asked in English.

Unfortunately this sort of implicit approach assumes that, somehow, the student will just "get it". I don't see any mechanism for that. If you want a change in behavior, be explicit. But you can do so in private rather than in public and avoid the confrontational aspects. Repeating the question may have other benefits, of course, to assure the student that you really understand it. But this isn't a solution to the stated problem.

This answer can be seen as a solution to the stated problem. One way to deal with the problem is to say that the reason why this is a problem is that other students might not understand since the course is taught in english, and repeating the posed question in english helps with that. (tbh, I don't fully understand why this is a problem, since OP assumes everybody understands this person) @Buffy

@Buffy I agree with you. I hate trying to guess other people's "hints". It's extremely subjective what an "hint" is or what's the meaning behind the hint. If you need to tell me something just say so, or I'll keep going down my road no batter how hard you get at hinting. At some point I'll just continue for pettiness, because I find disrespectful that adults are unable to talk to other people and have to resolve to "hinting" for long periods of time when just talking once could have solved the issue.

I would suggest repeating what the student said in English, and then wait for the student to repeat your English translation. (If he doesn't do that at first, prompt him to do so: "Now you.") This way he can learn by doing, he will be expressing in English the thing he had been trying to say, and that should build familiarity, confidence and habit.

you got to sit him down and talk to him. People don't take hints.

Even if the OP is fluent in both English and the local native language, it may not be effortless to translate the question on the fly like that, particularly when a specialised vocabulary is involved. However, if the OP is comfortable with the role of interpreter, this is a good suggestion.

@Buffy Of course he may not get it. But this does not need to be the point of the reaction. Maybe you're totally fine with it, as long as you help the other students to understand the question you're going to answer. The OP needs to solve the problem, which does not necessarily involve teaching the student to ask questions using english. Some solutions may be to enforce english as language, others are just avoiding the problem for the other listeners, without a lesson for the person not using english to ask question.

+1 The point is not that the student learns from the translation, but that other students (who maybe speak only English) have lost no information. The student still needs to be talked to, in case they try this with a teacher who is not so linguistically proficient.

This is a standard procedure at the conferences and should translate to the classroom well, indeed.

I am assuming that learning how to discuss statistics in English is not specifically part of the course syllabus. If it is, you should simply tell the student to speak English.
If the students' questions are otherwise good, assume the best - that the student simply does not feel confident asking in English.
I have had similar situations in courses before. My approach has been to tell the students that I prefer that they ask questions in the language the course is given, but if they cannot, just ask in another language I can understand, and I will translate the question and answer in English.

Most likely the student is patiently waiting for you to realize that there's no reason to speak in a language that's foreign to everybody in the room if they all share a native language.
Possibly he's worried about the native language suffering "domain loss" where eventually nobody uses it to talk about technical things because everybody has been socialized to use English for that, and he is deliberately trying to counter that tendency. He may actually be spending extra mental effort translating his question from the textbook's English vocabulary into the vernacular, in support of that worthy cause.
So the course description says the course is taught in English -- but you need to ask yourself what is the purpose of that?  Back in my university days there were plenty of courses that were announced as being taught in English; this was a way to say it is okay for international students to sign up for this course. If any international students did show up, we'd stick to English for their sake, of course. But if they didn't and the lecturer happened to be native too, everyone would naturally switch back to our own language. Why wouldn't we?

One possible reason for teaching in English is to improve the student's language skills by theaching them the appropiate words, phrases, etc.

@aqua: If the course was announced in English, then it's presumably using a textbook in English too, which will provide all the words. Where will students learn the appropriate words and phrases in their own language if they are shamed into thinking it is some kind of second-class gibberish cannot be used for technical communication between all native speakers?

Not necessarily, for many of our courses, we did not have textbook only the presentation slides and our notes. In our country, second language (mainly English) teaching is often very poor, thus courses in English definitely improve the student's language skills and their further chances for (academic) career, applying to degrees in foreign countries, etc.

@aqua: If English is not widely (well) spoken in your country, then I'd say that's all the more reason to encourage university students to get experience in speaking about technical matters in a language their neighbors (future clients, customers, etc) will understand.

For better or worse, English is often the de facto communication language for many industries and accademia internationally. This is likely a significant reason that the class is taught in English, so that the graduates are well equipped for the real world. Allowing the students to use their native language is good for heritage and local communication reasons but not for vocational training.

I don't think this is something an individual student should try to change, no matter how justified or unjustified.

@DavidThornley: The only way such things can change is by individuals making an effort to keep their own language challenged, relevant and expressive. Why shouldn't they?

@HenningMakholm One individual insisting on speaking in their native tongue accomplishes nothing.  A group of people who do some active politicking have a much better chance.  As to why they shouldn't, I don't know.  There are reasons why the class is taught in English.  I don't know what they are, and whether they're good reasons or not.

@HenningMakholm the problem is English is often not taught well in high schools and below, however, the companies and academia requires the knowledge. Moreover, they require it to speak well which can be only improved by actually speaking and using a language actively, not passively learning it from a coursebook.

Downvoted because your answer doesn't attempt to solve the problem described in the question, but instead advocates against the use of English as a foreign language in university classes, which is not the point here.

@Schmuddi: This answer is arguing that there is no problem to solve other than the OP's desire to enforce a pointless and harmful rule for the rule's own sake,

@Schmuddi: And I'm not arguing against the use of English where that has a point.

You're assuming way too much.

@aqua: None of all that is an argument for demanding that students must be kept unable to explain technical matters in their own language to their neighbors, clients, and employers after they graduate.

There is copious opportunity for using English about the technical subject already. Typically the textbooks will be in English, as will all kinds of secondary sources one kinds on the internet, not to mention the whole scientific literature! Opportunities to use the vernacular about technical matters are what are in short supply -- especially if the country's own universities are discouraging it -- and this student should be praised for not taking the easy, lazy way out (which it would be to accept to learn the subject matter in one language only, like the OP is demanding).

@HenningMakholm The technical language would be covered by other courses not taught in English, as usually there are overlaps between subjects. However, English courses provide the opportunity for students to improve the written and oral technical language in English, that would be required by their employers, or while doing their thesises, in academia, etc.

The most likely situation is not that the other language will be rendered incapable of discussing technical matters, but simply that certain words borrowed from English will be incorporated into the language as technical terms. I suppose this might be a concern if one thinks that, in English, "wrap" is better than "burrito," or "bean curd" should be preferred to "tofu," or "theory of equations" to "algebra."

I'm not a fan of the concept of domain loss in general. Beyond its pleasant roots in the work of Nazi eugenicist scientist Schmidt-Rohr, the domain loss research, such as it is, is full of quixotic and nationalistic statements like this (ironically written in English): "the preservation of
each language, especially its Standard variety, is essential for social and cultural continuity of a society."

@HenningMakholm: "There is copious opportunity for using English about the technical subject already. Typically the textbooks will be in English, as will all kinds of secondary sources one kinds on the internet, not to mention the whole scientific literature!" - all of these examples are good for training passive knowledge only. Active language skills, in particular in speaking, often cannot be trained as much, so classes where English is the language of conversation are one of the rare opportunities where expressing oneself in English can be practiced.

@Obie2.0: In general, I agree with your assessment about loanwords. Nonetheless, I think your examples are not representative in that English does tend to anglicize loanwords in pronunciation. in languages that do not do this, subject-specific loanwords can stand out a lot more, as they may contain spelling and sounds that do not exist in that form in the native language. To someone who does not know the loanwords, the resulting sentences may well sound like a hodgepodge of a lot of English and a couple of non-English native basic terms (prepositions, conjunctions, etc.), which, arguably, ...

... could be classified as the native language being "incapable of discussing technical matters".

@HenningMakholm textbooks may be in English but surely if they are well-known enough, they are in other languages too.  How do you know the student insisting on avoiding English is reading the textbook in English?

@Chan-HoSuh: My experience is that very few textbooks at the university level get translated -- doing so is not generally cost effective. And I don't think the student is "avoiding English", since he is participating in course activities where everyone else speaks English. He is merely insisting that his own language is also good enough to speak about the course subject in.

I used to be a student in a very similar situation. As I remember, the professor simply interrupted the question with the phrase: "In English please".
Maybe the student does not have enough confidence to speak in English, otherwise, ignoring such a request seem to be highly disrespectful behavior and you should not worry about being assertive with him.

It sounds like you are not sure why student is not following a language rule, and you ask our opinion. We do not know, too. You can invite student to attend your office and discuss it with them. The purpose of discussion is not to understand student's reasons and let it slide. The purpose is to understand student's reason and work out a strategy to resolve them. If student has poor language ability, you can work out a recommendation to take a crash course  in English. If student finds the requirement discriminatory and refuses to follow it, you can suggest them to file a formal complaint and intermit their studies until the complaint is answered. Or perhaps there is no valid reason for this behavior — in which case it has to stop.
tl;dr: talk to the student.

"I'm sorry, but this course is taught in English. Please, ask your question in English."
That's it. If the student struggles with question, eg can't find correct words, help them. But it's their job to ask in English. You should help them do their job, but you can't do their job.
The purpose of teaching something in a foreign language is to improve student's language just as much as understanding of the subject. Or, more precisely: to improve area of language particular to the subject. Otherwise, it would have been taught in local language. Using foreign language sacrifices some understanding in order to teach the language. Accepting non-English question defeats this purpose. Your course is just as much about statistic as it is about English.
Disclaimer: all of the above is written with assumption that learning English is an important part of your course, as it is where I live (Poland). There are 2 other options: that the course was meant for international students, but none had shown up and finally that the whole English thing is just an advertising move to make your uni appear "international-ish". Based on your concerns, I assumed that (in your opinion) the English is actually important part of the course. If you have any doubts about the rationale of using English when all participants share a common mother tongue, you should ask your superiors about it.

To me the purpose of teaching something in English when that is not the local language is to make the course accessible to students from abroad who might wish to take it (or because the lecturer does not speak the local language). If no such students actually follow the course, that purpose has evaporated.

@HenningMakholm In my university, and others around, the purpose of courses in English is actually to improve students' technical English.

@fa__: Is your university in a place where English is not taught in school before university level? If so, all the more reason to encourage students to practice speaking about technical matters in a language their neighbors will understand!

@HenningMakholm If there are people not speaking local language, then using it during the course is even bigger problem, further validating my solution. However, OP stated that everyone speaks local language, hence my conclusion that it's in fact an English lesson piggybacked on statistics course. Another option I haven't mentioned would be a vanity course, just to give the uni an "international" vibe. But if that was the case I doubt OP would have issues with breaking the rules. BTW, OP's uni obviously has different opinion than you.

@Agent_L: Indeed the OP stated that everyone speaks local language. Hence my conclusion is that it so happened that nobody in the room needs the accommodation of speaking in English, so there is not any reason to keep it up. The OP sound like they're more focusing on following (what they perceive as) the rules for the rules' sake, than on actually communicating and teaching the subject of their course.

@HenningMakholm Ok, I'll add a paragraph to clear it up with their faculty

BTW I don't think it is obvious at all that the OP's university would have any other reason for announcing the course in English than a wish to accommodate non-speakers of the local language.

@HenningMakholm Announcing? Yes. Actually conducting when nobody showed up? No. But answer me this: why would any local student chose an English-taught course over mother tongue one if not for stepping up their professional English game?

@Agent_L: Because the course that teaches what they want to learn happens to be announced as being English-taught? In my experience it would be unusual to offer the same course in two different languages simply because there may be some foreign students who want to take it. But plenty of courses are announced as being English-taught for this reason.

@HenningMakholm Statistics doesn't sound like something so exotic that only one course is offered.

@Agent_L, I dunno. At the university I went to we had pretty big lecture halls, so there was generally no need to offer the same course twice in the same year. It appears that the OP is a teaching assistant for auxiliary sessions with a smaller group of students than the entire course. In that case it makes perfect sense to give the plenary lectures in English if there are some foreign students in the room (or perhaps the main lecturer is foreign!), but use the vernacular for exercise sessions in groups that don't have any of those foreign students.

@HenningMakholm English is taught before university but, generally,  the level of the students is pretty low. Therefore, it is indeed interesting for students to learn how to discuss about technical matters in English. Courses in English aim at teaching the subject + improving students technical English. As this is a common setup around here, when I read the question I assumed, as this answer did, that this was the OP's case. However, I do not know if it is case and I do understand that it may not be obvious for everybody.

Why is you statistics skills dependant on the english you speak? How many university classes in europe is done in english and how much poorer is the stats work for not being in english?

@NeilMeyer Your knowledge of statistics do not depend on your English skills but your ability to discuss statistics internationally and engage on technical collaborations do depend on them.  Courses in English are not better statistics courses but courses with two objectives: teach statistics + technical English related to them.

My professor who spoke French was very clear: ask in French, if you asked in English then she did not hear. If you asked in French about how x compared to y then both languages were acceptable.

Very early in my first college French class (more accurately, my first attempt at it), this being a class for those who had French in high school but did not place out of the university wide "high school language proficiency test", one of the first phrases I learned was "je ne sais pas".

My French improved dramatically when I did my D.U.T Diplome Universitaire Technique... had no choice :)

One could argue that there's a difference between a course whose purpose is to teach a foreign language and a course whose purposes is to teach something else (e.g. statistics), but which happens to be conducted in a foreign language.

@R.M. All my DUT courses were not language, as they were engineering... So definitely in a foreign language : production control, thermofluids, stress and structures etc etc

@SolarMike You might want to edit your answer to clarify. "My french professor" can be interpreted as "professor of my french class". (Additional information about where and under what conditions this happened might help.) -- Also, in that light I'm not sure I understand your second sentence. Acceptable for what? For asking, for answering, for further responses, for quoting English terms in an otherwise French sentence, ...?

Both my french professors did the same for language: the English one teaching French and the French one teaching French... All the other profs in France stuck to French and technical French is a whole new ball game... Had a boss who insisted she, as bi-lingual, could translate anything... She found out she couldn’t translate a technical passage on hydraulic pumps...

@SolarMike: I mis-downvoted you because of what R.M. said. Please rephrase your answer...

Is English the language they will be using in the workplace/research/whatever context they will be using statistics in? Are the books in English? The rest of my response is under the assumption that both questions are a "yes".
Teaching in a foreign language is doing a disservice to the majority of the class who already agreed to speak English, possibly for reasons like the ones listed above. While cross language use should be used to clarify definitions or bypass language barriers (that's part of your value as a bilingual teacher), allowing a student to unnecessarily assert the use of a different language is putting that student's social/political agenda above the needs of the rest of the class.
My opinion is rooted in experience with an English-Spanish medical student who was often looking up and asking me about the English names of various medical terms because some of his classes were taught in Spanish, but the medical profession he was pursuing would be English speaking because that's what language the research was in, that's the language where the money was, that's the language the important social connections used. Mixed terminology doubles the workload because they are often definitions for words that didn't exist in either language of the students vocabulary from the start.
It's also rooted in experience with native Alaskans, most of which were under intense cultural pressure to learn and know the native language, but due to the lack of practical applications for it, many of the youngest generation were faking it or just learning the minimum amount to avoid scrutiny. Even if it is widely understood in that region, and they appear to be of the correct ethnicity (if applicable), or are related to native language speakers, that doesn't mean they were raised in the region, that doesn't mean that they are fluent.
At the very least all questions should be translated into English to prevent students from requiring both language's terminology to understand the context of the answers you're giving.

It wasn't clear from the question whether the use of english was a requirement of the class. If so, then it may well be a requirement of your job as well. And if so, then you need to enforce the requirements if you wish to keep the job. Check with your professor about if (and if so precisely how) you should go about doing that, then you are safe from any fallout if the student gets embarrassed or whatever.
Now as for why you shouldn't simply let students flout rules, there are additional downsides the other answers might have missed:
It can be difficult to accurately translate the nuances of a problem or concept back and forth, causing students to be mistaken on some points on the homework/exam. You will likely make real mistakes in translation too. And they will point the finger of blame at you when they complain about their grade to the prof.
It can just generally be quite a bit harder to use two languages at the same time versus just sticking one, even if it's not your first. It takes effort and a little time to change your thinking back and forth. Some students may not be able to keep up, and will miss things as they reorient to the language switches, thinking you said "A=B", when in fact you had said "given C, A=B". Again, blame will be on you when they write this wrong answer on the exam.
Overall, as the tests are certainly in English, students who have not been practicing doing the problems and understanding the concepts completely in english will have a disadvantage. Unless you are there with them for the tests to help them translate every question to be sure they get its point, they will likely miss every question that has a nuance or "trick" to it, and requires careful reading. (not to mention putting downright scary-looking responses on essay questions).

If it is a course given in English:
All questions should first be posed in English ..
How you handle this depends on some factors regarding this Student:
1: Why does this one student not pose questions in English ?

A: If the student is unable to have a discourse in English then the student should not be enrolled in the course, if another person was in charge of enrolling the student - the student can't help that - so try to accommodate them.
B: If the student is merely asking because of a social issue - every one speaks Chinese here but I need to speak English - (it is silly to them therefore they refuse to speak English) - That is an attitude problem. In this case ignore the question and move on.

From experience :
I had worked for an International company and in certain locations around the world the courses were taught in English - even though the native language (of Instructor and other students) was not English. For the benefit of those who do not know the native language ALL questions should be asked and answered in the Course Language. This is not only courteous, but holds true to the course description and guidelines.
If the student is unable to express their question in English, the instructor should request the student to ask the question in the native language and then interpret the question back into English for the rest of the class , If need be answer the asking student in the native tongue and then also provide the answer to all students in English.
In one class the course description was English, the English speaking students were outnumbered 8 to 2, so the instructor decided to teach in the native tongue and have other students translate .. This SHOULD never be done.
The course guideline stated English - the English speakers did not signup for the course to have it translated to them. This is akin to having a statistics class as the guideline but ending up taking a calculus course instead. The English speaking students were offended, because the guideline said English - if it had said Chinese they would not have enrolled in that offering.

You may ask to the student that helps you to translate the question to English language. I think that's a kind way for help people to start talking in another language.
After a few days he will start to ask in English and your request, won't be necessary.


text:
My advisor left. Can I apply for another phd program?
I just finished my second year in a social science PhD program and have only one semester left to finish my coursework. Last semester my advisor A told me she was gonna take a job offer from another university and could not bring me because of lack of funding. I was her only PhD student, and she was the only person whose research aligns with mine, so I was quite frustrated. This summer I asked another professor B whose research is kinda close to mine, and she took me over as her advisee, which I really appreciate. They are both very nice to me, but I realized that prof B does not really know a lot about my field, she is very kind, but the problem is we do not work in the same field.
So I am considering whether it is possible to apply to another program. Both A and B are very nice people, especially B, so I really don't want to hurt their feelings or bother them too much. My department faculty members are generally very nice, so I feel guilty about planning to betray them. FYI I'm an international student, so I couldn't really take a break to work or do something else. So here are my questions:

I know applying to another program while being enrolled in the current phd program does not look good. Is there any way to make it look not that bad? Will this piss my current professors off?

Shall I tell prof B about my thoughts? She is the dept chair, if I tell her about my plan, is it inappropriate to ask for her recommendation letter?

When shall I inform my former advisor A and current advisor B? We will have a committee meeting with two other committee members in September, shall I tell them before or after the meeting? I saw people suggesting that you should never reveal it to anyone unless you get an acceptance letter, but would that be a dishonesty issue?

Shall I specify in my personal statement that I'm in another program and the reason I want to leave?

If A and B are pissed off, what would happen? How bad could it be?

Moving to a place where you can study the field you love is by no means a betrayal.

I think you are overly pessimistic. Yes, you can apply elsewhere and you have perfectly good reasons. Yes, your current chair (and advisor) should support you in this. Yes, you can be honest about your reasons. The "program" left you, it isn't your doing.
Under the circumstances I would hope (and expect) that you get good recommendations for a move.
I doubt that 5 is going to happen. I would consider it student abuse if they don't support you.
But, also consider all options, including changing your sub-field slightly if there is someone else who can support you. The issue is the time to completion. Changing schools might require more time (or not). The other school will have its own requirements, such as for qualifying exams, that you need to meet.
Give up all thoughts of "betraying" anyone. Your career should be high on their list of priorities under these sorts of circumstances. Good luck.
I'll also note that a lot of students are only now (end of coursework) getting around to choosing an advisor anyway. Perhaps you can get a MA for your efforts on your way out the door, but now, rather than later is the time to move if that is your decision.

Thank you for your suggestions! I wish I could get an MA anyway but sadly my dept just canceled ma program a couple of years ago. Bad luck I guess :(

I know applying to another program while being enrolled in the current phd program does not look good. Is there any way to make it look not that bad?

On the contrary, this only looks bad if you were unsuccessful in your first grad school. But in your case, the only professor who works in your subfield left; this is a perfectly reasonable reason to transfer. Especially if your coursework performance is acceptable. You should definitely see if you can get a master's degree before you leave.

Will this piss my current professors off?

You say they are nice, reasonable people, so I seriously doubt it would be an issue. B might be disappointed if they were excited about working with you. But advising a student (especially one in a different subfield) is a lot of work, so there's also a chance that B will be relieved. And certainly it's better (from their perspective) to make this decision now rather than three years from now.

Shall I tell prof B about my thoughts? [When?]

I would recommend approaching this as a conversation. Rather than telling B that you are going to leave, diplomatically explain your concerns, float the possibility of applying elsewhere, and ask for her thoughts. This approach leaves you some ability to back-track if she responds poorly, and it gives her the opportunity to find an alternative solution (e.g., maybe she can bring in an external co-advisor who works in your subfield).

She is the dept chair, if I tell her about my plan, is it inappropriate to ask for her recommendation letter?

Absolutely appropriate.

Shall I specify in my personal statement that I'm in another program and the reason I want to leave?

Yes, and your letters writers should do this too. The new school will certainly see from your transcripts that you are currently in another program. Your reason for wanting to leave is a perfectly good one, but if you don't provide it, they may fill in the blanks with something less good.

If A and B are pissed off, what would happen? How bad could it be?

Theoretically, I guess they could withhold letters of recommendation and B could stop advising you. But realistically, I think the main risk is that if you say you want to leave and request letters but then don't get a good offer somewhere else, you'll be in a somewhat awkward, uncertain place.

Thank you for your suggestions! It's so helpful!

At this stage of a PhD you have your own ideas about your research and are learning to fly on your own.  You (probably) still need 'advice'and encouragement from time to time but you don't need day to day supervision like you did when you arrived and it was all new.
It looks to me like there us a sensible way forward with B as your formal supervisor for the purposes of university paperwork, but continuing collaborating with A  as a colleague, working and publishing together, through emails and zoom, much as you would have done anyway. A is then getting some free help in her research field so everybody is happy.
Your department owes you. You've given them 2 years, they have a duty to take you the rest of the way so they shouldn't object to your working with someone from another institute. It is their problem, and you should absolutely not be forced into transferring/restarting or bailing out with an MA.

Thank you so much for your suggestions! Yeah I think I can figure it out if I can't transfer thanks to my very nice department faculty members, it's just it is harder that I thought tho haha.