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What can students do if a professor penalizes an entire class because one student cheated on an exam?
Today, I was taking a test in my intro to sociology course. It is a difficult enough class when the minimum requirement for an A is 96%. It is also difficult when the professor gets off-topic and does not cover important enough material. I'm taking the class pass/fail, so I'm not terribly worried right now. I have kept up a B+ so far.
We have an online textbook, which allows the reader to use the audio version, which reads the page out loud.
Today, during the test, someone near the back decided to play the audio on one of the chapters on which we were being tested. It played loudly for about two minutes, and the professor (who is not exactly relaxed) stood up and said the obvious about cheating policies. She said that if the cheater did not come forward before she left the classroom, she would penalize everyone's tests. She did not specify how, but just that she would do that.
She held behind everyone in the area from which she heard the audiobook, and let the others go. I was allowed to go, because I was not too close to the back, and also probably because I'm always on time and never on my phone in class.
I don't think she is allowed to penalize the entire class for the reason stated, but if she does, I'm reporting it to the dean of the university. However, our dean is known to not be the most responsive person. My question is: What should I do if the dean does not take the appropriate steps to help us? I may not be really affected by my grade in the class (again, pass/fail is how I'm taking it), but others are. Failing everyone for one person's actions is unacceptable. Please help!

I'm going to presume you're in the US. Every university will have a clearly defined academic grievance policy. It generally is professor, then department head, then dean, then provost/chancellor/president, but you should follow whatever your institution's procedure is and not jump the chain of command prematurely. (It may feel urgent now, but grades can be adjusted after the fact if there's a good reason, so follow the procedures in policy even though they may take weeks)

In addition, under typical university policies, if your grade was lowered because of alleged academic dishonesty, you (and anyone else penalized) will have a right to appeal.  You and the professor would present your cases before a panel which is usually composed of some combination of faculty, students, and administrators.  This is an appeal you should win because the professor doesn't have any evidence pointing at you specifically.

Sounds like a questionable punishment, but there is precedent for academic dishonesty covering not ratting out those who actually commit it.  So the professor might argue that the absurdly obvious nature of the violation means several students were actively refusing to identify the culprit, and therefore there is an untold number of violators.  Still, I'm doubtful this would be upheld upon appeal.

It may not be that the professor actually carries out the threat. Threatening to punish collectively is often a fairly good method of convincing the guilty party to own up. Clearly in this case it didn't work.

I wouldn't worry too much, sounds like she was using a fear tactic. I very much doubt she'll actually penalize the whole class, but you have the recourse mentioned above if she does.

@zibadawatimmy: And I could answer I couldn't tell which of two adjacent students it was.

The described event does taint the exams given by everybody in the room. Even if they didn't mean to cheat. Sorry.
What to do in such a case is a hard question. It ranges from doing nothing this time, but e.g. collecting cellphones and such next exam; just punishing the careless cheater (if caught); grade the affected question(s) for less maximal grade (or even not grade them at all, leaving them for a separate evaluation); or even repeat the exam.

I believe the "what to do" was from a student perspective, not an instructor perspective.


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Why do universities require international students to show language proficiency?
For example, Let's say an American person wants to attend a French university F. F explicitly states that French is the main language of instruction. Why would they require the student to take a language proficiency test for admission? Any prospective student should be aware that he or she has to know French in order to follow the lectures or when taking oral/written exams. Why don't they simply trust the student? And when he or she thinks to attend even without knowing one single French word, then it's his or her own fault. (And it doesn't even matter if it is undergraduate or graduate school)
There are 4 spoken languages in Switzerland (mainly German, French and Italian) and all Swiss students can take an exchange semester at another Swiss university. Swiss universities don't require for example a French-speaking person to show German language proficiency, if he or she wants to attend a German-speaking university. They explicitly state that it's in a student's own responsibility to know German (in this case)

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Incidentally, as universities (as least some here in Canada) become more profit-driven and business-oriented, these proficiency tests become less and less reliable. The one I went to benefited a lot from raising international students' tuition fees (more than enough to make up for lacking gov't subsidies for those students). Many classes had ESL students who had been led to believe that their English was good enough for university material by the university due to passing a proficiency test, but they were severely unprepared and it showed in class. Their education suffered.

The short answer is that when people want something, they often experience cognitive distortions that prevents entirely accurate assessments. Dunning-Kruger is a good example of one of these effects, where a student thinks, "Oh, I'd love to study in Paris - and lots of people speak French, so I'm sure I could pick it up!" Learning a new language to a college-level of proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking is incredibly challenging, yet some people inevitably misjudge this.
Sure, the student would eventually figure this out and face the consequences, but in the mean time there are lots of reasons the institution wants no part in such a situation. For one, it's sad - a student will struggle, feel isolated, and most people end up blaming others for their situation and don't take complete responsibility ("why did they let me in if they knew it wouldn't work?!"), so it can be really unpleasant. I saw a student from China try to make it in English-only classes, and I couldn't make out if he even understood more than a few words in English - he only ever nodded, looked confused, and looked back down at his paper. It was just sad to see, and I can't imagine how this was helpful to him - the only way he could succeed was to have an interpreter (he didn't have one), or cheat, and that's just a terrible situation to be in.
Most institutions also have various statistics like drop-out and graduation rates, as compiled by an office like Institutional Research, often reported to the government (for "public" institutions, and others who take government money). Institutions have a lot to lose for regularly taking on students they have a very good reason to think will fail in their program, or will require disproportionately high resources to support. So they want to try to avoid such situations, when possible. Finally, positions in a class/program/institution are often limited, and accepting one student can mean necessarily rejecting some other student, which makes administrators even more keen to be careful of offering a spot to a student unlikely to succeed.

Just to add on, there are also two sides to the Dunning-Kruger effect; just like you might have some students that overestimate their abilities, you might have someone who can speak French at a more than sufficient level, but who is also keenly aware of their incomplete knowledge of all idioms, domain-specific vocabulary, etc, and therefore underestimate their ability. Regardless of direction, the take away is that self reports are unreliable.

Re "...lots of people speak French, so I'm sure I could pick it up!", the flip side of this is that once people realize you're American, they use you to practice their English, which is why I can read French pretty well, but can't speak it :-(

I remember proofreading a few papers written by foreign peer students, some of which were barely comprehensible. Surprisingly, not a single student failed that class, which indicates that a lack of language proficiency may also lead to the course instructors lowering their standards rather than increasing the drop-out rate.

@jamesqf I get a limited amount of that in english circles (I'm german). If anyone ever took german classes, I can almost bet that they'll at some point try to ask me about Sauerkraut consumption in german.

@BryanKrause, although you've accurately summarized the Dunning-Kruger effect as it's defined, I believe a slightly modified statement would be much more accurate: Self-reports are unreliable for use by others in making their decisions.

@Wildcard Yes, since the topic is why universities require demonstration of language proficiency, my statement was shorthand for "Universities cannot rely on the self-reported language competency of applicants when deciding whether their language skills are sufficient to complete the required coursework."

I'd like to add to this that having students in class who don't SPEAK (but may understand) the language of the institution can be very disruptive for other students. I've been in many classes where foreign students ask questions which are completely unintelligible. A back and forth between the lecturer and the student commences, and no party involved has any idea what is going on. It's just annoying.
Even worse is if those students need to give a presentation in class.

A language proficiency requirement is no different from any other proficiency requirement. Universities will typically ask you to prove your subject proficiency through grade boundaries in lower qualifications and require you to present proof of this rather than simply accepting any student who thinks they are good enough.
The reason for this is simple: it is difficult to effectively teach a class to students who do not meet consistent expected levels of competency. The absence of enforced standards means that there will be an increased number of people in the class who do not meet the required level of competency and thus effective teaching will be limited.

The accepted answer is good but from an analytical point of view a large language barrier is very bad for any university.  You want a student's grades to reflect the area that they are studying, not their basic language ability.
I went to a US school that had an open program with Spain.  Some of the students that came over had great English skills.  But the ones that didn't either did really poorly or were given (way too much) leeway in courses.  I remember reading some of my roommate's papers that he would get a low B or a C and I was like "what the hell!"  I mean just jumbled English to the point where you weren't even sure what point he was making.
Now he was a smart guy.  But in these same classes I would get a paper back with markings for super minor grammatical edits, to the point where the teacher is asking for a different like word.  So the language barrier has a huge impact on any class unless it is pure mathematics/programming and even in those fields you could mistake a question's point.
A university wants to measure how a student did going through their courses.  They cannot accurately do this if that person can't convey the language correctly.  And on the opposite side of this the university doesn't want to flunk out smart students that actually know the subject matter because they can't express it right.

"So the language barrier has a huge impact on any class unless it is pure mathemtatics/programming" I daresay language is potentially more important in maths and programming given the wide range of very specific technical jargon involved. Determinants, matrices, functions, Interfaces, inheritance, composition etc. In fact, programming is arguably all about languages (even if most are context-insensitive languages).

@Pharap - I was referencing the grading of those courses not the learning curve.  Of course those would be really hard to learn but that is on the learner and if they didn't learn it that is on them not the school.  The problem is when the abilities of the student are great in an area but poor grades or the opposite.

Are you assuming programming courses are graded by code produced and not by accompanying essays? My point is that maths and programming courses should theoretically be harder for someone with a language barrier because of the very specific terminology and highly abstract concepts involved - i.e. I fail to see how such subjects should be impacted less by the language barrier than other subjects.

OTOH, I recall one graduate physics course in which I was the only native-born American.  The instructor and about half the class were Chinese, so he'd answer difficult questions in that language.

Concerning mathematics, graduate students in that department often have to teach, making speaking and listening to English well important skills for such graduate students outside of the classes they themselves take.

@Pharap on the other hand there's less unlearning of unhelpful everyday meanings -- in particular words that are treated as synonyms in normal speech but have very different meanings in technical use (set vs. group, power vs. energy, strength vs. hardness vs toughness in maths, physics and engineering)

@Pharap The domain specific part of the language is not tested in IELTS/TOEFL that are usually used for students to prove English language skills, and the domain specific part of the language is often similar between English and at least the Latin-based languages.

I would say that this answer is more appropriate for undergraduate studies than graduate studies. You might be able to get by in an undergraduate Comp Sci program with a so-so command of the language, but it's not going to work in graduate school, which is usually very focused on research, which involves a lot of both reading and writing. The ability to write well in English is just as important to a graduate student in Comp Sci as it is to a graduate student in almost any other major (with the possible exception of English.)

@Pharap Technical vocabulary is often similar between English and other languages (at least, European languages). I speak only basic French and very basic German but I occasionally need to read mathematics written in those languages. What trips me up is the simple, ordinary words that any competent speaker of non-mathematical French/German would know; the technical terms are usually completely obvious.

Forget teaching and esoteric jargon.  Competency in reading and writing in ordinary language is absolutely vital to doing pure mathematics.

@DavidRicherby True, but I'm thinking more of the case where the students do not yet know the meaning of the technical jargon. Trying to explain the concept behind the jargon to someone with native-level English can be difficult enough as it is, trying to explain it to someone with relatively poor English is exponentially harder.

Language proficiency is often an immigration requirement (for example, it is in the UK). Governments that want to be "tough on immigration" want to prevent people entering the country claiming to be students when, actually, they have no intention to study and just want to live and work in the country. Since any legitimate student who is going to fully benefit from their course will need to be fairly fluent in the language it's taught in, governments introduce language proficiency as a formal requirement for granting a student visa. This makes fraudulent visa applications more difficult but shouldn't have much of an effect on genuine students who are going to get good grades.

"any legitimate student who is going to fully benefit from their course will need to be fairly fluent in the language it's taught in" <-- That's what universities require it. That immigration can also use it is more of just a convenient side effect.

@reirab But universities also require it because courses are typically oversubscribed and they don't want to offer places to people who can't study at the university because they can't get a visa.

This is a bit... misleading. While none of it is untrue, the language requirements for "regular" immigration (i.e. by getting s sponsored job offer) are actually much higher - the gvt specifies which English exams are admissible (only IELTS) and the minimum allowed grade. On the other hand, while the Universities have a choice between which English level exams they will consider (often more than just IELTS) and which level of language is acceptable (generally lower than for "general" worker immigration).Many of my current students sadly were not tested to the same language level required of me

@DanielHatton I completely disagree. A significant degree of fluency is required to produce good research in a given language. While there are some conferences and journals out there that will accept completely unparseable English, that doesn't mean universities should support it. And your advisors or professors won't be able to help you much or properly judge the quality of your research if you're conducting in a language which they do not speak. And, aside from that, at least in my experience (in the U.S.,) research-based degrees also still typically have taught-course components.

@DanielHatton I would guess the move has more to do with what I mentioned previously: people who don't speak the language the research is written in can't really adequately critique or judge it. And, perhaps even more importantly, publishing the research in a language other than English dramatically limits its reach. As in trade and travel, English has largely become the lingua franca of academia.

This is an edge case, but there is at least one field of study where English language proficiency is mandated by law: aviation.
In the United States, for example, an individual must demonstrate that they can read, write, speak, and understand the English language before they are allowed to become a student pilot.  This applies to students both at flight schools and at universities which grant degrees in aviation.
The International Civil Aviation Organization requires the same for pilots who operate internationally.

As both a pilot and someone who possesses a graduate degree (in Comp Sci,) I'd actually say understanding English well is even more important for a graduate student doing research than it is for a pilot. In aviation, there's a relatively standard phraseology (though some situations can require deviating from it somewhat.) No such luck in academia. You need to be able to read and write English well to succeed in a research-based graduate program. Passable English will usually do for a pilot.

A very practical reason for requiring language proficiency in the US at the PhD level is that in many universities, funding is provided in the form of teaching assistantships. In order to be a TA, you need to be proficient in English.

If classes will require that the student will be writing papers, as they tend to do, the ability to write acceptably well in the target language is a prerequisite skill.
My wife already had a degree in China, but when enrolling in some classes here in the US she took ascessments and found that she couldn’t write.  By that I mean that how to organize an essay or even a paragraph was not taught at all where she’s from: emphasis was placed in reading what the experts wrote, not on writing. Meanwhile, here this is taught in high school.
It was under the general umbrella of English requirements.  But the needed prerequisite classes were not ESL or vocabulary building or “basic proficiency”, but rather indicated a “composition” class.
So, having a degree in a different school system can’t be assumed to give all the needed skills that are taught earlier in this system.  Even if that’s the only thing they wanted to test for (because it happens!) it would also diagnose if the person can’t read and comprehend college-level writing fast enough.  So, add a few vocabulary questions and you’re set to “place” in the needed class if the results are less than satisfactory.

One line of thinking….

Often universities are paid a lot more for taking oversees students (they are in the UK)
Universities will therefore spend a lot of money on marketing to possible oversees students.
There are publications that list the degree grade that oversees students get from each university.
I think it is common for Chinese students to avoid any university that does not give 1st to most Chinese students.
(Therefore Universities have to show they are not lowing standards for Chinese students to keep their local students happy.  Often the Universities  are not very convincing.)
Universities only wish to take oversees students that are likely to get a good degree; otherwise it is bad for marketing.

This is speculative and would of course vary from country to country.
If you are not a US citizen or legal permanent resident (i.e., green card colder) and you want to study at a US university, then you will need a student visa.  The same is true for most other countries.
When you go to the embassy to get your visa you will probably have to show language proficiency.
I suspect the reason universities require international students show language proficiency is because of student visas.

It really has nothing to do with getting a visa. A translator can be used for that. It has to do with the fact that you will fail miserably if you don't understand the language in which your courses are being taught and in which you will be expected to both read and compose research papers on complex topics.

Visas are often obtained by agencies, not by the student, in which case the student never even goes to an embassy.

@bubba A personal interview is typically required for US visas. An agency can help prepare your application for a fee if you want one, but they can't be interviewed on your behalf.

@reirab For a US student visa, you will need to bring "Original TOEFL scores and SAT, GRE, GMAT scores (as applicable)."

@emory That's presumably in order to show evidence that you actually do meet the admissions standards of the university into which you claim to be enrolling. Otherwise they wouldn't also require the GRE scores, etc.

@reirab I would presume it is b/c otherwise someone would start a university for the sole purpose of facilitating student visas.

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How do I pay for classes as a non-degree student?
I've already earned my degree (B.S. in Neuroscience, Psychology and Music), but need to take some pre-requisite classes before applying to a Masters in Physician Assistant Studies program. These courses are going to end up costing about $10,000 total. I imagine I'll need to take out another loan, but who should I talk to first? The school? The bank?
I know very little about financing this kind of thing and am trying to avoid getting taken advantage of.
I'm be applying to school in the north eastern U.S.

Please clarify 1. I've already earned my degree What degree? BS? 2. Is Masters P.A. Masters Physician Assistant? 3. Where is your location? U.S.?

I updated the description for clarification.

This might also be a good question for http://money.stackexchange.com

You might try enrolling in a university as a non-degree seeker. Such programs allow people who already have a Bachelor's degree to take additional courses for official credit but not towards any specific degree. These programs are common and a good way to add to a transcript in order to meet minimum admissions requirements for future programs to which you might apply.

This doesn't address the question of financial aid.  Many forms of financial aid are restricted to degree-seeking students and/or to undergraduates.

@NateEldredge, one question per question, and I reserve the right to choose which question to answer in a multi-question question until it gets closed or edited.

I don't see multiple questions.  The only question I see is about financial aid.  Title: "How do I pay for classes...?" Body: "I imagine I'll need to take out another loan, but who do I talk to first?"  I don't think the question is asking about program options at all.

@NateEldredge, I guess I read it more broadly as "How do I become permitted to pay to take some make-up classes since I already have a degree, am not eligible to apply for the degree I'd like, and otherwise don't know how to enroll?"

@BillBarth, I'm strictly interested in paying for the classes, not how to register for them.

You're not eligible for federal student loans, as a non-degree student taking pre-reqs.  You can talk with banks, but they seem to be out of that business (student loans) these days.  I asked my bank reps one time, just out of curiosity and to perhaps have some extra options to consider, just in case.  So, you'll likely pay the 10k out of pocket immediately, so you had better find a temporary job to help pay for it.

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Ethics of gathering data from social networks for research
I am starting to work on my thesis on analyzing the social network. My question is about using ethical procedures to access data.

Is it ethical to use Facebook messages as the source of my data if I have permission from the other users?
Is it alright to create a chatroom to create a chat/web page to get the data, is it the right way to go?

Does your university have an Institutional Review Board? You really need to work out these questions with them, as the answers will depend critically on the fine details of what exactly you're trying to do with the data and the potential for it to cause harm to users.

Your plan to obtain data sounds like it would introduce a ton of biases and other problems.

In the United States, if you are funded by any government agency (NIH, NSF, etc.) and you do research involving human subjects, you are required by law to get approval from an IRB (institutional review board). Research involving messages on social networks can, in some cases, be considered human subject research under this law. Similar laws exist in many other countries.
Furthermore, many conferences and journals require prospective authors to have clearance from an IRB or similar ethics board if they submit a manuscript involving human subjects research. For example, ACM SIGMOBILE policy:

As part of the submission process, authors of papers that describe experiments on human subjects, or that analyze nonpublic data derived from human subjects (even anonymized data), will be asked to certify that their work was vetted by an ethics review (e.g., IRB approval). We expect authors to follow the rules of their host institutions around data collection and experiments with human subjects.

Note that IRB approval must be obtained before you start working with human subjects, not after the fact.
Legal requirements aside, when working with human subjects or their private information, you have an ethical responsibility to get clearance from an independent third party. There is an obvious conflict of interest associated with having the researcher decide whether the research is ethical. That is the function of the IRB.
For an example of what not to do, see the case of the OKCupid data release and some of the fallout from that.


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I need to get a simple mathematical theorem published that proves a universal law
I have discovered a simple yet foundational mathematical theorem that proves a universal law. My advisors say I should get the theorem published in a mathematical journal so that the theorem can be cited in a paper for the journal “Science”. I am hoping to find an editor of a mathematical journal that can see beyond the simplicity of the proof to the profound implications of the universal law it proves.
The Efficiency Theorem (ET) states that all systems function most efficiently without unnecessary resistance. The ET is easily proven using a proof by contradiction. The proof of the ET is as follows:
Assume that there exists some system that functions most efficiently with unnecessary resistance. But then it wouldn’t be unnecessary (see below for assumptions and definitions).
The importance of the ET is that it proves the Universal Law of Efficiency (ULE), which also states that all systems function most efficiently without unnecessary resistance. Because the ULE has been proven with a mathematical proof, it is an irrefutable universal law and it is more immutable than empirically-derived laws such as the Law of Gravity. This is true because mathematics can prove things to a higher level of certainty than the empirically based methods of science. For example, assuming Euclidean geometry, it is impossible empirically prove that the sum of the interior angles of all triangles is 180 degrees because it is impossible to measure all of the infinitely many triangles to an infinite degree of accuracy. Mathematics however has proven it.
The ULE is unique in that it is the only universal law that has been proven with a mathematical proof. It is interesting to note that there are exponentially more systems in the universe than there are particles in the universe (for more on this, see below).
The ULE is the basis for all of the laws of physics. Science is the study of the properties, actions, and interactions of systems. The laws of physics are empirically-derived, statistical statements about the nature of the universe. There is a qualitative difference between the empirically derived laws of physics and the mathematically proven ULE. There is no law of physics that would have the properties it does unless all systems function most efficiently without unnecessary resistance.
The ULE is also the underlying principle of human health, equality, justice, democracy, and universal peace. The ULE will lead to the previously unachievable Science of Peace.
Although the ET is easily proven, getting the ET published (and thus the ULE published) will have profound benefits for all of humanity. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to get the ET published would be greatly appreciated.
Respectfully,
Jonathan Berman
Assumptions and definitions.
Assumptions:

Systems exist.
Systems function more or less efficiently from a frame of reference.

Definitions:

System: a set of causal relationships, or causal interactions.
Unnecessary resistance: resistance that reduces the functional efficiency of a system.
Necessary resistance: resistance that is required for the optimal functional efficiency of a system.
Inherent resistance: resistance in a system that can’t be classified as either necessary or unnecessary.

A thought experiment on the number of systems in the universe.
We define a system as a set of causal relationships or causal interactions. By this definition, it is clear that there are exponentially more systems in the universe than there are particles in the universe. An example that takes into account only physical systems will help to illustrate this point. Let us assume that there exists a universe with only three atoms in it and that the Law of Gravity applies. The atoms are labeled A, B, and C respectively. The Law of Gravity states that every particle in the universe attracts every other particle in the universe. Since the Law of Gravity applies in this example, the individual atoms are systems since the Law of Gravity guarantees that there are causal interactions within each atom. Thus, each atom is a system. In addition, each pair of atoms (AB, AC, BC) are systems, and the three atoms (ABC) are a system. It is estimated that there are 3.28 x 1080  particles in the universe (citation?). By this reasoning, there is an almost limitless number of systems in the universe. Given the vast number of systems in the universe, it makes sense to define the laws that govern systems.

If your advisors are saying that you should get it published in a mathematical journal, then what advice have they given you on this subject?

Based on the theorem as stated, the advisors have no training in academic mathematics to be able to give any meaningful advice, the statement is too vague and broad to give anything useful. Also based on what appears to be the planned result for the science paper "The ULE is also the underlying principle of human health, equality, justice, democracy, and universal peace." Arno's answer regarding crankery is likely very valid, so saying listen to your advisor is probably one of the worst suggestions you could make.

@jonberman based on what you are claiming you are going to get a lot of resistance from people here, not because people are closed minded but because we see a lot of "cranks" wanting help publishing their ideas. Generally they are people who want to contribute to science but lack the skills to do so and so "don't know what they don't know". They also lack the intense self-criticality that you need for science (which takes several years of training to achieve). You might get more useful info by attempting to ask for critiques on how you believe science is done (vs how it is actually done).

What you are doing here is natural philosophy.  It looks exactly like the kinds of arguments that were made by Aristotle or Aquinas.  Unfortunately for you, natural philosophy was made obsolete by science in the 16th-18th centuries.

@AlexanderWoo unfortunately, this kind of pseudoscience seems to be alive and well, much as we would like to declare it obsolete.

@DanRomik Be careful about dismissing the entire field of systems theory: it is not a pseudoscience just because it does not rely on the scientific method. I would argue that systems theory is more of a perspective that 1) things are interdependent, 2) causation is often not linear, and 3) the sum of the interactions between objects is more than the sum of their parts. Regardless, it is a system of knowledge that defies an easy categorisation, and of course it is a very exciting field with a lot that we still do not know about.

Western philosophy at least deals more about the natures and essences of things rather than how objects interact, let alone defining reality by interactions and continuous changes such as that of Theseus's ship. However, I feel like other philosophies such as the Buddhist philosophy of no-self (annatā) do not quite capture the essence of system theory, even though there is much less a reliance on analytical, reductionist thinking as in Western cultures.

This essay by Aeon might illuminate on how wide-ranging systems theory is.

@TobyMak does systems theory make any falsifiable predictions?

@DanRomik , based on my quick 1 minute read of the wikipedia article it looks like system theory should be more viewed as a guiding principle rather than an actual theory, a bit like the expectation of emergence (just emergence has been around for longer and so has more specific examples and mathematics dedicated to it). By that logic it isn't really science but a guide to help science and instead would appear in specific examples rather than as a unifying theory.

It also looks like they are trying to use the same approaches as category theory does but haven't formalised it. Though I would be very cautious about anyone who isn't a mathematician trying to make that transitions. I think I've come across people from systems theory who wanted to use category theory for it and focused on trying to force category theory to make grandiose claims about reality when they should have focused on restricting their topic to the point that the mathematics is precise enough to say something.

This is true because mathematics can prove things to a higher level of certainty than the empirically based methods of science. --- I think with a bit more thought you'll find that this is an oversimplified view, since how is an investigation of mathematical certainty to be carried out in a way that isn't dependent on our empirical experiences? For example, see the discussion of Augustus De Morgan's and John Stewart Mill's empiricist views of mathematical certainty in this MSE answer.

Your last paragraph suggests the necessity to investigate the 2^(3.28 x 10^80) subsets of particles of the universe. Something possibly of interest to consider is that one can consider all possible ways of positioning one or more (even all) of the 10^80 particles in the known universe (assumed distinguishable) into the 10^123 "particle size locations" in the known universe -- (10^80)^(10^123) or about 10^125 ways -- and then assume each of these possible positions of particles can change in any manner each 10^(-24) second for 10 billion years, (continued)

giving about 10^(10^166) many space-time universes (of 10 billion years), many of which will have all sorts of random physical laws holding in all sorts of ways for varying amounts of time, but most of which will also be "totally random". How do we know that we're not in one of those in which it's like flipping a coin millions of times and we get heads each time (i.e. laws as we know them hold thus far) only to have the next coin flip be tails (i.e. the laws stop holding and never show up again a microsecond from now)?

@NAMcMahon well, okay, in that case I have my own set of guiding principles, which lead me to consider certain “theories” to be pseudoscience. These guiding principles are (just like the “guiding principle” that you say systems theory is) not falsifiable, therefore no one can prove that my opinions are wrong. :-)

@Dan Romik: I'm somewhat reminded of some Bull. AMS abstracts I came across back in the 1990s while looking for things of possible interest to me at a small college library, where I was then teaching, that happened to have the Bull. AMS volumes (but not much else), this being before online searching was possible, namely those by Alfred Korzybski dealing with General Semantics. See this search, which may not be complete because I recall seeing more abstracts than this search brings up.

@DaveLRenfro thanks. I spent 5 minutes looking up this stuff. Can I have them back? :-)

@Dan Romik: I win the time sink award today. I just wasted at least 30 minutes here, and based on the vertical scroll bar, I skimmed less than 20% of the comments. And no, I'm not going to finish reading the remaining 80%. (moments later) Out of curiosity, and because this possibility only occurred to me now, I clicked "print" (with the intention of only seeing the print set-up page), and got 813 pages (100% scale used).

The problem is that you don't have anything that would be of interest to any reputable mathematical journal. Thus, you'll find the hope to publish in such a journal futile.
Instead, you should look up the phenomenon of crankery, and probably find a new advisor.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Which well reputed journal should I publish my CS research that is free to publish?
I am a current high school student will to pay up to $200 if need be. I just want to ensure I am publishing in a good journal not one that is a scam. I was considering arxiv but I am seeing that it is not well reputed.

arXiv is not a journal.

arXiv is not a journal; it is a place to put research which allows it to be publicly available before it appears in a journal, and enables it to remain open-access, at least in some form, after it appears in a journal. If you were submitting to a journal, you would normally put the paper on arXiv as well.
However, it is unlikely that you will even be permitted to put it on arXiv without someone "endorsing" you: see this question. This is true for anyone outside of the academic research community (or even those inside who are trying to post research in a different discipline). It is unusual (though by no means unheard of) for high-school students to produce publishable research, and they are certainly unlikely to understand what is and isn't new or significant, or how to write it up effectively, without some sort of mentoring from an established academic.
That being the case, your first step should be to try to get in touch with someone like that who can help you better evaluate your own work (and would, if appropriate, be able to suggest a journal). Probably it would be more effective for your teacher to approach someone, assuming they believe what you have done is publishable. (If you haven't gotten a teacher's opinion, you certainly should do that first.)


text:
880 in GRE Mathematics Subject: should I submit my score?
I'm a non-US citizen applying for PhD programs in pure mathematics in the US. I'm mainly aiming for top schools, e.g. Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA.
I have taken the GRE mathematics subject test and scored 880 (91st percentile). In many universities the GRE subject score is optional, so I am wondering if I should submit it. I believe this is a good score, but I want to verify it because I don't know how it compares with other applicants to top schools. If it is relevant, my undergraduate studies grades are very high.

Indeed, top schools' application pools are full of people with perfect scores on the math GRE.

@gnometorule and Buzz: I think by "mathematics subject test" the OP is referring to this test, and some data about scores and admission are given in this answer. Also, here are some resources for the test, in case anyone is interested. (moments later) A quick check of some of the links in this last one indicates there are many dead links in it.

If the result is optional then expect that it also has a lesser impact on any final decision and other things will be weighted more heavily.
However, since the subject pool consists mostly of quite good math students, achieving in the 90s is very commendable. It would be very unlikely to count against you anywhere.
Note that for the schools you name, the applicant pools are large and the number of available slots are small, so the competition is fierce. There will be a lot of applicants with a similar record. You would be wise to apply to some other "lesser" places as well. If your search is too narrow, then if you are rejected by one for some reason that same reason might be noticed by others. Cast a wide net.

"if you are rejected by one for some reason that same reason might be noticed by others" - could you explain what do you mean by that? Do math departments tell each other about which applicants they accepted/rejected?

No, not at all. It is just that the top places are similar to one another and value the same sorts of things. Privacy law in the US would forbid such coordination, I think. But Harvard and Princeton (for example) are, in some ways, two sides of the same coin. They tend to accept/reject the same sorts of people.

Oh, OK, I see. Thank you for your response. Of course the GRE score is just a small factor here, and I appreciate what you say. My plan B is to stay in my home country (Israel), as there are great universities here as well.

Luckily, GRE is not a measure of how good you are.
GRE is used as a minimum cut-off threshold (for example: a minimum GRE is required to apply, but no one cares how much above the minimum threshold you scored).
Even that way, I am not sure it is a meaningful indicator of anything, but it make sense in screening huge numbers of applications to have a quick number.
If you say you have very good grades (i.e. you are in the top 90% of your class, or at least I would read very good as that, please provide a quantity if you prefer not being misunderstood), GRE is just confirming that. The 1% of percentile difference that GRE gives to you makes no difference, you are still about in the top ~10% of your class, therefore on paper the candidates being in the top 5% are better than you. And there will be candidates up there, even candidates in the top 1% will apply to the schools you mention. However, please note: on paper. Don't let these indicators fool you.
Good luck with your application.


text:
Is IELTS General accepted in US universities?
I took the IELTS General test a year ago and scored a band 8 in it. Back then my goal was to immigrate to an English speaking country. Things did not go as planned, and now I have decided to pursue a PhD in the US. I want to ask if universities will accept the IELTS General test. I have checked some universities' websites where I intend to apply to but they only mention IELTS - they do not specify whether Academic or General. I also emailed one university's PG admissions regarding this, and they just sent me some links to apply (nothing specific to my question).
So please let me know if I should just apply with my IELTS General score or take a fresh IELTS Academic and submit its score? The reason for asking this is because IELTS is very expensive to take in my country, so I want to make sure if I need to take it again or not. Thanks.
p.s. I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this. I was stuck between posting on Academia or English language.

If IELTS is very expensive in your country and you're pursuing a PhD in the US, perhaps the TOEFL is an option. Neither is likely to be cheap, of course.

As far as I know, you need the academic IELTS for a university application.. Remember also an IELTS score has a two-year validity. IMO it is easier to achieve a 6.5 -7.5 in IELTS than its TOEFL equivalent.

Universities will say what is their minimum band requirement. It will always be at least 6.5,  an equivalent of level B2. For a phD course, I'd expect an average
score of 7.0 or 7.5 (Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking paper). There is also the  DUOLINGO English test, which is cheaper but not as widely accepted or demanded by universities.

@Mari-LouA  Yeah I know about Duolingo test and TOEFL, but most universities don't accept Duolingo. TOEFL is I think as expensive as IELTS. So I think I better take the IELTS Academic test.

No,I don't think so any university (as can be seen here and here) would ever accept IELTS General. IELTS Academic and IELTS General are designed for two very different target audiences. Even the exam paper is set keeping in mind the people to be in two entirely different settings, for instance, in the Academic version of the test you are expected listen the lecture of a professor which is something not related to the General one. Similarly, in the writing part, you are asked to describe results and observations derived from a figure/chart/illustration, which is again not limited to when you are applying for an immigration(which is the actual purpose of IELTS General).
In some US universities, they even look at your reading and writing score that gauge your skills when you are in an academic environment. The questions in IELTS General assumes you are not in such setting.
In short, you cannot mix up these two tests,and the admission officer would simply not accept your IELTS General as a valid test.

Unless it's a typo, it seems Whitworth accepts IELTS General, making for a potential exception to the rule. Of course, Whitworth doesn't offer PhD degrees.

@Anyon Thanks for pointing that out. I think it's probably a typo because they don't even mention the academic test.


text:
PhD without any help from advisor
I have problems with my PhD advisor.
I do not want to talk about these problems, it will not be of any use anyway. We had mediation meeting between us.
In short, my advisor did not help me, support me or guide to me at all during my doctorate. He taught me how to use the devices, then I did everything myself.
I have no relationship with him.
I started my doctorate about 6 months before the pandemic. I don't have any networking.
I tried to change my advisor, but
1- There is no person working in this field in the research center or I do not know. But the responsible person in charge of the students said that this could happen. I don't need expert advisor in this field I am about to finish my studies. I need someone who can give me advise, direction etc.
2-I don't want to look like a rebel against my other advisor (professor) from the university.
Also, people generally believe what my advisor (in research center) says, not me and his image is very good.
He will change his university in few months (in the same city) and the last thing he wrote to me was; "I can further support you by proof reading your manuscripts and thesis and discussing its contents but I cannot further supervise".
I want to have a post doc. I am not unsuccessful. I wrote two papers myself.
Problem I am completely alone in my work and academic career.
Another problem is that he did everything for his other student, let me just give you an example, he said to me that he is not responsible from my career, but I know that he's looking for a job for his other student.
What should I do in this situation? I really need any advise or need every suggestion. I don't know how should I do. I do not want to work with him because I know that he will not support me in the future. I feel I did not learn anything.
Thanks in advance..

Where are you in the program? Close to the start or close to the end? Finished? It is very unclear.

Sorry, close to end. I completed my experiments. I am working on papers and then thesis.

I'm not clear on what problem you are trying to solve. You say the problem is that you are alone, but you also say that you've had a number of successes. Are you able to stay at the university after your supervisor leaves? Do you need a different supervisor for PhD, or are you confident about graduating and just worried about finding a next position? Are you worried about a LOR?

The only quick answer we can give you I suspect is that you have to survive on your own now. Your relations with your advisor sound like severely damaged, and he does not want to help you any more beyond the minimum expected from him at this point, for some reason we don't know (perhaps he got disappointed with something you did, or he doesn't believe in you any more, he lost interest, he doesn't have time, he lost the plot, he is a "bad" person? etc.).
Finish the thesis, and be proactive in forming new scientific relations, and search actively a postdoc position on your own. Many people do it alone any way. The most important thing is to be professional. You don't "want" to work with him? Perhaps, but probably you need to work with him a bit now to finish the thesis.

Very practical advice.


text:
Switch to skilled worker visa while on a funded PhD: impact on stipend and potential student fees repayment?
I'm currently doing a fully funded PhD in one of the UK universities, and I'm in my second year.
I have received a full-time job offer and want to switch to a skilled worker visa now. Does anyone know what will happen to my stipend and fees? Will the university stop paying my stipend? Should I pay the fees back?

It's a little unclear if you meant you will be dropping out of Ph.D to pursue a job, or continue as a part time student. I assume you are an International Student ? If so, first off check with your University's International Student Office on continuing to study with a work-visa, if there is any violation of immigration status. And then with your department on the stipend for newly adjusted hours.

@NebUzer first off check with your University's International Student Office on continuing to study with a work-visa there isn't

I'm not really sure how switching visa has any bearing on whether you owe back stipend or fees? But for clarity, in the UK I have never ever heard of a university requiring repayment of PhD 'fees' or stipend in the event of dropping out.


text:
Sharing course material from a previous lecturer with a new lecturer
I am currently a Bachelor's student at a European university. In the previous term (winter term of 2023/2024), I tutored a certain course with Lecturer A. However, Lecturer A will leave my university at the end of this term (summer term of 2024). I have found out that in the next term (winter term of 2024/2025), lecturer B will lecture this course. I asked Lecturer B whether I could tutor this course again. She happily agreed and said that because this would be her first time lecturing this particular course, it would be very useful to her if I could provide some of the course material from the previous time the lecture was held by Lecturer A.
Is it ethically acceptable to share course material from Lecturer A with Lecturer B? Or is there some kind of confidentiality that could make sharing the course material unethical? The course material mainly consists of the lecture notes written up in LaTeX by Lecturer A, including the exercises which took about 50% of the course's time. The lecture notes were available to all students of the course, but only through the university's system, by which I'm trying to say that they weren't available publicly.
I could simply ask Lecturer A about this. However, it is well-known that Lecturer A takes a very long time to reply by e-mail and it is apparently difficult to reach her.

You already know that it's unethical-to-illegal to use someone's intellectual property without asking them; you have lecturer A's contact details and no significant reason to not "simply ask". What answer do you expect from this community?

@coffee_into_plots I was hoping that there would be some generally accepted etiquette on this - If not, I will just hope for a reply from lecturer A.

You should ask Lecturer A, waiting for an answer.  When you get one, respect it.

@coffee_into_plots "unethical-to-illegal to use someone's intellectual property without asking them" - haven't heard of that. Without attributing them, sure, but why would I always need to ask (apart from being nice)?

I find the assertion that informally published lectures notes can't be ethically shared for reading by another scholar strange. The question is about a grey area that an undergrad may easily be confused about, and errs on the side of politeness, if anything.

This is unaswerable without knowing the country you're in. Europe is not a single country, but many EU member states at least have laws saying the university holds the copyright.

Lecturer B should contact Lecturer A and ask to use that course material.  A negative response must be respected; no response must be interpreted as negative.
I'd expect Lecturer A to agree happily based on my own experiences, but I could be wrong.
Edit: Based on the comments, some institutions consider course material developed by faculty as property of the institution; mine did not.  If OP's does, and did at the time Lecturer A developed the material, then it may belong to the institution.  Check on policy.

Concerning "I'd expect Lecturer A to agree happily," to paraphrase Peter Suber, academics write to be read.  I'm retired, but I just spent an uncompensated summer revising material from a course I used to teach so that it can be used by those teaching the course this fall.  It makes me happy that material I've written will continue to be used.

I suspect it would make you happier if the material was shared in such a way as to guarantee acknowledgement.

Exactly. Lecturer B must ask Lecturer A. No intermediary, as an intermediary would likely violate fair use (taking material from A and give it to B). The remaining job (of the more senior intermediary) is to assure that B does not present the material from A in a manner that is in violation of fair use. Otherwise, as A is likely under no contractual obligation to give away their work, whether A is or is not happy to do so is a deciding factor in the final outcome.

"some institutions consider course material developed by faculty as property of the institution; mine did not" - Also copyright laws in the relevant jurisdiction might make this not a decision of the institution, but a matter of law.

If you expect lecturer A to take a long time to respond, or not to respond at all, perhaps it is worth asking a reliable person in your institution what the department's policy is.
I say this because, in many places, the university retains at least some rights to re-use course materials, even after a lecturer leaves: they have paid lecturer A to produce them, after all.
You say this material was only available through the university system. I would expect lecturer B to have access through the system, or at least to be able to request it.

I've discussed this with our school's counsel, and counsel clearly considers all my teaching material that I've generated here to be "work for hire", and the course material is theirs.  The instructors of coursework in education I've taken suggested that this is still a contentious issue, with a variety of policies at a variety of schools.

I don't see any problem in showing course material to the new lecturer B, unless lecturer A explicitly told you it is confidential. AFAIK it should not be a copyright issue to show a physical copy of lecture notes and material to somebody else.
Whether it is ok for lecturer B to copy or include larger parts of it into their own lecture notes is something entirely different. This should only be done if lecturer A agrees or if there is some rule allowing it (like a department rule, or if the lecture notes are published under an open source license).

You don't have copyright to this material.  Presumably, somebody that's not you does.  That somebody is either the person that wrote the material, or perhaps the school that the person works for.  There are cases to be made for both.
In any case, if you decide to share the material with Professor B, you would be doing through one of two pathways:  either in receiving the material, you have been given some form of license to share it, or you would be sharing it claiming "fair use".  A third possibility is that the material was written and already given some sort of license (similar to a stack exchange post!), and the conditions for sharing are already clear.  I'll ignore this scenario, as you would probably know about it if it were relevant here.
Let's talk about any implied licenses you may have been given that would allow you to share it.  If this is the case, you'd likely find reference to it in your school's policy materials or your course materials.  At my own school, unauthorized sharing of course material is specifically listed as a violation in our Academic Honesty Policy.  In my specific coursework, in my syllabi, I state that sharing is not authorized.  I don't know what prof A's policy is, but you can certainly look in the syllabus and/or course site to try to figure it out.
"Fair use" is a legal term, and whether fair use applies to the scenario you describe is arguable either way.  That's how these things work.  There are those that will say "Fair Use applies", and those that will say it doesn't.  If you would like to figure it out, a librarian would be specifically trained in this area, and would be able to help you.  University librarians seem particularly knowledgeable in this area, because these issues come up all the time as profs prepare course material.
Beyond a librarian, there are four factors that are used to figure out if fair use applies.  The exercise is often unsatisfactory, as the answers are often not clear.
This library (https://library.madonna.edu/copyright/fairuse) offers some good guidelines.  This figure that they provide illustrates all of them.  I particularly like this figure, because of how clearly it shows that fair use is a continuum, and not a black and white binary issue.

The same library also offers a flow chart of how the determination is made:

The big point in the flow chart, that often gets unfortunately ignored, is that you need to investigate all four areas to make a strong determination of fair use -- one of them is not enough.
In your specific case, the fact that you'd like to take essentially all the course materials and hand them to someone else seems to violate criteria two, pushing this away from fair use in the continuum.  I'd suggest that criteria 1 is also violated, because prof B may end up using the material in exactly the way it was meant to be used.  Also, if the material is out there, it may become harder for prof A to make a living by teaching the stuff.
Further, the original material may be bound by some license.  For example, adopting a textbook often confers upon the instructor the right to use art from that book in their teaching materials (when properly acknowledged).  In this case, sharing those materials with prof B might violate prof A's de facto agreement with that publisher.
Lastly, when you're sharing stuff that isn't yours, the polite thing to do is to ask the person who's stuff it is if they're OK with that.  It's simply the mannerly thing to do.  "The prof is unresponsive to email" simply isn't a good enough reason to ignore this.

OP says this is happening somewhere in Europe, and many European countries have laws that would make the university, not Lecturer A, own the copyright to any material that was produced in the course of employment. "Fair use" would not really matter. So Lecturer A actually doesn't get to decide whether or not their work can be reused, it's not "their" work strictly speaking (typically, the only thing they can demand is e.g. that their name be taken off the material). Nor should OP need to worry, Lecturer B might already be free to do anything. But IANAL and we don't even know OP's jurisdiction.

@TooTea -- the last paragraph still applies, even if copyright laws don't exist.

Indeed, but half of your answer talks about "fair use", which AFAIK is a US legal concept that probably does not even exist wherever OP is. There's a decent chance that the local copyright law makes the situation perfectly clear and most of your answer does not apply.

@TooTea -- yes-- that was because some of the earlier answers used "fair use" arguments that weren't on fleek


text:
Seeking Advice on Transferring Foreign Exchange Credits and Degree Completion
I'm facing a bit of a unique situation regarding my academic credits and would appreciate some guidance.
Background:

I was a foreign exchange student in the US for one semester. Upon returning to Sweden, I was informed that due to differences in grading systems, my US grades would not be graded, just credited as long as I passed the courses. I passed all courses except for one. However, they were all marked as "credited" without specific US grade records.
Recently, I discovered that the course I failed has been deprecated at my Swedish university.

Current situation:

The deprecation of this course has created an obstacle in obtaining my degree, as I need to pass it to graduate.
Unfortunately, my university no longer offers this course.
At this moment my university has marked the course as "credited" even though I failed.

Possible solutions that I can see:

Enrolling in a similar course at a different Swedish university, hoping it will be accepted as a substitute by my home university.
Contacting my university directly to discuss the issue and seek their advice.
Applying for my degree and seeing if this specific course will be overlooked.

Advice:

Should I directly approach my university about this issue or first attempt to find a substitute course?

I recognize that this situation is completely my fault. I should've checked the status of this course and prioritized passing it. If anyone has encountered a similar situation or has insights on navigating credit transfers and course deprecations, your input would be greatly appreciated.

Of course you need to talk to your university. I don't understand why you are asking random people on the internet this rather than directly asking the people who make the final decisions. What can we tell you that they cannot?

@MaartenBuis You are right. I guess someone just had to tell me the obvious. I've been kind of scared about what the university might say, but that's no excuse for not facing reality. I just hope that I will be able to finish my degree one way or another. Thanks

Only your university can settle this for you, so you need to ask and find a way to live with the consequences. If you talk this over with someone in authority (a department head, dean, ...) they can confirm your situation.
However, since the university no longer offers the course in question, they should also be able to give you an alternative that will bring you back into compliance with the rules. Such accommodations are pretty common. "Sorry, we made a change so you can't graduate" isn't a productive way for a university to behave. They have an incentive to find a way. It might delay you a bit, but open a door, at least. Good luck.

Thank you for your perspective. It really helps to hear someone else's take on this, and it has made me feel a bit better about talking to the university. Hopefully, I will be able to graduate later, but I guess I'll find out for sure once I speak with them. Thanks again.

You want to start with some sort of advisory office at your institution, not with the records office: The latter could be sympathetic, but they probably can't help you. They may know who to refer you to, though. Almost every institution has some sort of office for people who need to solve non-standard problems, and that's who you want.
If you can think of an idea of how the problem might be solved (such as taking another course that you suggested), you could bring this up as a possibility, but don't start with that. It would not be crazy to simply ask them to remove the "credit - fail" from a foreign university from your record, particularly if you can give a good reason. They may well not allow that, but will likely still be willing to discuss "how can we solve this problem".
The university absolutely never intended that taking some foreign exchange courses would prevent you from graduating. People often get bad grades in foreign exchange programs, either because of language difficulty or because the assumptions about what background you have going into a course are very different. Is there a specific office that organizes those? They may also have suggestions.


text:
What is the rationale behind requiring a meeting before filing academic misconduct charges?
Some universities have a rule that, for example, "if it appears that a student in your class may be guilty of academic misconduct, you must promptly ask the student to meet with you informally to discuss your concerns."  The quote is taken from one such university, the University of Wisconsin.  UW's Academic Misconduct Guide for Instructors goes on to say: "You can discuss the matter with the student in person, by telephone, or online. During this meeting, you should explain why you believe the student may have committed academic misconduct and give the student an opportunity to respond. It is not necessary to inform the student in writing before this meeting."
What is the rationale behind this type of requirement?
Bonus: How common is this?  When did universities in the US start instituting this type of requirement?

My university has this rule, and its practical effect is to make plagiarism on a final paper/project a nightmare to deal with. (My university wants the meeting to be in person (or telephone if necessary) with prior mention of academic disconduct, and the student has the option to bring someone with them.) Ahem, so this is a suggestion and not merely a rant: perhaps you can add another bonus question of how many students I had to squeeze in meetings with the day before flying home for Christmas because of this rule. ;)

@cactus_pardner - This just strengthens my curiosity about the raison d'être of the rule.

At my school we have an academic integrity reporting form, whose principal feature is a check-box for "Did the student admit to the charge of cheating, plagiarism or other act of academic dishonesty?". I'm guessing that this greatly simplifies the academic integrity administrator's work.

@DanielR.Collins - But I'm imagining that things could get very messy, if the instructor says yes, the student did admit, but the student says no, I didn't admit.  I don't know whether that would be likely to be an issue in practice; but it just seems strange not to have a paper trail.

Isn't the answer in the question: " give the student an opportunity to respond"?

@Taladris agreed. Excluding the basic ethics of the situation, I can't help but feel like those questioning this policy are forgetting that plagiarism applies to a lot more than writing papers, and in many cases it's absolutely not obvious that it's occurred until the student is questioned

I believe that the main impetus for a meeting with the student is to inform them directly that they are being charged with academic misconduct, and to know that they are consciously aware of such charges, so that they cannot claim "no one told me." In general, until recently, at my school, the process dragged on and on because the students need to sign a form indicating their willingness to accept or refuse the sanctions.
However, in recent years, this process has become more digital, and, for instance, at my university, the school no longer requires a face-to-face meeting. The forms are filed and processed electronically, and notification of the intent to file charges can be provided to the student via the campus email system.

To add to the bonus question: my university also does not require a face to face meeting.  (However I have no idea if they did in the past or what their rationale would have been.)

The reason a meeting is called before filing academic misconduct charges, is...
Because what looks like cheating can have a non-cheating explanation, and a accusation taken far enough can be devastating to the student, who might want to sue.
So, pragmatically, the Risk Management division of the University would have advised the University that they have to be sure as they can be, in the validity of their information before taking difficult-to-reverse and possibly devastating actions.
That way, since the meeting guarantees hearing all the sides and going through a logical deliberation process, any case against the university, on such matters, would be seen as frivolous, because the University had done their due diligence, allowing the University to avoid legal costs.

Do you have any evidence this was the actual rationale some universities used?  At my university, one of the points of the academic integrity office is to ascertain how likely it is the student engaged in academic misconduct, and whether it should go on their record etc.  I also can't imagine many professors at my university would report students frivolously.

@Kimball - IIRC, one of the memes at (workplace.stackexchange), is "HR is not your friend". Meaning that HR's goal, is to CYA, for the business? ... I assume that most rules that aren't legally mandated are made by HR, and so, follow that purpose. ... What are you asking, by mentioning your Academic Integrity Office? ... The rule precludes the possibility of frivolous reporting, and is easier than constantly watching just in case?

@MorganRodgers - IIRC, that meme reflects reality. And didn't start on Workplace. Universities are a business, and have HR, which make policies to CYA, which misconduct meetings, as a check on operations, seem to be.

Perhaps a more noble name for CYA is "due process"...

@MorganRodgers - Oh, right. ... Who's in charge of making sure the university's not gonna be sued by disgruntled students? ... I guess the Legal Department?

@Malandy - It might be called Risk Management.  It might be called University Counsel.  Those are the names I've heard most often.

+1, A lot of commenters seem hostile to the idea (CYA comments). I'm a bit surprised. Actually this is in the student's interest as it is potentially somewhat informal. Escalating it to honor committees, etc. is saved for situations that can't be explained or resolved simply. The student has a chance to speak without a large audience. A general rule, probably a good one, is to handle problems at as low and local a level as reasonable.

In my experience, many students confess during this initial meeting. In those cases I will bring the formal charges but typically recommend a light punishment (perhaps just a warning or maybe a 0 on the assignment.). Having confessed, students typically won't appeal this punishment.
If the student denies cheating and has no believable explanation, then I feel comfortable recommending a punishment of F in the course. Students can then enter into the judicial process if they want to.
In practice, I've never seen a student produce a believable excuse for apparent cheating.

"I've never seen a student produce a believable excuse for apparent cheating." - I suppose it depends on the type of assignment in question. In large programming classes one would not be shocked to see a dozen solutions to the same problem that are nearly identical to each other or something found online, yet a conversation with the student would easily make it clear that they did or did not write it themselves.

I'm not saying that it couldn't happen, just that it never has happened in my 30 years of experience dealing with cheating math/numerical analysis courses.  I'll keep giving students the chance to respond to the accusation.

Adding another perspective on this (why some prefer to contact students personally before escalating): once a formal complaint is filed, then the university has no choice but go through the bureaucratic process of academic misconduct, which is both annoying and time consuming for lecturers (they have to answer emails, attend disciplinary committees etc.). If students admit to cheating (preferably in writing), and not make lecturers go through this process, they get "rewarded" for their cooperation with a milder consequence (maybe just failing the specific assessment rather than the entire class, not having a disciplinary record etc.). In my experience, this is probably the main "unofficial" reason that people go through informal channels - settling things "in house" results in less hassle and pain for everyone.

At my institution (and I believe this is common elsewhere), the instructor is required to report every incident including ones that end up with a small punishment.  The time consuming hearings only happen if the student disagrees with the punishment proposed by the instructor or if the dean wants to make a bigger deal of things (typically because the student has been caught cheating in other classes in the past.).


text:
What exactly should I add in an extended and revised version of my research paper?
My original paper has already been published in the conference proceedings. Now, the body organizing the conference has invited me to submit an extended and revised version of my paper to be included in a new book.

It will depend on the work. A good starting point is the 'future works' part of your article... What else you wanted to do but didn't have time? Discussion/text you wanted to include but didn't have space for it.... etc..

You must have kept working on your project since the conference submission deadline passed. If any of that was successful, that's what you want to write up.

Short answer: More results.

In my experience, extended versions most typically contain three classes of new information:

More extensive prose and examples to explain, discuss, and otherwise clarify the material presented in the original paper.  Conference papers are sometimes rather haiku'ed due to page limits.
Important details omitted from the original paper due to length.  For example, a discussion of the key points of an algorithm may become a full presentation of its details, and a proof sketch may become a proof.
Extension work, either enhancing evaluation or extending the set of material studied, as suggested by the original paper's future work, feedback from the reviewers, questions raised in the conference talk, etc.

Some combination of these is almost certainly the right sort of material for your extended paper, but which combination exactly is something that only you, your collaborators, and your advisors are in a good position to determine.

I think the easiest way to understand the possibilities for what you might do is to look for examples of papers in your field that have been through the same process. If you can find some then you use these tangible examples as templates for making your own improvements.
You might also benefit from asking some people to read the paper, and then asking them which parts they were confused and interested by. For example, you might find that the section on one aspect of your theory is actually a little bit to complicated for non-experts, and that one aspect of your findings seems to have interesting implications for a specific area of research. Once you know these things you can expand these sections to create a better, but also longer paper.

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text:
What to do when some students pay someone to solve their exams projects and thesis?
There are some students on my masters program in mathematics who don't even know the basics of mathematics like an example of a continuous function or similar. They pay someone else to solve the problem sheets and projects for them and somehow managed to pass exams by learning by heart only past exams. Of course I don't have a proof for any of this but I know since they have told me. The head of school thinks he is doing a good thing and that all of the students who passed exams are good students, while myself and students like me were put in a very unfair position. Would there be any sense of addressing this thing and how? For the thing to be worse, those students are female students from the rich Gulf countries and they and their husbands do not need to work(I have absolutely nothing against that, but situation might be politically and religiously complicated in case of addressing this problem. Of course, these kind of things happen in case of any other countries/religions as well, but this is the situation in my case). Just for the sake of argument, in my case, I had to work full time while studying full time. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.
EDIT:
I am unable to comment so will answer here. The projects and problem sheets took a part in a scoring of the final grade. As they have told me they have been studying only one semester material (out of 2 semester material) and have been learning solutions from the old exam papers from the previous years and many of the questions have been repeated.
Also we just had to send the paper via email or give it in a paper form, without any reporting or discussion.
EDIT: in reply to comments, @scaaahu asked: "My point is the student does not even know the basics. How useful would the old exam papers be?" Well, it can be if you are learning without any understanding and by heart from the old exams.
EDIT: It would be impossible for the head of school not to know what is going on, he is well aware of them and the situation but still does not want to do anything about it.
EDIT: I did not mention that their English language proficiency almost does not exist and they presented papers with a great English and professional maths.

May I ask a question here? For someone who does not even know the basics of mathematics like an example of a continuous function or similar, how would she pass exams?

@scaaahu if a large portion of the exam questions were literally reused every year; or if they come from a fixed pool, of which a large portion have draw out in the past exams students have managed to get hold of.
Or if the exam is with say 40% but the problem sheets + assignments are worth 60% (not unusual), and the people being paid were very good.

"myself and students like me were put in a very unfair position". Why? They may have passed the exams but how does that make you look worse?

And I would be very suspicious if a student I am supervising delivers very good reports, but then is incapable of discussing any of it.

@Oxinabox My point is the student does not even know the basics. How useful would the old exam papers be?

It is not in-feasible to memories by rote enough of the exams to spit out something that looks like an answer from past exams to a question that looks smilar  to get part marks. Say by doing this you get 20% in the exam. If the exam was worth 50% of the unit total. then the people being paid to do the assignments etc, just need to get an average of 80% for you to pass the unit -- not unreaonable I think. (That would be pretty easy to pick up. Just look very closely at any exam where the students grade is much worse than there assignment mark.)

@scaaahu: Why should someone who doesn't even know the basics of a subject be able to pass an exam in that subject?

@Alexandros: if I see three graduates from a particular university that don't know what a continuous function is, I'll start inferring that the university is crap (as it obviously is if people get away with this), and pretty soon that other graduates may also know less than their diploma implies. That is one way grade inflation in general, and this kind of cheating in particular, hurts bona fide students.

If you can pass exams in mathematics well by memorizing past exams while not understanding the material, then there is a problem with your instructor or program. It's still unethical to pay for homework and thesis, and if you can prove that this happens, you might want to report it. However, a program with such exams might not even care; it's hard for me to even imagine how, at a Masters level, you would get away with what you describe for the exams.

I will take a wild guess and speculate that the university referred to in the question is in a country that has high levels of systemic corruption, as measured for example by Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Countries near the bottom of this ranking have the feature that most if not all of their main institutions experience high levels of dishonesty and unethical behavior. That sounds consistent with the OP's description, and conversely, in countries that rank low for corruption it is hard for me to imagine an academic environment where such rampant large-scale dishonesty could be practiced with impunity by so many people and tolerated and ignored by so many others.
Assuming this premise, I find it helpful to reframe the question as a broader and more general one, that would contain the OP's question as a special case:

What should I do if I am an honest, hardworking person who wants to learn a trade, get an honest job, be judged for my abilities and become successful thorugh talent and hard work; but I live in a country with such high levels of corruption and dishonesty, and such dysfunctional institutions, that I see people all around me getting ahead through cheating and other dishonest means, leaving me no practical way to realize my dreams in the honest way I wish to?
Should I try to fight this behavior? Should I try to find a rare honest person around me in a position of power to complain to about the dishonesty I observe? Will this change anything?

My answer is probably not a very helpful one, but I think it is the only realistic one: leave. The forces you are trying to fight are so much bigger and more powerful than you, that unless you are willing to dedicate your entire life to fighting them, knowing that you will achieve either nothing or very little, your only other choice would be to keep your head down, either ignore or join in the cheating, and resign yourself to a life of dissatisfaction and unfulfilled dreams.
Sorry it's pessimistic and depressing, but there it is. I would probably vote this answer down myself if I could. :-(

Sorry, I had to vote this answer up.

I too think that this is very good advice, and that - not answers necessarily literally addressing a question - should be what a good answer provides. A poor friend in a SE Asian country enrolled at a top 5 school there had a gun drawn on him by the bullies of a rich class-mate over just talking to the wrong person. He's now happy, and recognized for his contributions, in NYC.

Truthful answers are better than lies. Indeed, @user44099, when the whole place is corrupt, the best option is to leave, as quickly as possible while you still can. Don't wait around thinking that things will get better. They won't. This applies to every aspect of life, including jobs. Sad but it's all we can do if we're not the ones in power.

I am basically agree with your answer, but if every honest and hardworking person will leave this hypothetical country what would became of it?  Shouldn't people stay and fight to make their own country worth living in instead of escaping to another country? Just wondering.

As we don't know if Dan's premise is actually the case, I'll offer an answer with a different premise.
If we assume this institution is in the U.S., then I would start by reading university policy.  You're looking for academic integrity and protections for whistleblowers.
Figure out what body accredits the department.
Your next step is to google the top administrators in your university as well as the individuals who direct the accrediting body.  Read their CVs.  Read their facebook pages.  Read their Stackexchange answers.  Out of this pool of fish, you are looking to select one who gives you the vibes that she or he will take you seriously, protect you, and take thoughtful, long-term action.
Once you've chosen your fish, now you need to get an appointment to meet with him or her.  To do that, you need to get past the secretary, who will push you for a reason for the appointment.  I would suggest that you make something up, for example, "career exploration, I want to understand better what a dean does."
Prepare three bulleted lists for your appointment, and print two copies.  First, the list of problems that you mentioned here; second, some simple checks this fish could perform to satisfy him or herself that there is a serious problem; and lastly, suggested action steps.  Cite relevant university policy.
If you can find at least one ally to attend the meeting with you, so much the better, but be careful in your recruiting.
Make sure you leave with a follow-up appointment scheduled.
For inspiration, read http://whistleblowing.us/2012/02/remembering-roger-m-boisjoly-challenger-disaster-whistleblower-1938-2012/

It does not seem that you have any doubts about how their actions are morally wrong. In that case, the right course of action for you would be to officially report this behavior to competent authorities, unless it is clear from other facts that this would seriously endanger you. I doubt that the university actually encourages such behavior for the sake of attracting a clientele that would buy a degree. The one risk to you that I see is making a serious and unproven accusation, assuming that the parties would not confess. It then reduces to a matter of asking whether it is important enough to you to take the risk that they will deny what they said, and the university is willing to take their denial at face value.

You are working in a criminal organization.
Your question is not an academical question, your question is a criminality question.
On my opinion, what should be done:

the license of the university should be revoked to grant diplomas
criminal lawsuit should be started against any teacher knowing this and doing nothing
criminal lawsuit should be started against any student if there is a suspect that he parted in that activity
any diplomas granted by the uni in the last X years should be revoked and/or re-examined.

These will likely result the destruction of the University, which it really deserves. This is what should be done.
You could also consider:

collect evidence
go with them to the media
ask the police silently.

As a young student I also taken part in such activities, but now I am not proud for that. And these were very far from these unimaginable levels as you describe. The normal punishment of students got in such activities was 1 year of suspension, in the first time. Second time they got lifelong suspension. If criminality were also suspected (f.e. forged documents, etc), a criminal lawsuit was also initiated. Any such cases - with the names of the offenders and also their resulted punishments - were reported in the local news of the University.
It is also highly country-specific what you describe. In other, luckier countries even the rare cases of minor cheating is nearly unimaginable.

You're entitled to your opinion on what should happen, but I feel this is extremely impractical advice.  I am not aware of any case where cheating, even widespread cheating, has resulted in anything remotely close to criminal charges against the institution, much less closing it. And I very much doubt that police would be interested in investigating a situation like this one.

I agree that this is not a practical suggestion. But for the record, in the US, "enabling" cheating can lead to criminal prosecution, most recently Atlanta, also Philadelphia, and Hanover NH, where "criminal liability for the conduct of another" was one of the charges. It no doubt matters how blatant the blind eye is (and whether relevant racketeering laws exist in the country in question).

@NateEldredge I never in my life experienced such level of widespread cheating. I've seen young men on terrible psychological pressure choosing the bad thing. And another young students on terrible financial pressure to help them. But these were rare cases. If if had been so widespread, I had flee the whole criminal org. What the OP describes isn't on the level of the "common" cheating, it is much more.

@peterh: See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10132391/Riot-after-Chinese-teachers-try-to-stop-pupils-cheating.html and http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/world/asia/china-exam-cheats/ and http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/17/the-mystery-of-indias-deadly-exam-scam for recent examples.

@user21820 I had a much better title for the article: "How reduce the worth of all chinese diploms to the worth of toilet paper in the same weight". The strong procedures I've suggested in the advice were because things aren't going so, that 1 real diplom neutralizes a forged one. Actually, a single forged diplom destroys the worth of hundreds of not forged ones - and also the many years long effort, the invested best young years of hundreds of honest people. Would you go to a doctor if you would know that half of them buyed his/her paper on the black market? If only 1% of them?

I only commented to show you that your claim about rarity of cheating is completely false. I do agree that something must be done about cheating, rare or not. I also don't see how doctors are relevant here, because I judge each doctor individually based on their character and what they tell me, which I independently check against other sources. Even legal doctors may not give correct advice or prescriptions, due to pressure from large pharmaceutical companies.

This answer is realistic. These things can happen. One example: one private university in Portugal, Universidade Independente, had criminal charges against it and was later closed. There was a scandal envolving the prime minister at that time.

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text:
What is the difference between credit hours carried and hours earned?
What is the difference between hours carried and hours earned on a college degree audit. For example, I have this:
LSU Totals: 68 carr, 60 earn
Cum Totals: 77 carr, 69 earn

Can anyone explain to me how to interpret these 4 pieces of information individually? I can't find a direct answer on the internet and it's important for me to understand the difference for accuracy on applications. Thanks in advance.

If you want an authoritative answer, contact your university's registrar office.  Terms like this are not completely standard around the world, so we can only guess as to what they mean at your institution.
I would guess "carried" counts all the classes you have taken, but "earned" counts only those which you have passed.  So on the first line, the extra 8 hours might represent some classes that you failed, or that you are currently taking and have not yet completed.  "LSU" probably counts only those hours corresponding to classes taken at LSU, while "Cum" (presumably standing for "cumulative") might also count classes transferred from other institutions.

("Cum" probably meaning "cumulative")

@TOOGAM: Yes, of course.  Added.

Rather than hours failed, 'hours carried' might be associated with courses that only give S/U grades - those related to classes you passed with a "S" (satisfactory).


text:
Is it possible to write a proposal to get a junior professor position in Germany, when existing openings seem far from my research interests?
It has been several months that I am looking for a juniorprofessor position in German institutes. Basically there are just a few opening which are far from my research interests. I have a good publication record and I was involved in writing funding proposals. Is it possible to write a proposal to ask for a professorship position?
P.S. My research lies in computer science and electrical engineering.

Your profile says you are a PhD student in Germany. In this case, it might be helpful to talk to your advisor about your future career. To see if they would support you to pursue a career in the German system. If they are reluctant, then you may as well forget about getting a professorship in Germany.

Such positions are sometimes created and attached to full W3 professors, essentially as a temporary Assistent in the old parlance (compare C1). Whether this is actually done may depend on your field, your Bundesland (you are in Baden-Württemberg, where this is possible in general) and even your university.
You may want to talk to your supervisor, who may have the most vested interest in having you continue on board, especially if you have a proven track record and/or specialized knowledge. However, it would probably be better for your CV to get a "normal" Juniorprofessur to show that you can stand on your own feet, rather than continue in your supervisor's working group.

Alternatively, there are ways of getting funding for a few years that may not be a Juniorprofessur in name, but in effect. For instance, the DFG's Emmy Noether Program. After a few years funded through this program, you will be considered berufbar. You will need to apply with your own research proposal.
The advantage is that this is very competitive, and if you snag one of these, it is a true mark of excellence. In addition, you will be independent of senior professors, and it offers quite a number of networking opportunities. If you can manage to get one of these, it would be ideal.

Stephan's answer is generally correct, but I get the feeling that this is not what the OP has in mind:

Is it possible to write a proposal to ask for a professorship position?

I take this to mean whether it makes sense to essentially do a "blind application" for a professor position (i.e., send to a university that is not currently conducting a suitable search an application to the extend of "here are my credentials and a research proposal, please create me a position"). The answer to this question is a pretty resounding no. This will only make you seem out of touch with how academia works.

I guess you should wait till the next application season, which generally starts around fall (October-November). Most universities start posting job adverts around that time. You can apply for faculty positions that are available even if the requirements do not strictly match your CV. Meanwhile, inform your colleagues, peers, professors (basically as many people as possible in your network) that you are looking for such a position. Hopefully, if they know of any such upcoming position, they'll pass on the information to you.