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How many faculty positions should one apply to?
Since the start of the hiring season, I've seen around 20-30 job openings that looked interesting for assistant professor positions in my area of computer science.
However, it's somewhat awkward to ask my recommendation letter writers to send letters to 20 different places. (Is it not?) How many places do people usually target simultaneously?

Can't you just write in your CV that recommendations are available upon request?  - so that recommendations are sent only if the other side is interested in your CV ..

@AJed: No, you can't.  Many faculty recruiting sites require applicants to submit the names of their references with their CV.  Refusal meas the application is not complete, which means the hiring committee may never see it.

@JeffE: so can you clarify more please? The applicant put the names of the references, but these references will not write anything except if the hiring committee asks them too (i.e., if the committee is interested) .. right?

That depends.  Some systems automatically request letters from everyone the applicant lists.  Others wait until the hiring committee pushes the "letters" button, and then requests letters from everyone the applicant lists. Every department is different.

Is there no centralized site for academic computer science analogous to mathjobs.org for mathematics?

@AJed At least in my experience in mathematics, the expectation is that the letters are there when the application is submitted or it is incomplete.  There are simply too many applicants to worry about the extra step of deciding you to get letters for and who not.

Don't hesitate to apply to a job because of the burden on letter writers.  Applying to 20 or 30 schools is quite normal (and I know people who've done as many as 100).

Firstly, letter writers know it comes with the territory.
Secondly, the thing you should focus on is making each individual letter less of a burden.  It's normal for them to send their letters to an administrator in your department (or sometimes the one where you got your Ph.D.) and to have the administrator send out the letters.  You can also use a service like Interfolio, where they only have to submit once.

I know people who've done as many as 100. That is ludicrous. If a student asked me to submit 100 letters (even the same letter), I'd say no. It would be for his/her own good -- you can't possibly know enough about 100 different schools to be able to know whether you'd want to work at all of them or not (and I don't by the "a job is a job" rationale).

@ChrisGregg: You certainly shouldn't apply to a school you know you don't want to work at, or where you could have figured this out without much effort.  However, if you really want an academic job and don't stand out as a star, applying to 100 schools may be your only viable route.  Occasionally someone applies to too many schools due to a lack of confidence and gets a lot of offers; that's a waste of time and effort, but not a disaster.  On the other hand, when someone applies to 100 schools and gets 1 or 2 offers, I'm glad I didn't advise them to apply much more sparingly.

@ChrisGregg I agree that it is slightly ludicrous.  However, it's not as crazy as it initially sounds.  In mathematics, everyone uses MathJobs, so you can apply for 100 jobs and your letter writers only need to upload once.  Given that there are about 350 tenure-track and 130 postdoctoral jobs on the site, 100 isn't even close to applying everywhere at random.  I don't think it's unreasonable to apply to a school not knowing a lot about it and doing some more research if one gets signals of interest.

Seconding Ben W.'s comment: indeed, mathjobs.org certainly makes things easier for letter-writers in mathematics, at least unless extensive customization of letters is desired. Nevertheless, one should be aware that many community colleges and very small colleges do not use mathjobs.org at all. And, certainly in math these days, the job market is very tight, so applying to at least 50 places in the U.S. is entirely reasonable, and conceivably rather optimistic.

If you're coming out of a graduate program, your department or an office in your university may be used to handling the process of sending out letters.  Another alternative is to use a service like Interfolio that allows your letter writers to upload a single letter.  You can't see the letter (that's what you want), but you can cause it to be sent to whomever you want.


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What to do if my PhD advisor starts ignoring me after I passed the candidacy exam?
I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate. Recently, my Ph.D. advisor suddenly started ignoring me. He only talks to me whenever he needs my help in our lab's work. Except that he neither reply my email nor Teams message. He even ignores my request for a recommendation letter or reviewing a finished paper manuscript. What should I do? Should I look for a chance to talk to him or complain to the department?

Do you ever have face-to-face (including virtual face-to-face) time with your advisor?

No, I tried to contact him to make a face-to-face meeting with my advisor but he never replies to my request.

You have had regular face-to-face meetings in the past, though?

Yes, but he has stopped the regular f2f meeting for almost four months.

DO NOT complain about him. It leads nowhere good. Have a sit-down. There might be something going on in his life. He might, actually, feel that you need his help less and he is putting limited time/effort elsewhere. And he might have a misunderstanding generated by who-knows-what. A sit-down is the only way to resolve it.
Complaining will put you in a worse spot almost certainly.
If you have other, trusted, members of the faculty you can talk to, they might be able to tell you whether the professor is having personal difficulties. Other students might be able to tell you whether they detect a change of behavior.

Elevating concerns like this should be the last ditch effort to remedy the situation due to the sensitive and extreme nature of such an action.

While this may be a correct practical advice, it draws a very bleak picture of work ethics and atmosphere in the US (I'm assuming) academia...

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Is consistency in citation style important?
I have a habit of using two styles of in-text citation: with and without author name(s). The two examples below describe what I mean: (# here represents a bibliography index)
"...which is in agreement with simulations presented in Lastname et al. [#]."
and just
"...the X method [#] was here used to model..."
(in the latter case, reference # might contain an in-depth description of the X method).
I mix these styles freely, depending on what I deem to be appropriate in each individual case. Am I correct to do this or would you consider it to be bad style?

I think the main concern is whether you do it correctly or not. Namely, citation marks "[#]" should not appear as nouns in sentences; sentences should still make sense after they are removed. So "This can be found in [10]." is wrong.

Just to clarify LAST NAME ET AL is part of the sentence and not part of the citation. Outside the context of a citation I find the use of et al. to be pretentious and I would suggest going with "and others" or "and colleagues".

@DaveClarke: The rule you describe is not observed in mathematics. I had never heard of this rule, write "This can be found in [10]" all the time, and have never been corrected by any coauthor or copy editor.

@Anonymous: Horrible.

@DaveClarke: Horrible? I just looked at three random math papers (all well written, by well-regarded people, not me) and the rule you describe is not observed by any of them. I believe the real point is that different conventions are observed in different areas of academia, and that it is important to learn and observe the conventions of any area in which you want to write.

To your title question

Is consistency in citation style important?

Yes!
On first reading this, it sounded as though you were planning to mix two citation styles such as APA and Chicago. Obviously, this would be unacceptable.
However, in your example, you are using two entirely compatible forms for your in-text citations, which is perfectly acceptable. I would strongly prefer this over the awkward and boring alternative of using exactly the same form for every citation. Continue to use the form that is most appropriate for the situation. Variety is acceptable, even commendable, as long as you are not violating the standards for your documentation style.
Edit: To clarify the point above; mixing the in-text citation style Lastname et al. [#] and [#] is OK! What is not OK is using two separate documentation styles, for example, also using the in-text citation (Last name, year, page), which is proper is APA documentation style, but not in Chicago documentation style!

Just to make sure I understand you: mixing the style Lastname et al. [#] and [#] is not ok?

Please disregard the previous comment, I get your point now. As I understand it, you would agree with sometimes including the author name and sometimes not (depending on containing sentence), but otherwise keeping the citation style consistent (i.e. consistency regarding the format of parentheses, regarding whether to include page numbers etc.).

@andreasdr, mixing the in-text citation style Lastname et al. [#] and [#] is OK! What is not OK is using two separate documentation styles, for example, using in-text citation (Last name, year, page) with the in-text citations above.

Yes, this is fine, as long as you make sure that the names of the authors are part of the sentence.
In general, mixing citation styles is not recommended. However, your examples both reference the citations in the same way: [#]. The other thing you should keep in mind is that sentences should still make perfect sense if all citations are omitted. To this end, I would change your first example to

"...which is in agreement with simulations presented by Lastname et al. [#]."

Thanks. Good point about making the in-text citations fully compatible with the grammar of the containing sentence.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using different sentence patterns to introduce a citation. In fact, it gets quite tedious to read the same sentence structure over and over again. So, feel free, as you suggested, to use the style which is most appropriate for a given need in a given situation.

My question is more about the style of the citation itself, rather than the sentence in which it is included. I.e. using both the style Lastname et al. [#] and the style [#] in the same document. Would you consider this to be acceptable?

Yes. I would not overuse the "Lastname et al." style, but it's OK to use them together. (That's what I meant above.)

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When does one / who usually anonymizes data?
I'm coding some transcripts at the moment and the data I am working with is not anonymized yet. I'm a research assistant, I did not collect the data and I am obviously not the PI. What strikes me is that I know some of the people interviewed so it's a bit sensitive for me to be coding that non-anonymized data.
Which has me wondering, especially in cases where the data is analyzed by a big team, when does the data typically get anonymized and who does it? Would it be common to ask the transcriber to do it?

Depends on how the study is blinded (e.g., single blind or double blind).

@StrongBad From my understanding, neither, as it's not an experiment (qualitative analysis of interviews) but feel free to correct me on that one. Though it might be worthwhile to answer for those cases as the question may be worthwhile for others. I'm working on interviews in social sciences so it's for when participants have requested anonymity.

@StrongBad The OP is asking about anonymizing data for privacy reasons, not for blinding. Some approaches to blinding could anonymize as a side effect, but you could easily have a completely double-blinded experiment where the data are not anonymized, and vice-versa.

All aspects of the privacy and data security of the research are the ultimate responsibility of the PI.  (Though of course, you should not take this to mean that you have no responsibilities yourself!)  In your case it would be a good idea to report your concern directly to the PI for the study, to ensure that it is known.  It is fairly common for research work to be undertaken without anonymising the data, unless this is required for the purposes of blinding protocols in the study.  However, if there is a reasonable prospect of researchers accessing sensitive data for people they know, then the PI should really be applying some anonymisation protocol to prevent this.
As a research assistant for the study, you have a responsibility to maintain confidentiality of the information you access, and you should also avoid specifically accessing the data for a person you know, other than for bona fide research purposes.  In the event that there is a data breach in your study (e.g., a research assistant disclosing data outside of the team), your PI could definitely find him/herself in hot water.

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How can I better deal with position papers?
Here is some context, I am currently a graduate student in education but I come from an art background. Needless to say, writing papers is not something I've done on a regular basis since high school.
Although I've gotten good grades on the two previous ones I wrote, I suspect they drained me a lot more than they should have had. I tend to be able to see the contradictions in everything, which I find is very helpful (as well as annoying) in my life in general but it makes writing position papers a living hell. I always feel like I am presented with a question that can not be answered and that I am forced to give a definite answer to it.
An example of question from a previous paper would be:

Learner-centered approaches should replace teacher-centered approaches

Once I find an angle on how to go about it while feeling reasonably comfortable, things flow and it's not a problem but I always have this nagging doubt that it's not good because half the time I end up not really answering the question but dismissing it because nothing is this black or white. I tend to want to run everything by the teacher to get feedback because I'm never sure what we are really expected to do. I would fare much better if the question was in the likes of:

What should one take into account when choosing between teacher-centered
  approaches and learner-centered approaches?

Don't get me wrong, I have opinions but I feel like they're not applicable in all scenarios.
Sometimes I feel like those papers are only used to see how well we can write, how well you can form an argument and be convincing but I see little value in convincing just for sake of it. How can I get out of this rut?

Switch fields to mathematics :-)

"Woohoo! Someone sent feedback, maybe I can finally make sense of this!..." Nevermind. ;-)

Nate Eldrege's comment, while probably not intended as literal advice, has a serious point to it: "position papers" exist in some areas of academia and not in others.  There are even some areas (like mathematics) where the idea of taking an obviously subjective question, "arguing" for one side or the other and "proving" your arguments looks silly or specious.  I do think that you deserve an explanation of the worth of this sort of paper (but beware that it may include: "If you don't like this, then maybe this field is not for you.")

In particular, I find the passage " I have opinions but I feel like they're not applicable in all scenarios. Sometimes I feel like those papers are only used to see how well we can write, how well you can form an argument and be convincing but I see little value in convincing just for sake of it." in your question to be a rather incisive indictment of this kind of assignment.  Speaking selfishly from my own perspective, I would love to know what response your professor would give if you brought this sort of concern to them!

I did ask before how I am supposed to answer the question that I cite as an example above if I am advocating a mix of two positions and the reply was that the exercise is to: develop -and then support with evidence from the readings- a strong position. And that I could defend either positions or in between.

Writing position papers does not require any special innate talent or disposition. You can develop these skills through the combination of systematic method and frequent practice.
First, you need to understand that a "position paper" (a.k.a. "analysis paper") is very different from a "survey paper" or an "essay".  A position paper is somewhat similar to a legal argument for each side of the question.  Your only goal is to communicate and evaluate the arguments for and against each alternative.  You don't have to describe the whole issue, its history, its cultural setting or social significance, or many other issues. Deconstructing the question or alternatives is not in-scope for a position paper.  Neither is your impressions, experience, or personal value judgments.  Don't go "meta".  (Those are in-scope for an essay.)
Here's the method, boiled down to its essence:

Be clear about the scope of the question and alternatives. Make
assumptions if you have to fill in blanks.
Identify an ideal advocate for each alternative or position, even if you imagine a fictionalized advocate.
For each alternative and idealized advocate, make an outline of the following:

Their strongest argument in favor of that alternative
Their strongest argument against the other alternatives
Their counter-arguments to the criticisms of the advocates of the other positions

Once your outline is complete, rewrite it in sentence and paragraph form.
Finally, add introduction paragraphs setting up the debate and conclusion paragraphs that evaluate the relative strengths of the various arguments.

From your professor's point of view, the most important paragraphs are the conclusions where you decide which of the arguments is most compelling and with the least number of unanswered flaws or voids.
In your example:

Learner-centered approaches should replace teacher-centered approaches

Who best advocates learner-centered approaches?  Who best advocates teacher-centered approaches?  What arguments do they advance to support their positions?  What criticisms do they level at the other?
In examining these arguments, the following questions might come to your mind to compare and contrast the positions: Do they both agree on the criteria are for "best" or "better"? Whose values and needs are most important? Do they both agree on what the implications are for "change" vs "status quo"?
What evidence does each advocate have to support their position?  What credibility and relevance does the evidence have?  What are the uncertainties and voids (lack of information) in each position.  (No argument is perfect or free from some uncertainty.)

The best way to learn this is to practice it frequently. The best way to practice it frequently is to start a blog and write a post every day or every other day on a topic area that is important to you. Aim for 'minimalist' position posts, which are probably four paragraphs.
After you do this for a couple of months, you will find that you are no longer seeking your professors' feedback regarding whether you are giving them what they expect to see.  Your confidence and efficiency will rise.


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Who gets to access a case study database and how?
In Case Study Research, Yin (2003) states the importance to build a case study database, in order to increase the reliability of the findings.

"...without a case study database, the raw data may not be available
  for independent inspection."
  ...
  "...every case study project should strive to develop a formal,
  presentable database, so that in principle, other investigators can
  review the evidence directly and not be limited to the written case
  study reports." (p.102)

Unless I am missing something, he doesn't address how to manage access to a case study database. If my case study database contains sensitive data, that cannot necessarily be anonymized, how should I handle the gatekeeping of this database?
ETA: I'm in social sciences.

You likely need to add more information here to help the folks on this site understand what you are looking for. At the very least, what discipline are you talking about? Case studies are normal in my discipline, case study databases are very much not because the raw data is too sensitive to be shared. I am not allowed to share my data with anyone. If you have ethically sensitive data, you can't share it and thus you can't have an open database of it.

@GrotesqueSI I'm in social sciences and this is exactly what I was thinking as I was reading Yin. So I'm not wrong in thinking that sharing a case study database may not always be applicable. Thanks!

The answer would depend on what your IRB (or similar research ethics body) has approved for these data.

@BryanKrause I'll ask and report back if it seems widely applicable. Thanks!

@Emilie If your IRB/Ethics board hasn't already approved an accessible database for your data then consider it not approved. Mine would consider me crazy for even suggesting such a thing, but my data is truly sensitive. Also, if on your participant information sheets/consent forms you didn't tell your participants that there would be a database, you can't suddenly make one now.

@Emilie No, such a database isn't the standard no matter what Yin says. I've never seen one before in my field (also Social Science). Yin's own research must be on something super non-sensitive.

@Emilie Having looked him up, Yin seems to have mostly written his methodological thoughts about 40 years ago. I can see why he would say such a thing, but I would not consider such a database to be ethically sound in most social science situations now, and it could be a total nightmare under modern data protection and control regulations.

@GrotesqueSI Thankfully that's not an issue right now, I wanted to figure out that part before going further. If you would sum up your thoughts in an answer, I would gladly accept it!


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What are best practices for reviewing peer research lab colleagues' work for a supervisor?
Since over a year, I've been involved in almost everything my supervisor does and seem to have gained her trust, which is very gratifying.
There have been instances where I was asked to review and directly comment on other research lab colleagues' work who are involved in writing/research tasks. In many cases, I often felt like there was some kind of implicit resistance after a while (e.g. not meeting deadlines, not addressing my comments even if my supervisor wants them addressed, etc.).
On paper, my colleagues often have a stronger research background than I (e.g. coming from research-oriented field or PhD student) while I'm MA level and coming from an arts background, which I feel might influence the situation. However, at any moment, if the supervisor does not agree with my comments, she can step in, as we usually work on shared files online.
What could we do to ensure things go smoother and decrease the resistance?

Are you a PhD student yourself?

@astronat No, I'm an MA student at proposal stage

I'm a little unclear on what this situation is, maybe partly because of the word "assignments" which makes it sound like a course situation rather a research one. Are these your colleagues in a lab? Why are there "assignments"?

@BryanKrause I used the word assignments for lack of thinking a better word at the moment, maybe research tasks would be more appropriate. Writing/research like literature reviews, annotated bibliographies for later uses, research grants, etc.

@BryanKrause And yes, these are lab colleagues. I've edited my question to better reflect the situation.

In this interaction, you are essentially a peer.  You are offering input, but you have no responsibility for the success of the student who's material you are reviewing.  That should influence how you decide to proceed.
People will receive critical review differently, and as you get experienced at this sort of thing (meaning, at the moment, as your mentor puts you in more and more of these situations) you will be able to tailor your behavior to meet the given situation.
At the moment, though, the person you are interacting with does not seem to welcome your input, and this is the issue that should probably influence your interaction the most.
Without bothering to try to figure out if your input is constructive, valuable, of the appropriate tone, etc., it's very difficult to advise you.  However, it is unlikely that this person's attitude toward your contributions in review will change -- certainly if you don't change your input style, and probably not even if you do.  The relationship has been drawn by your history.
Take a step back, and realize that there are many roads to a successful conclusion of a writing or research task.  I'd recommend, given your situation, holding your input to instances that you feel are truly important -- gross errors, flaws in logic that will result in a wrong conclusion, and the like.  Try to avoid picking nits.  There's a chance that if you back off of the little stuff, your colleague will realize that your input is valuable, and adjust the attitude accordingly.  If not, and you're facing unpleasantness anyway, at least you're doing it for the important stuff.
Also, try not to limit your comments to stuff that needs work.  Try to highlight whatever strengths you see in whatever you're reviewing.  Many grant reviews, for example, open with a section on "strengths", followed by a section on "weaknesses"  Forcing yourself to focus on strengths first will make you weight weaknesses more appropriately.  Sometimes you just forget how much telling your colleagues "good job" can mean to them.  When it's largely a good job, don't be afraid to say so, loudly and publicly.
Lastly, there is such a thing as "new reviewer syndrome".  It's horrible when it effects who gets funding.  If you tell a room a whole list of really nitpicky criticisms, and then try to give that grant a high score because the criticisms are not particularly important ones, that can really kill a grant.
UPDATE:
Given your comment, it's clear that you actually have some responsibility.  Then, you are what's referred to as an "Accidental Manager" in a great book by Heerkens:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=9780071818520  -- you have responsibility, but no authority over your team, which might be (a) peer.  You can't hire or fire, offer bonuses, provide input into their employment decisions or actions, punish, etc.  I recommend taking a peek at that book.  It's a good read, and might provide you with some better insight to your situation.
The advice offered above still holds, but there are some additional management issues you should consider.  Actively think about your management style during your interactions.  http://vault.theleadershiphub.com/blogs/conflict-styles presents cartoons of some conflict resolution styles.  Before people overly criticize -- these are JUST cartoons, but they raise some interesting points.
For the interaction you seem to be in, I'd recommend avoiding the styles where things need to proceed your way, sacrificing for the good of the overall project.    The person you're working with might feel like they're at the losing end of a win-lose proposition.  Thus, you probably need to avoid being the Shark.  If Shark is called for, it's probably you're boss's place to do it.  You don't want to be walked all over, either, so Turtle is probably wrong.
Just as a word of caution, I'm still not sure of your absolute status.  If you're a Master's student in a lab, "I have a responsibility to my supervisor to make sure the work done in the lab meets certain standards" does not quite match your role.   You have a responsibility to make sure your work in the lab meets certain standards.  If you try to make sure that somebody else's work meets some standard, you might well be overstepping your role, and that might be contributing to the reticence to accept your input.

+1 for emphasizing how/what to give feedback on. I've been teaching for a while in another field and giving feedback is a huge part of my job so I'm aware of many of the things you mention, though it's an ongoing process to remind myself to not just hammer on the issues and also highlight the good parts of a work.

"You are offering input, but you have no responsibility for the success of the student who's material you are reviewing." Indeed, but I have a responsibility to my supervisor to make sure the work done in the lab meets certain standards, this is where it becomes a problem.

@Emilie -- aah, that wasn't perfectly clear.  You do have responsibility.  I'll update the answer a bit.

As a peer, deadlines and things aren't really your responsibility, they are your supervisor's.
If you have personal deadlines set (e.g., "I can review your grant if you get it to me by Tuesday, because starting Wednesday I need my time to go toward my own proposal"), and peers can't meet those deadlines or negotiate with you ("I can't get it by Tuesday, but would you be able to review it next week instead?"), that's another matter. In that circumstance, if they can't meet your time constraints, you simply don't review their paper.
That leads me to my next point: the quality of their work is not your responsibility (this might be different if you are coauthors). If you have given substantive comments and they refuse to use your suggestions, that is impairing their work, not yours. Again, let your supervisor handle this. You are a peer, not a lab manager.
For your last question about how to reduce resistance, I think @ScottSeidman's answer is excellent. There are lots of resources on how to "sandwich" criticisms, and the general point to emphasize both strengths and weaknesses is a good one. You can also change your tone to make weaknesses sound like strengths: "You make a really good point here about _____, can you emphasize that more?"
The second point is to get feedback about your feedback, both before and after. Find out from your colleagues what they are most concerned with. Maybe they are worried they are missing some relevant references: spend less of your time editing their grammar and more time looking at each citation, and cross-referencing that with the literature you know. Maybe they are a non-native English speaker writing in English, and they could really use a hand in proofreading their writing. Maybe they are having trouble articulating their points in their introduction. Maybe they have been working on this project so long they just need feedback on whether it logically flows, because it's hard for them to step back from their own writing.
Whatever it is, try to tailor your critiques to their needs, and ask for feedback on your comments. "Can you let me know which types of comments were most helpful so I can provide you similar help in the future?"
Lastly, be wary of "golden student" status: http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1019
An add-on, since there is a discussion in another comment thread about your responsibility in the lab. I was sort of assuming you are a peer, rather than having a formal or informal role in the lab. I don't think your status as a favored student of your supervisor gives you any responsibility directly. I don't think your supervisor asking you to review papers is particularly special: all peers in a lab should be reviewing each other's work. You say you are an MA student at the proposal stage: this potentially makes you a very junior member in the lab. Unless your supervisor has explicitly delegated responsibility to you, I would just be careful that you aren't thinking you have responsibility that you don't actually have; this might come across in your tone, as well, and make your peers resentful of you.
To be clear: your responsibility is to provide good feedback, not to make sure that feedback is heeded.

Great answer! I'm not literally responsible for the final outcome but I feel responsible at least. I wasn't aware "golden student" status was a thing! I might have been on my way to acquiring this status but I fixed that by having a kid. :-) More seriously though, I am one of the most "senior" member of the lab regardless of my "juniorness" in academia because the supervisor is fairly new faculty. So students with more research experience can start working in the lab but are not as aware of the work that has been done since the beginning.

@Emilie Got it. No problem with feeling responsible: I think that's the mark of a good collaborator (i.e., someone who isn't just out for their own publication record), just know the limits of that. You will have to navigate the egos of the newer members of the lab, and also remember that you have to build a relationship with them as well - your supervisor might trust you, but they don't yet. I would advise you to be careful with your seniority status, to keep it in your head that you are still a peer, just with a little more experience. That will help you automatically shift your tone.

If possible (given your knowledge of the subject, the regulations at your university, etc.), it might help if you get officially announced as these students (second-)advisor for their paper/thesis/... So the supervisor states that you are responsible for it, you are the one to contact with questions and (important!) your opinion will be important when deciding grades.
Right now, there is no reason for the others to listen to you, as you have no influence on their work/grades/... If the supervisor wants something, she will eventually say so and then they might do it, so why should they listen to you?
By making it clear that you are the one responsible for that and that the supervisor should only be contacted in case of severe problems, they will have motivation to listen to you, as you will be the one the professor asks in the end: "Well, I didn't read every last one of these 200 pages of the thesis and I hadn't as much contact with the student as you did, so what grade would you suggest?"
You don't even need to change anything in your working process, as you already said that the advisor reads your comments and only steps in if she disagrees, so you seem to already be responsible, you just don't have the power (over grades, etc.) yet to make them respect you.

Since the context is that of a research lab, the issue is probably not that of grades.

@MassimoOrtolano Still, there should be something similar, e.g. the decision who is allowed to visit the upcoming conference, etc. The supervisor surely has some "power" to hand over.

@DirkLiebhold Like Massimo emphasized, it's in research lab assignments (e.g. identifying gaps in literature reviews). There is an impact ultimately on the student when they don't address my comments (e.g. supervisor gets annoyed because she wants them addressed), not in terms of their work or their grades but, in my understanding, in terms of if they are more or less likely to get future lab work.

@DirkLiebhold Usually I'm asked if I'm ok with reviewing, and the students get an email saying I will be offering feedback on the work in which I am CCed.


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Is education in Europe really this cheap?
Is tuition in Europe really US$300 or €200 a year? That is one tenth the cost of the tuition in the developing country university where I took my bachelor's and master's.
Is it really true that some developed country universities charge that much to non-scholars? Why? I heard of universities like that, but everyone who goes to such university is considered a scholar of his/her state due to such universities being heavily funded. Is that the case? Does Europe invest a lot in education, or something?
I find it very hard to believe. How do people get paid? The school has to consider food, maintenance, utilities, salaries of janitors, funding researchers and professors, etc.

Your question in the third paragraph may be confusing. Are you assuming that a 'scholar' can only be at a university which is charging high fees to the students?

@John I was thinking maybe that that is tuition price for scholars while is it much higher for non-scholars

By 'scholars' do you mean ph.d. students?

@John Could be but no. Also undergradute scholars either due to need of aiding financially or by merit

In several European countries it is even completely free! Following EU regulations, all the countries that offer free university to their nationals should offer free university to the citizens of the other EU countries that also offer free university. Some, like Sweden, extends it to all EU, Nordic, and Swiss citizens. Of course, universities still need funding to run, but money comes from elsewhere.

By scholar, do you mean 'person on a scholarship'?

@AruRay That's what I assumed he meant.

Just because tuition is low doesn't mean education is cheap. It's just paid by someone else. Most likely education is a lot more expensive in Western Europe than in your country.

@CapeCode Right. "Someone else" usually being "everyone who pays taxes." The same is true of U.S. public universities, just with different ratios of tax subsidies to tuition.

An educated population is good for democracy and society in general. It pays back eventually, but one has to look further than just until next election...

As a European: is education in the US really this expensive?

I remember when was taking a professional tour through Israel and we were visiting the Technion, our guide explained the fees for a Masters in Engineering  (I recall about 1000 USD all up). All of my American colleagues were shocked and one called out "oh, so it's free?"

@FedericoPoloni My graduate tuition in the US is $49 000 per year. Fortunately, it's covered by a TAship so I don't have to pay. But yes, the tuition is really that high.

I made my Bachelor and Master degrees in Switzerland. I paid about 1000$ per year for the tuition and I got money from the government to pay for food, tuition, accomodation, .... I was actually richer as a Bachelor student in Switzerland than as a PhD student in Canada.

@Johanna With that much money you could pay 4 bachelor and 4 masters in an Italian university and you'd even have some money left. No wonder in the US scholarships and things like that are so important...

Related: What is the socio-economic argument or historical basis for university tuition fees

@Davidmh: Actually, an EU country must not discriminate against nationals from any EU country. If a country offers free education, it must not charge residents of other EU countries.

@JackBauer You would probably not believe me then if I told you in France's two top schools students are PAID to go to class :)

@mort in Scotland, university is free for Scottish and Swedes, for example; but English have to pay tuition.

Really? That's interesting, didn't think it was allowed. Austria has free education as well and a bit of a problem with too many Germans in some fields (not the German's fault). There is currently a quota for medicine which reserves 75% of the places for Austrians. This is however only accepted for a few years by the EU and only because it's in a very important field. Could it be that in Scotland the university is actually not free, but the Scottish and (weirdly) the Swedish government provide a scholarship that pays all the tuition? Scholarships may of course be based on permanent residency.

@Remi.b And I was richer as a PhD student in Sweden than as a post-doc in Canada.

@mort The UK is weird because discrimination between different UK countries is allowed, but discrimination between other EU member states is not.  So Scottish universities are free for all EU citizens, except those from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (and maybe some UK crown dependencies).  As I understand it, at least.

Don't forget that (1) In some EU countries, tuition is free for EU citizens but quite high for non-EU citizens, and (2) You still need to pay rent, food, etc., and as a foreigner not speaking the language, finding a job may be very difficult, and government scholarships are only available to citizens or perhaps long-time residents.

@mort The stories I've heard are of the form, "If you can't get into X in Germany, apply in Austria". It's not a cost issue, as you don't pay (much) in Germany either.

@Raphael That's true. The issue is that Germany restricts the number of students in popular fields (medicine, psychology,...), uses high school grades to rank potential candidates and turns a lot of potential students away. Austria too restricts the available places in some fields but uses entry exams. Germans seem to do well in those. Since Germany's population is 10 times larger than Austria's, the Austrian university system has a hard time to deal with all of the German students. Which, by the way, is not their fault; it's the fault of our incompetent administration.

@CapeCode I'd argue that the state can negotiate more effectively than individual students re fees. I know in ireland when 3rd level was completely state funded the budget for 3rd level education per citizen was still substantially lower than the US government money spend on for 3rd level per citizen (for which they got only patchy coverage and partial subsidies).

@BenCrowell What the heck happened to America?

@JackBauer That is a question of politics and history and off-topic at Acamedia.  Try [Politics.SE] and/or [History.SE].

@gerrit Actually I think Cape Code answered

@mort At my undergraduate university in The Netherlands, at one point 3/4rd of the first year psychology students were German, despite tuition fees of 700€/semester and lectures being mostly in Dutch (although the university did start offering lectures in German).  Pyschology is limited in Germany but unlimited in The Netherlands, and the university was only 10 km from the German border.

@gerrit We have the same situation in Salzburg and to a lesser extent in Vienna and Innsbruck. A few years ago, we had a fee of around 350€/semester for all universities - but that's not really an issue if you consider the total cost of studying (rent, food, books, beer,...).

@FedericoPoloni It depends on what part of the U.S. you're in and whether you go to a public or private school. In the part of the U.S. where I live, university tuition at public schools is only about $5,000 USD/yr and there are government-funded scholarships that will cover all of that and then some. After deducting the tuition costs from the scholarships, I was actually paid about $5,000/yr to get my undergraduate degree. For graduate school, at least in the science/engineering fields, all of your tuition is usually paid by your assistantship and you get a stipend on top of that.

I'm a European and I get paid roughly $1000 a month for taking any education, in particular for a university education.

@FedericoPoloni How expensive is that?  Probably not.  You can always find horror stories, but in practice a good education is not expensive unless you are a moron.  I had a full-ride scholarship (a free education) at the University of Tennessee but I chose to go to Purdue.  I graduated with $10,000 in debt but because I chose a field where you can actually find a job I paid it off in a couple years.  Not everyone can afford the best education, but anyone can afford something.  Compare that to a system that requires you to pass an exam in the 8th grade to determine whether you can go at all...

Yes European higher education can be fairly cheap for the students, especially in those countries where universities are mainly public, and hence are largely funded by their respective governments. This means that they do not need to charge high fees to their students to cover for costs. Nevertheless their campuses offer all the facilities their students need, in terms of libraries, food canteens, lecture rooms, laboratories, etc..
Let's take France as an example. The French Ministry of Education defines, for each academic year, the fees to be applied by all public universities across the country. Here are the fees for 2015 (in French). Just to quote a few numbers (all fees are for one academic year):

Bachelor's: 184€ | 122€ (reduced fee for low-income students)
Master's: 256€ | 168€ (reduced fee for low-income students)
5-year Engineering Diploma: 610€
PhD: 391€ | 260€ (reduced fee for low-income students)

What exactly are these costs for? It seems like the the cost of a single academic year of schooling (two semesters?) at each level, but I'm not sure. I unfortunately cannot read the French source to get more details.

@pjs36 I added this information as you were commenting. :) Indeed these are the fees for one academic year.

Perfect, thank you - your language suggested it, but as a US student, I could not believe it!

@JoErNanO - Do I misunderstand the question?  I think he said he studied in a 'third world' university, not the US?

Incidentally, the vast majority of U.S. universities are also public and funded primarily by taxes, so that's not really a difference. The difference is the percentage of the costs that are subsidized by taxes vs. what is paid through tuition (which could be paid out-of-pocket, from scholarships, from loans, from graduate assistantships, etc.)

Are these tuition fees or something else? For instance, in Germany you'll pay about 200€ (differs by school) but none of that goes to the university. Part will be your public transport ticket, part will go to social funds of student councils, etc.

@Raphael These are tuition fees to the university. You usually have to pay around 200€/year as a student for social security, covering your medical expenses.

@reirab, most public universities in the U.S. are down to something like 10-15 percent of expenses paid by the respective states. Decades ago, true, the bulk of the funding came from the state, that is, from taxes. Now it's just a small fraction.

@paulgarrett GAO puts the state number at 23% vs. 25% from tuition, on average. IIRC, the state portion is quite a bit higher than that here in TN, though. From the same GAO document, federal + local government contributions, put together, are about equal to state contributions, putting total percentage paid from taxes at 48%. The other 27% comes from auxiliary sources such as endowments/private contributions, grants, contracts, sales of various things, hospital revenues (from the university hospitals,) etc.

@reirab, "all state sources" includes lots more than direct funding voted by the state legislature, I imagine. And "total operating budget" includes many self-referential items, like intercollegiate sports and research grants. So far as I know, not much of that subsidizes tuition or even interacts significantly with undergraduate education, for example. (Also, I suspect that the relative change from 1975 till now, rather than just 2003 till now, would show a much more dramatic change.)

@paulgarrett All state sources are either directly allocated to the university by the legislature or through grants/contracts with the state (which are, in turn, allocated by the legislature.) Most of it is directly for academic purposes. I'm pretty familiar with it, since my father was heavily involved in creating the budget at one of the state universities in TN for many years. You're right, though, that the change since '75 would be much larger than since '03. What's not mentioned by GAO is that the 'tuition' part is also largely paid by the states in the form of state-funded scholarships.

@reirab, perhaps the situation there in TN is different than here in MN...

Please take extended discussion to [chat].

Just read OECD statistics. "Underdeveloped" countries are not in OECD, but they presumably spend less per student and charge more because they can't afford public investment (or vice versa, they don't invest so they're underdeveloped).
First chart. The average expense per student per year in OECD is about 14000 USD (in tertiary education ~ university).
Second chart: there are mainly three groups of countries when it comes to tuition fees and student support (which must be considered jointly). Some countries (bottom) like Sweden are heaven, with zero tuititions and high support for students. Some (left-bottom) are tougher, with near-zero student support even though there are costs (worst is Italy). Some (like New Zealand) have considerable costs but nearly everyone is supported by the State.
Fees don't cover costs in any country (Chile is around 80 % and that's the highest).
I did not find a chart including opportunity cost and cost of life, which are actually the biggest share of university costs in most countries.
Annual expenditure per student by educational institutions for all services, by level of education (2011)

Relationship between average tuition fees charged
by public institutions and proportion of students who benefit from public loans and/or scholarships/grants in tertiary-type A education (2011):

This answer highlights an ambiguity in the question. If the question is end-user fees, then this doesn't seem to answer that (or else I'm parsing "expenditure per student" in a very different way than intended). But it does address the cost to provide the education which is interesting in its own right.

@virmaior, thanks for pointing out unclarity: "end-user fees" are the vertical axis of the second chart, "average tuition fees" which go from 0 to 6 k$. How to make it clearer?

It's really sad how the UK has climbed up that list so fast. Just ten years ago it was literally a tenth of the current cost to new undergrads.

@LightnessRacesinOrbit indeed, by now the university of England is mostly known in the rest of Europe for its... innovative student support schemes, so to say. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33166550

@Nemo: LOL! Well, um, that's a pretty sensationalist article. I wouldn't put too much stock in it. Certainly I've never personally heard of anyone doing this. If this is now how British Unis are "mostly known in the rest of Europe", then that's pretty sad.

@LightnessRacesinOrbit well I've not run a survey nor consulted Eurostat, but this is certainly the most frequent topic in news I hear here about university in England.

@Nemo: It's possible that says more about your mass media than about the English (you probably mean British) University system. :)

No, I mean English. Scottish of course is different.

There already a number of answers confirming that indeed academic education in Europe is often very cheap compared to the US, mainly because these are funded by the government.
However, one point which is not mentioned in other answers is that you might want to consider indirect cost, or in other words - taxes. In many European countries, you pay more tax to the government than you would pay in the US, and in turn the government can then use that to fund academic studies, provide cheap healthcare, and so on.

Well, then you should also consider the cost of health insurance, public transportation, pension (the part that is independent of the tax paid through one's life) to the elderly people, in the US :) Combined these with low cost education system, the on an average 2-5% higher taxes in Europe/Australia/NZ are not at all high.

@John European taxes are much more than 2-5% higher than U.S. taxes. U.S. tax receipts are 26.9% of GDP. Compare that to 39% for the U.K., 44.6% for France, 40.6% for Germany, 46.8% for Belgium, 43.6% for Finland, 45.8% for Sweden, 42.6% for Italy, 43.6% for Norway, 37.3% for Spain, etc. Australia is more in line with the U.S., though, at 25.8%. NZ is 34.5%. Switzerland is also more U.S.-like at 29.4%.

Don't want to go into this other direction than the question, but I believe you are talking about the federal taxes in the US. There are also state taxes in the US that are in addition to the federal ones. This is usually not the case  in the other countries you mentioned. I have paid taxes in the UK, Ireland, Australia, USA, Belgium. And I haven't seen any significant difference in the percentage (more than 2-5%) of my salary paid towards taxes in  any of the countries. Probably I always found good tax lawyer:)

@John No, I'm pretty sure that's total for the U.S., including state, local, and federal taxes. However, state and local taxes vary a lot between different parts of the U.S., so it's likely that you were in one of the more heavily-taxed parts (CA, NY, etc.) Or else that you just found good tax lawyers in the other countries. :)

Well, again, the devil is in the details. e.g., Texas doesn't have state tax, but then the property taxes are extremely high (2-4% of the total house cost every year)! Also, in some of these tax-free states have high sales taxes. This is not a surprise - even in the US the states need money to do the minimal things they are supposed to do for the people, e.g., controlling/regulating things, policing, etc. A good way to compare this may be 'take-home pay'. I won't complaint too much about the tax in NYC/SF as they at least provide good public transportation.

@John Yeah, that figure was total. Federal revenue is only about 17% of the U.S. GDP

I am now thinking that it is not completely unrelated to the question "why is education cheaper in Europe"!

The figures above were all taxes, not just income taxes. This includes sales, property, income, etc. And, yeah, NYC and SF are not at all comparable to the rest of the U.S. They're among the top few most expensive places to live in the country.

I probably understand the difference. You are talking about total tax a country collects (including very high and low earners), and I am talking about tax paid by an average individual. Mine is just anecdotal though. With that, I would still emphasis that average ratio between the take home pay and gross salary is only slightly lower in Europe than in the USA. The difference is small enough that it can not justify the lack of services provided by the US govt to its people. However, to verify these statements a question on economics.stackexchange would be appropriate so I am stopping here.

This is not the place to discuss whether the cost of living is actually higher in the US or Europe. Please take it to chat.

Actually it's not a place to discuss about the US at all as per the question.

This does answer the question since students don't pay taxes. Yes, if you stay in the country you received free education in, you'll gonna pay for other people's education then. That's the deal -- obviously.

"In Europe" may be too broad; there are different models. I'll give you another data point.
In Germany, higher education is basically free. That means,

there is no tuition fee¹ at public universities, which are the norm;
you'll pay about 200€ for public transport, student councils/groups, university sport, and other charitable services on campus;
you can apply for BAFöG subsidies (funded from taxes) to cover your living cost if your parents can not do so;
you will have to pay for material (pen and paper, books, computer, lab consumables, ...) but can write these costs off after you graduate, i.e. reduce your taxable income.

So, you won't be able to study for free, literally, but the university itself runs without you paying a dime -- the society pays for it.

At least not EU citizens that pursue their first academic grade and finish within reasonable time bounds.

It's important to keep in mind that our public universities (try to) compete with the top universities of other, tuition-based systems. The stigmas of such countried do not carry over; private schools are in the minority here, and usually don't pursue science (but offer job training).

I assume that BAFöG does limit to German citizens or long-time residents, is that right?

@gerrit The BAFöG law is very long and complicated with lots of exceptions and exceptions from the exceptions and exceptions from the exceptions of the exceptions. But generally this is correct. There are also special rules for EU citizens over non-EU foreigners.

Yes. The fees for the domestic students in European/Australia/New Zealand universities are very nominal. In some countries such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc., the fees are 3-4 times higher for the international students compared to the domestic students. The domestic students' education can hence be viewed as subsidised by their respective governments. One way of looking at it is that at least the domestic students in these countries may not have to be away from education only because of the financial (read: fees - living expenses is a different issue and perhaps not all governments may be helping in it) reasons. Or, to some extent (for students who are still early on their life/career), ability of getting higher education doesn't depend on how well their parents are doing.
I should also mention that in the UK some of the recent fees hikes by the universities haven't gone well with the domestic students. However, even with these fee hikes, the levels are still significantly lower than the US counterparts.
It is just the US (and probably Canada) where even state universities charge ridiculous fees most of the times to their domestic students. In the US, the domestic students may be able to take loans to cover the fees and living expenses. However, it is a loan and someday you have to pay it back.
Academically, there is no significant difference between the US and Europe/Australia/NZ universities. e.g., no. of universities top 500-1000 ranked universities per capita could very well roughly be the same for all these countries including US/Canada. e.g., all the total 8 universities in New Zealand are in top 500 of the QS World University Rankings.
Personally, one of differences I have seen while being a student, researcher and faculty member in Europe/Australia/US is the amount of spending by the US universities on its Public Relations departments and on sports teams ):

State university tuition in the U.S. varies a lot by location. It's actually quite cheap in my state and, even then, almost anyone who meets the qualifications to get in is eligible for scholarships that cover most or all of the cost. I was actually paid about $5,000 USD per year to go to a rather good U.S. public university (purely from academic scholarships.) Note however, that there is usually no such thing as 'domestic' rates for U.S. public universities; just in-state and out-of-state rates, since the universities are funded by the state governments, rather than federal.

It is true that U.S. universities spend a ton of money on sports, though. It's quite common for the most highly-paid people on campus to be the sports coaches or athletics directors, often even more than the university Presidents.

Canada's tuition fees are regulated by provinces, and while the fees are higher than in Europe, they are definitely much cheaper than in the US, at the very least for those provinces' respective residents. (My tuition averaged about $CAD 2-3k/year, but it can vary considerably from province to province.)

In Australia, there is the HECS system (pay back CPI indexed loan when you start earning a decent wage). While course fees are less than the U.S They are far from "nominal". see here. A typical fee is about $3,000 to $9,000 per year if you have a HECS place. Furthermore, many post-graduate courses are full fee (e.g., $20,000 per year is not unusual), which can often also be deferred as a loan to be repaid later.

@BenCrowell There are only a handful of universities (a dozen or less, as I recall) that actually generate positive revenue from their athletics departments in the U.S.

"I should also mention that in the UK some of the recent fees hikes by the universities haven't gone well with the domestic students." Tell me about it. 1000% what it was just ten years ago!

According to this page -- http://nces.ed.gov/FastFacts/display.asp?id=76 -- the average cost per year at a private, non-profit U.S. college (i.e. not state subsidized) is $39,000. That includes tuition plus room and board.
Let's compare that to Germany, just to pick one European country as an example. According to this page -- http://www.marketplace.org/topics/education/learning-curve/how-german-higher-education-controls-costs -- the average cost of a year at a German college is $32,000. That's what the government spends: it's free to the student.
This comparison is not entirely fair as the number for Germany does not include room and board, and even private U.S. schools get government money in various ways that is not included here. But from this admittedly very simplistic comparison, it appears that the true cost of education in the U.S. and Germany is about the same, at least in the same ballpark. Of course you could debate the quality of the education received endlessly: that's not easy to measure.
Where does the money come from in Germany? From taxpayers. Where does the money come from in the US? From a mix of the student and his family, government assistance, and private scholarships. Most American students borrow most of the money and pay it back after they graduate.
So higher education in Germany is free in the sense that the student doesn't have to pay at the time he attends. But he ends up paying for it through his tax dollars for the rest of his life. As the total cost is about the same, he's going to end up paying about the same amount in extra taxes as the American spends in tuition.
There's less practical difference between the two systems than you might at first think. In Germany students pay nothing while attending school, but then pay for it through taxes for the rest of their lives. Maybe 40 years from graduation to retirement? In America most students pay little or nothing while attending school, but then pay for it through student loan payments for an average of about 20 years.
Poverty doesn't keep a German out of school because it's paid for by the government. But low income Americans can get all sorts of financial assistance and then get loans to pay the rest, so poverty isn't that much of a bar to education in the U.S. either.
You could debate the pros and cons endlessly. The German spreads his payments out over his entire life while the American concentrates it into 20 years. The American may find himself unable to make his debt payments if he can't find a good job, etc, while the German's taxes are presumably based on his income so while he may complain it should still be manageable. The American can decide how much he is willing to spend for college, while the German cannot decide how much he will pay in taxes to support education. In Germany if you can't pass the entrance requirements, you're out of luck. In the U.S., if you can't pass entrance requirements you can't get into your first choice school, but you can almost always get in somewhere. A German who isn't admitted into college still has to pay taxes for others to attend, while an American who doesn't attend college doesn't have to pay for it. (Well, he still has to pay taxes to support the various government programs that exist, but these are much less than what the German pays.) Etc. I'm sure you could think of other pros and cons.

Yes, the education in Europe is pretty cheap. The school does not have to worry about the finances as they are taken care of by government funding.
As a foreigner, I paid less than 4K Euros in Netherlands for my MSc tuition fees.
I know that this is the case in Germany and France. In France, government pays some allowance to students for transportation and lodging costs. In Germany tuition fees is almost zero (My data is from 2009, things may have changed now).

Okay 4000 euros is understandable. That is close to the amount my university charges for 2 years either grad or undergrad. But 200/yr or 400/2 yrs? :O I'm guessing your master's was for around 2 years. So your is 10x the one suggested in the comment I linked. Also, your last point is right, I think.

I remember, this was because I was a non-EU national. For NL natives and EU nationals, it was almost free. Don't remember the exact costs though.

Oh okay. Still, it's the same tuition cost as my university. I would expect first world X to be more expensive than third world X. Is it indeed, if you have any idea, true that it's cheap because they want to attract more non-European students or something? A friend of mine said he was planning to take a master's in Austria, and the tuition was about the same as a where I took my bachelor's and master's (in a third world country) :O http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42304/with-a-background-in-mathematical-finance-and-desire-to-apply-for-a-mathematics#comment96267_42503

To my understanding, it is cheap because education in Europe is considered kind of a public service. Just like a public library.

"The school does not have to worry about the finances as they are taken care of by government funding." I don't know about the Netherlands, but universities in France worry very much about their funding, because state funding is considered insufficient by many and is the source of much tension.

By worry, I meant they don't have to rely on students to fill the fiscal gaps. Not in the sense that they have a cow to milk anytime they wish. I guess they still have to be competent to get grants.

Some statistics:

Some countries prefer to directly charge students (tuition fees), other charge the active population through taxes. It might depend on many other factors, e.g. the field.
Here is the cost of business schools in France, as you can see it is not that cheap (tuition fee is the 3rd column):

"Superior"? (In "Primary", "Secondary", "Superior"). Isn't the correct term "Tertiary"?

Business schools are an exception in France: this is one of the only field where students must pay a lot. In science, there are some private schools which are very expensive, but there are also a lot of public schools which are quite cheap. Note that all the "best" french schools in science are public (according to every ranking).

@PeterMortensen I used Google translate :)

@TomCornebize Yes, it was meant to be an example of "It might depend on many other factors, e.g. the field.". (and as you know, all the "best" french b-schools are private).

In the U.S. we have seen the cost of publicly funded education at all levels rise astronomically over recent years.  For example, the College Board shows a table of average costs ranging over time at http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/tuition-fees-room-board-time-1974-75-2014-15-selected-years
Their chart shows that, for example, average annual public four-year tuition and fees have gone up from $2,469 in 1974 to $9,139 in 2014.  (This is in 2014 dollars.)
One of the main reasons publicly funded higher education is so much cheaper in many other countries than in the U.S. has to do with the differences in the health care systems.  Employers in the education sector make a significant contribution to employees' health care costs.  I looked for a link with some numbers.  I found a Forbes article that says

The time price of health care has quadrupled in less than 50 years [in the U.S.] even as the time cost of other goods and services plummeted.

Health care is far more expensive in the U.S. than elsewhere, but this is not one of the primary factors behind the differences in public university tuition.  For example, in the UC system's budget, all employee and retiree benefits combined account for just 18% of expenditures from "core funds" (state funding and tuition).  Health care costs are a large fraction of these benefits, but not the entirety.

Tuition amounts to 46% of core funds, so even completely eliminating all employee and retiree benefits could only cut tuition by 39%.   That's not a realistic comparison (European countries don't achieve zero cost for benefits), yet it's not nearly enough to account for some of the tuition differences.

A much more likely reason for the raise in tuition is easy access to credit via government subsidies.

This does not answer the question. The question wasn't about the U.S. at all. And, as others have explained already, the portion of U.S. public university costs that go to fund healthcare is a rather small percentage. Almost the entire difference between the U.S. and Europe on the cost of tuition at public universities is simply a policy difference regarding what percentage of the costs should be subsidized.

I'm amazed it's that cheap in the US and other European countries. Here in the UK it's a different story.
According to topuniversisties.com (Information correct as of 02/04/2015):

According to recent figures, the average cost per year to study in
the UK at undergraduate level as an international student is UK£11,987
(~US$17,860), while for international postgraduate students this
average fee rises to £12,390. At all levels, laboratory and clinical
degree programs are markedly more expensive, with a clinical degree
costing overseas students an average of £24,206 ($36,070) at
undergraduate level, with top universities in London charging as much
as £34,800 ($51,850).
Combine these fees with the average cost of living in the UK, around
£12,000 ($17,850), and the total average costs to study in the UK come
up to £24,000 ($35,710) per year. Studying in the capital city,
meanwhile, is likely to be significantly more expensive.

Although that's somewhat simplifying it, I believe it's cheaper in Scotland. Don't ask me why though.

Because the Scottish government heavily subsidises higher education.

@Pharap, you should be careful in comparison. Most of the above answers talk about fees for domestic students. Most countries won't be happy to provide cheap/free education to international students on the country's tax-payers' money understandably. So other countries in Europe may also charge high from international students.

@John It starts getting more complex when you go into domestic costs because it depends which area of the UK you come from and where you're going to, but generally it's going to be at least £6,000, except in Scotland where it's free if you're from Scotland or the EU, but not England, Wales or Northern Ireland. So much for the United Kingom.


text:
What is the typical PhD application procedure in the US?
I am nearly finished with my master in mathematical finance. I have finished my thesis and have one course left to take. I am finishing it in a third world country and am interested in pursuing a PhD in stochastic analysis in the US.
I have heard that the application process for PhDs, unlike applications for masters or bachelors, involves first speaking to faculty and then to the school. Is that right? That is, when I apply I should already have a professor in the university willing to be my doctoral advisor?
The exact procedure I heard is something like:

Read up various literature on your desired dissertation topic which should include several textbooks and even more for recently published articles. (If necessary, study for IELTS, GRE, etc.)
Come up with a PhD proposal.
Contact relevant faculty of the universities to which you intend to apply.
Discuss your proposal with them if they're up to it.
One of the following: Revise proposal if needed, completely change proposal or get referred to different faculty member.
Actually apply to the university.

So, is that how it actually is?

Aehm .... what?

The PhD process varies strongly from country to country, and sometimes even within a country. Thus unless you specify the country, your question is too broad.

Do a search here on "application process" (without the double quotes). It will turn up several earlier questions with answers about how the application process works in different countries and universities.

@Jack If you edited your question, you may candidate it to be re-opened. Before requesting your question for re-opening, please make sure that there are no duplicate questions and it is perfectly edited to stay on the site. Minor edits are not enough for closed questions to re-open.

@EnthusiasticStudent I believe this emphasis is not a minor edit. I am just wondering if in general one must have a faculty member of the university already willing to be my doctoral advisor?

Voting to leave this closed since the issue of country-dependence is still unresolved.

@Wrzlprmft Are you saying there are some universities where I can apply for a PhD without getting one of its faculty to be willing doctoral advisors?

Perhaps. At the very least, the process you are describing (even the undetailled version) is definetely wrong for some countries – you could go as far as saying that it’s not even wrong, as you are making some implicit assumptions that do not apply. Most importantly, however, academia varies more than you think it does (I just see that your case is even listed as an example there) and thus if you do not specify a country or similar, possible questions to this answer would have to cover all of them – which is too much.

@Jack For most math/econ/finance/stat programs (which is where I assume you'd want to be) in the US, it is very rare to already have an advisor lined up. The vast majority of the time you apply directly to the program and don't choose an advisor until sometime in your second/third year. I am not familiar with other countries' programs, but I believe that most European PhD programs are the opposite.

@RogerFan Oh, thanks! You said "The vast majority of the time you apply directly to the program and don't choose an advisor until sometime in your second/third year." So your proposed research can be something no one in the university researches? :|

See How does the admissions process work for US Ph.D. programs

@Jack Generally you aren't required or expected to propose any specific research at all. You might talk a little about your interests in your personal statement, but there's no formal proposal or anything. That said, you probably want to apply to places that have people doing work that you're interested in.


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Can I use text from my dissertation in a manuscript?
There has been general discussion of whether one can use a published work in their dissertation, with the consensus being 'of course'! The first two chapters of my thesis will be published works. I'm interested in the reverse now; I intend to write the third chapter of my thesis as a draft of sorts for a publication. Now I'm wondering whether including text and figures from my dissertation in a [future] manuscript constitutes 'self-plagarism'.
A fellow graduate student advised me that it's only 'self-plagarism' if I formally copyright my thesis, however, I'm skeptical of that being the important distinction.

In the context of a university, self-plagiarism (or auto-plagiarism, as it tends to be known) generally only refers to submitting the same work for two or more different credit-bearing assignments within the institution, or submitting work which has been awarded credits at another institution.
There's generally no restriction on using work submitted for a university degree in a publication, unless the university specifically expresses its ownership of that work (which sometimes happens if the work was involved in a commercial or collaborative project).
You can get into trouble for publishing the same work in more than one publication, but because the contract you sign with the publishers will specifically prohibit you from doing this (or will specifically allow it) this is not plagiarism as much as it is fraud. Even then, providing they know in advance, most publishers will allow authors to include chapters in monographs that are based around previously published articles, providing the initial copyright holder gives their consent (which in academic work they usually will, as long as  the original publication is cited).

One reason I thought copyrights might be involved is exactly because I know you can't reuse text you wrote for a journal article. Thanks for pointing out it's not copyright so much as a part of the journal agreement.

In general this is OK or, in some fields, even recommended. It does not make any difference if the dissertation comes first and then the publication or vice versa.
However, I would reference the thesis/paper(something along the line: this paper was part of my dissertation ... or this chapter was published as ...) and you should talk to someone (your supervisor? the postgrad coordinator?) in your department about that. There might be some rules regarding that practice (I never heard of anything like that but just to be on the safe side).
Btw: Self-plagarism has nothing to do with copyright violations.


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How do I reference a constitution?
I want to reference the constitution of Montenegro in an essay. I have set it in the text as (ME Const. 2§4) etc., but how do I reference it fully, at the end of my essay, in a bibliography?

First thing: the exact format will depend on the styleguide your are following. However, apart from variations in the exact formatting, just refer to it exactly as you do. The US constitution, for example, would be cited in APA style as one of the following:

U.S. Const. art. I, § 3.
U.S. Const. amend. XIX.
U.S. Const. amend. XVIII (repealed 1933).

depending on whether you cite an article from the original constitution, or a (possibly since-repealed) amendment.

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek edit: I could not find a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for the constitution of Montenegro (nor for the US constitution, for that matter). If you find one, you might want to include it in your citation (in the form of a hyperlink). If it does not exist, you may petition the Montenegrin government to create one.


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When to publish a book?
I am presently doing MSc (Information Technology) in India. I really like teaching and have a passion for it. Based on my Masters degree I will get a designation of Assistant professor (hope so I get it!), but to be a Professor we need a PhD degree, so I was thinking of doing a Phd (Computer Science) not right after the Masters but after some years of teaching experience. At present I don't have much knowledge about PhD (nearly zero).
I know we need to publish the thesis in PhD,but my question is do we have to publish books (about courses like Java, Operating System etc, since I am talking about IT/CS i gave these subjects) in PhD? This is because right now in my Masters I was thinking of publishing a book for a local course of Bachelors (BSc IT) in my region.
So if we need to publish certain number books in PhD, then I should wait for writing and publishing that local book till I join a PhD or should I start writing and publish it right in my Masters and this published book will be considered in my PhD?

Since your field is Computer Science, I would say publishing one article in top journal or a conference will be better than writing regular java book.

At least in the UK a Professor is someone that LEADS a large research team.   Has India downgrades professors to the same meaningless level they have in the USA?

A PhD should be based on an original contribution to knowledge. This is generally published at research conferences and in journals.
Material, such as a book, treating topics that already are well-known generally do not contribute to the PhD dissertation. The only exception is if you were to write an excellent synthesis of a field, then that could be included as a part of your PhD dissertation, as such a thing would be an original contribution to knowledge.
Writing a book may actually hinder your progress to obtaining a PhD, because it too will take a lot of time. That said, I do not wish to encourage you on this issue. But there are already plenty of books about Java and Operating Systems, and I questions the value of writing more.

@Dave-- Yes you are correct that there are many books on subjects like Java but what i am trying to publish is not a reference book, which is to be used by everyone. I was just thinking of publishing a book which is as per the syllabus of my University i.e. neither a country-level nor a state-level book, a book which is as per my University in my city--A local region book.

@Dave-- What i am trying to ask is that a PhD student is not required to publish any books but only required to work in his/her research area and publish the dissertation, is that true ?

It is correct that you are not required to publish any books. You need to work in some research area, publish original research, and write a dissertation about the work.

A regional book about Java is probably useful, especially considering the price of textbooks.

No.  Absolutely not.
Do not even start writing a book until you have tenure, unless publishing a book is a requirement for tenure (which would be very strange for computer science).  Writing books well is extremely hard; it requires significant time away from your research (which you need to finish your PhD, get a job, and get tenure), teaching, paper-writing, professional networking, job-hunting, proposal writing, and advising.  And writing books badly can only hurt you.

+1 I would devote the time you would spend on the book on writing some journal articles. Those will help you get tenure, a book not.

I have a friend who co-authored a book with his PhD adviser while he was still a PhD student. He found it to be quite an enriching and worthwhile experience. However, in his case, the book was based on their research (published papers), he was in the humanities, and his adviser was also in it.

The magazine "The Scientist" has recently published an article about writing scientific books:
- http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32654/title/So-You-Want-to-Write-a-Book-/
I recommend you to read it. It says that writing books requires a lot of time and involvement, and that it is better to wait until you have tenure. I think that the suggestion makes sense.

Regardless of when the book is published, if the book is relevant to your doctoral studies and displays a high level of scientific skill, then it is certain it will influence positively the opinion of your eventual PhD defence committee.
But a course book is not a thesis. You will still need to write a separate thesis
Also, the chances that your doctoral research topic will be related to the topic of your book are small.

Yes most probably the 2 topics(thesis and book) will be different. So that means in PhD, no one is going to ask "How many books you have published or will be publishing during one's PhD course or period ?" In PhD we are concerned about working and publishing our thesis i.e. our research topic only, am i correct ?

Yes, this is indeed the case. On the other hand, you should also consider that writing a book will be a good exercise that will make writing your thesis and academic articles easier in the long term. It is thus an investment that may increase the throughput and quality of your PhD research. So even if it does not "count" directly in the eyes of a committee you may largely benefit indirectly from it.

@Kena----Though your opinions are different then JeffE and Dave but they are always good for a noob like me........Thanks.


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If a reviewer comments that the overall writing needs to be improved will they reject if some errors remain?
I submitted the major revision and one reviewer's comment was to improve the overall writing. I'm trying to improve the flow and writing, but some grammatical errors and typos are still left.
Will they reject it directly or give me another chance?

Are you talking about a paper submission to a journal? If so, keep in mind that it is the editor who will reject or 'give you another chance', not the reviewers. They are merely experts you are helping the editor to make the best choices.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/84690/marking-a-journal-paper-as-minor-revisions-needed-for-minor-typos

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17111/what-suggestions-should-i-make-when-reviewing-a-poorly-written-paper

I think it will depend on the severity of the remaining issues. A few typos might be acceptable, a manuscript ridden with typos not.

First:  If you know your paper has grammatical or spelling errors, you must fix them before you submit the paper.  Otherwise, you risk wasting the editor and peer reviewers' time, which would be unethical.  Remember they are volunteers with other responsibilities.
If you did submit a paper that was perfect except for spelling and minor grammar errors, it usually would not be rejected.  Most journals make their decisions based on research content, not cosmetics.  Most journals employ a copyeditor to fix cosmetic errors the authors cannot fix.

If you know these grammatical errors & typos exist, you should fix them before resubmitting. Submitting something with known flaws just waste other's time and effort.
That said, if you receive a review comment asking you to improve the writing, it often means that the writing is pretty bad, so you will need substantial corrections. If you make these substantial corrections then the reviewer will probably not be angry, since you did after all attempt to fix the issue. Maybe the fix isn't perfect, but at least you tried.
Reviewers can and often do get annoyed if you make only superficial attempts to incorporate their suggestions. That is when you might get a "reject" review.


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How do conferences detect double submission?
My first year undergraduate teammate has submitted our project work to multiple conferences. I want him to pull back the submission before reviewers take action against us. But he wants proof that conferences actually care about it and can detect self plagiarism and double submission.
This is in electronics, where conference proceedings count as publications.

Note that you don't need to convince your teammate. In fact, it was not OK of him to submit the paper without your approval: all authors need to agree to the submission of a paper. For this reason alone, you could contact the chairs of both conferences to ask for the withdrawal.

What field is this? In particular, is it a field where conferences are a form of publication (such as computer science) or one where conferences are a big meeting to share ideas (such as pretty much everything else)? More specifically, do the conferences in question have a policy against multiple submission?

I think if your teammate cannot distinguish morality from practical aspects of cheating, you may want to be careful with him. Will he cheat on you, too, when you have no proper procedure implemented to double check everything he tells you?

Organizers of conferences with overlapping review periods sometimes exchange the submission information to detect cases of multiple submission. However, since doing so without the authors' agreement would be a breach of confidentiality, this can only be done ethically by conferences who announce this process in their call for papers (In my field, that is the case for several top conferences, including FSE 2019 and ICSE 2020).
There are several other ways how the duplicate submission would eventually be discovered. Let's say the paper has been submitted in parallel at two conferences called A and B.

There could be a shared reviewer for conferences A and B who notices the duplicate submission. In this case, the reviewer would probably contact the chairs of both conferences, leading to an immediate disqualification of the paper. Note that such a reviewer would not have to be a program committee member at both conferences: program committee members often delegate their workload to colleagues in order to reduce their workload.
If the paper is accepted at conference A, the paper is eventually published in A's proceedings. In this case, the reviewers from conference B might become aware of the submission of the paper to A. Consequently, they could contact the chairs of conference A to enforce its retraction.

How certain are you that "don't actively seek" is universally true? +1 if you clarify that.

@einpoklum Not certain at all that it's universally true (without exceptions). But relatively certain that it's true in the vast majority of cases, given the typical priorities of conference organizers and the practical difficulty for implementing a duplicate-submission detection (including confidentiality issues).

What I'm asking is, how are you relatively certain? Do you know many career academics in multiple unrelated fields? Have you read studies on this?

No studies and only one field, however, the practical considerations are not specific to that field. Submissions need to be handled with confidentiality.

"Actually care about it": Read the conference's rules.
"Can detect": Irrelevant.  Like many things in academic research, this is primarily honor system.  If your teammate thinks that whether something is acceptable is determined by whether you can get away with it, they need a serious attitude adjustment.
By the way: do you have a faculty advisor on this project?  They need to know about this.  They would also be the best one to give you advice on the specific norms of conferences and publishing in your fields.

As a reviewer I routinely search for the paper title, basic paper keywords, and/or the particular combination of authors' names in an academic search engine. This typically shows the close environment of peers, a sub-sub-area, so to say.
But not once or twice this has resulted in rather unexpected results, such as a very similar titled paper with paragraph-wise text overlap and an author subset/superset.
This greatly saves my work time, because in the above case I can immediately flag it as plagiarism, send my review with snarky remarks to the editor, and go back to whatever I did before reviewing. I have yet to encounter a true double submission, but my actions would bear a strong degree of similarity.
(You notice by now some degree of irony here, but I really have seen such plagiarism cases as a reviewer.)

Submitting without the approval of all authors is obviously wrong.
Putting that aside, what’s the problem with submitting to multiple conferences? Its not the same a dual publication of journal articles - a permanent citeable record.
I routinely submit work to two conferences - it’s in the remit of both, but there is virtually no overlap in attendance. Presenting work at multiple conferences improves visibility and networking.

This depends very much on what field you're in. In computer science, the conference proceedings is a permanent citeable record and simultaneous submission is forbidden. In such a field, simultaneous conference submission is exactly the same problem as simultaneous journal submission.

@DavidRicherby ok. Then maybe the OP could make it clear if he’s in one of those disciplines.

Yes my field of work is Electronics and computer sciences. And proceedings of the conferences whereto, the paper submission is done, are permanent citeable records.


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Is a professor obligated to provide feedback on an assignment?
I have recently completed a course where a very large assignment was handed in just before the exam. After the course finished, we were never given feedback on this assignment. I am very frustrated about this because, even though I can see my grade and that I did well, it means nothing to me--I pay tuition so that I can learn and not so that I can get a grade. I have emailed the professor and have not received a response. I have also emailed my program's coordinator and she has told me that she has "no leverage with other departments and their profs". If it is of any value, the course was in Psychology.
I see this as a business transaction. I have paid the university for the service of teaching me. The professor is made responsible by the university to teach me. Teaching requires providing feedback. Therefore, if the professor is not providing feedback, the university is not fulfilling their part of the business transaction.
What are the professor's obligations with respect to my education once I have been put in his class?
How should I deal with this? The professor does not answer emails and I've never been fortunate enough to run into him at his office.
Edit: I've trimmed unnecessary information.

It's entirely possible that your instructor has other things going on after the course is over, not to mention the fact that giving you feedback on a large project via email is not an efficient use of time. Just go by his office once classes are back in session again to arrange a meeting.

@MadJack It is not just me, no one in the class received feedback of any kind. All we got was a grade. Am I odd for finding this upsetting and unprofessional? Many of my peers are completely okay with this. I think education should be more about feedback and less about a grade.

"I see this as a business transaction." And there's your first issue: it's not. "Teaching requires providing feedback." And there's your second issue. You got your score, you know you did well. That's feedback. Now if you had specified good teaching, then the appropriate requirement is useful feedback.

Did you get feedback on the exam apart from a grade?  It's not much different from that.  And even if you treat the course like a "business transaction," business transactions involve agreements, and I highly doubt part of the agreement of you paying tuition was that every instructor would provide you with detailed feedback on every assignment.

@Nij how is this not a business transaction? The university makes a lot of money from tuition. That's why they advertise and try to get as many applicants every year as possible. It is a business that exchanges money for services.

@kimball it is not every assignment. It was the only assignment in the course.

Giving good feedback is good practice. However, people working at the university have multiple responsibilities and they need to make trade-offs. So it is very well possible that your professor made a legitimate choice, we don't know and neither do you. Moreover, professors have substantial freedom in making those trade-offs. So there is very little you can do to force him to give feedback. Trying that will certainly back-fire. Instead, your best bet is to politely ask for an appointment, and be flexible about when that appointment takes place.

I tried the polite "ask for an appointment approach" but he doesn't respond to student emails. I have also never seen him at his office.

Does he have a secretary? Making an appointment through him/her might work. Other than that I think you are out of luck. You are very unlikely to be able to force him to give you feedback. Even if you could, you can only get good feedback if he wants to. If you force him, than he will probably give you minimalist feedback to get this annoyance over with not to help you learn.

There are two types of assessment: formative and summative. Formative assessment is part of the teaching and learning process and feedback is a critical component. Summative assessment is not really part of the learning process, but rather is designed to assess the learning outcomes. In this respect, feedback, or more specifically, qualitative feedback, is not needed with summative assessment.
The requirements on providing feedback can vary across universities and even departments within a university. Sometimes instructors are required to give feedback on both formative and summative assessment, sometimes only on formative assessment, and sometimes never at all.

To answer your question, the teacher's obligation depends on the institution, and the country where you're studying, and on the bargaining agreement that the academic entered into when they where hired (their contract).
I understand that you want to receive useful feedback as part of your learning process to improve your skills and I'd be as upset as you if I were in your situation, but if you've already talked to the program coordinator and she says there's nothing she can do, then enquire somewhere else. Are you truly interested in the obligations of the instructor, or is the feedback actually what you want? If it's the former, your university or college should have a Dean of Academics or related department in charge of teaching and learning excellence and perhaps they can point you in the right direction. If it's a matter of principle for you, try to get your hands on the bargaining agreement (contract) and read the whole thing.
If all you want is the feedback, you might have to live with the fact that this instructor is just a shitty teacher and won't give you feedback. It's very common, especially in undergraduate courses that students 'just want a grade to find out how they did' at least this is my experience, so feedback may not be given for the last assessments, or if it is, it's very minimal. "Why did I get the grade that I did?" is probably the best question to ask the instructor, and if they're not around to answer that question, go up the chain, department chair, Dean of school, Provost, until you get that answer. With that being said, many instructors' roles are made up of more than just teaching, so if they're not around, you might have to wait to meet with them. Honestly, this route might raise your blood pressure more than anything, so if this instructor wasn't that good, just get the feedback from somewhere else. Ask to meet with another instructor in the department, or a graduate student perhaps,  or go to your university's writing lab or tutoring center and have someone go through your assignment with you. Regardless of what grade you got, they'll still be able to provide you with some useful feedback.
The important thing is that you get the feedback you need to improve your skills. Whether that SHOULD come from your instructor isn't productive for you, so go find someone who is willing to help, file a grievance or a complaint against the instructor for not doing what most instructors consider to be their job, but don't get too upset about it. You're right, education is a transaction, but unfortunately, many institutions including the one you're enrolled in, may not agree with you 100% on the nature of that transaction - some schools just care how many students graduate per year, it doesn't matter if those students learned anything or not.