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Can I Change a recommendation letter provider after being invited for Campus interview?
I have recently received a campus interview for a Faculty position ECE (I had applied for the position much earlier time). They invite me just by looking my CV (Top 100 ECE schools of US). Currently, I am working with two postdoc supervisors (outside US). While we were in the process of setting the interview date, the university has asked my reference providers to submit their letter. Two of my references have provided letters (one PhD supervisor and one Postdoc supervisor). However the other postdoc supervisor is not willing to provide a letter.
The application requires me to provide 3 names of references. Now my questions are

Is it good to ask the committee chair to change the name of reference at this stage?
Could the school change their decision not to proceed with me (i.e., cancel the invitation).
Will they inform me give them alternative reference?

Thanks

However the other postdoc supervisor is not willing to provide a letter. -- So then why did you include their name in your application?

Thanks for the reply. I worked with him for one year. During this period, we had some differences on different aspects of the research. I have tried my best to publish my work at difference top journals. I chose a topic of what I like (in our research area). And I have found constructive comments from reviewers. I guess he did not like this approach. This makes our relationship not to move smoothly. Nevertheless, he still renewed my work contract. For this reason, I did not suspect any thing negative from him (to the level where he will not write letters).

When I checked my applications 1 month ago, I have noticed that his letters are not submitted in many of my applications. That is why I become aware lately. And I ask him to write a letter by summarizing what I did for the last 1 year. He said “This research is only your research”. I write three papers and he blocked me from submission deliberately without a clear reason (I promised him to be responsible for any kind of review outcome). In addition, he asks me to work with one PhD student for paper submission and share my code. But I will not be included in the Authorship.

But the student was surprized and told me the sympathy about this action. However, it was not surprise for me. Please note that I also ask him to leave the Lab in 2-3 month time, if he is not happy with me. He said “no”. Now I realize that he wants to keep me just to hurt my publication and CV. Please also note that I have also seen several non-academic mentalities from him (getting papers published by contact, and telling me that CV is not important to get a job etc).

The issue is “no one is willing to listen my reason” at this stage. That is why I am worried about this interview. I would appreciate if I can get help to resolve this complication. Thanks

You've committed a serious faux pas. You must ask potential references directly if they are willing to write you strong recommendation letters before listing them as references.  Even if the potential reference is your PhD advisor or postdoc supervisor.  If they don't immediately say "yes of course", run like the wind.

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text:
Patient's consent for photographs
If a journal requirements for patient's photograph say "Patient Photographic Authorization and Release form (when appropriate)", does this mean I must include patient's acceptance for publication of their photograph? If not, what does "when appropriate" really mean in their statement?

Does your paper include photographs of any patients?  Did you get their consent to use these photographs in your paper?

yes, but in my institution's form, and i may not be able to reach some of the patients to get them to write the consent in the application form that the journal require.

Contact someone at the journal.

"when appropriate" means that you as a submitter are expected to know if including consent forms is appropriate/required for your research. By stating "when appropriate", the journal says it expects to receive those forms if consent is required for the photographs you are submitting.
Whether this is the case depends on the law, institute-specific regulations, and ethics. It is your job to be familiar with these rules if you work with photographs of patients. In fact, you should probably know what the rules are even before starting research where patient photographs are used.

Every institution has ethics procedures for that. If it doesn't, it should. Whether you can use patient's pictures is not your call to make. I strongly discourage coming up with some arbitrary procedure on your own. These procedures are there for a reason. Patients are vulnerable and, whether or not they are identifiable (who knows what further progress identification procedures will make in coming years), you need to make sure that the best action is taken to comply what is their likely and reasonable expectation of anonymity.

The question is about whether forms should be submitted to the journal, not about if patients' photos can be used with or without consent forms. My answer only referred to the submission itself. I did not mean that the author (person who submits the paper) decides whether the consent forms are necessary to have, but assumed that he already knows this and needs to judge whether the forms should be submitted for the research being published. Clearly there were some misunderstandings so I have tried to rephrase my answer to prevent this.

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text:
acceptance of a publication by the number of the citations
I wrote a paper of 17 pages and containing 37 citations, could this large number of pages and citations affect its acceptance in any scientific journal or magazine?

Usually, number of citations will not affect acceptance.  If your paper is accepted, you may be asked to add/remove citations if your citation list is unusual.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it can be answered by reading the journal's instructions for authors.

The answer may depend hugely on the discipline

This is less than half of the largest number of pages, and less than a third of the largest number of citations, among my journal publications.

17 pages of manuscript usually shrink to eight or ten in the journal, and 37 citations does not sound like an exceptionally large number.
It depends on the journal you want to submit this paper to. Change the typesetting to the format of that journal, to see how many pages you actually have, and then compare to other articles in there.
Generally: It doesn't matter, if it's not totally off. Is you article well written, scientifically rigorous, referencing the scientific background, and adds something new to it? Then submit it to a journal where it fits in.

Plus, look at any "Instructions for Authors" the journal may have on its homepage. Some journals have very strict limits on word or reference counts.

@StephanKolassa Where? I've only seen that for "letters" or conference abstracts/proceedings, where you have a strict e.g. one or four page limit. Never for journals that publish full original research papers.

Psychological Science, which is pretty much the leading empirical psychological journal, is a prominent example. I think quite a few other psych journals also have similar limits. Psychologists are somewhat anal-retentive about publishing.

Just as point of information: "37 citations might be a rather low number" depends hugely on the discipline/field of the paper

@YemonChoi i wrote "... depends on the journal ..." . but point is taken, i changed that a bit

The number of citations for a paper depends on what sort of a paper you are writing.
If you are writing a paper describing a novel experiment/implementation, the number of citations aren't generally a criteria as long as all the methodologies and ideas behind the techniques used are justified with citations of academic articles.
On the other hand, if you are writing a review or a survey paper collating all the existing methodologies and their effectiveness, the number of citations are generally expected to be high (something beyond 30-40 citations).
Specific to your question, it does seem like 37 references seems to be a little less for a paper that is 17 pages long. But this is usually dependent on the field of study your paper is in.
With all that being said, there is generally no strict criteria for this. As mentioned in one of the comments by Stephan Kolassa, some journals may have specific requirements referring to the citations, usually present in the "Instructions to Authors" section of the website for the conference/journal.


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Research experience in SOP
At the moment, I have the following paragraphs solely about my research experience.
First paragraph describes the importance of the project. Second paragraph is about what has been done. Third paragraph describes what my lab is doing. Fourth paragraph is about my specific tasks in the lab and what I have learned.
Those paragraphs already take up more than a page. I am planning to use the remaining space for introduction and talking about why I want to attend this particular school. My concern is that I feel I discuss my research experience too much. Is it fine if my research experience is too detailed? Do you also have any suggestion about my approach to discussing research experience?

If only a quarter of the description of your research experience is about the work you carried out and what you learnt (i.e., your experiences), then that seems a little unbalanced.

I am just free writing at the moment, and I do find it is unbalanced. I am just not sure the readers would understand the project if I do not give sufficient background.

I suppose the thing to keep in mind is that the most important thing for the reader to understand is what you did. Maybe start by describing what you did, and then think about how much background would be necessary to understand what you've written. It may vary from field to field, and project to project, but I've often found that you don't need to say any more than a sentence or two about a project in order to convey the work you actually carried out (and why it's relevant to the application)

I don't understand why what my lab is doing has anything to do with your future graduate school. If the lab is well known, the school you are applying would already know what it is doing. If the lab is unknown, why should your future school care?

More to say. The SoP is about you and what you want to do in the future, not about your current lab unless I misunderstood you. Are you talking about Statement of Purpose for your graduate school application?.

Yeah, I am writing my Statement of Purpose for this application cycle. My wording is kinda unclear. What I mean is my group is using a particular technology (CRISPR/Cas9) to do the project. I plan to explain why we use this technology since (again) I am not sure whether the readers would understand the project if I do not give sufficient explanation. I am actually performing this technology, so I have quite a lot to discuss about what I am doing.

Now that you mention it, I think I can assume the professors who are reading my SOP understand the background very well. OK, I will focus more on what I am doing and only provide explanation when necessary. I just started my SOP, so there are a lot of uncertainties. Thank you for your suggestions!

That sounds like a good approach.  However, I want to reassure you that the explanations you include are also worthwhile in and of themselves, as they will demonstrate your effectiveness in writing about a project you're involved in.


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Mixed use of titles in dissertation acknowledgment
I would of course use Prof. and Dr. in front of the names of committee members and other professors who I call by Prof. and Dr. in real life. But what about your “peers” who have doctorates?
For example, in the first paragraph I thank my advisor,  Prof. John Smith.... then in the next paragraph I mention specific people who helped me including Dr. Wang (a mentor at a different school) and Johny McLovin (who now has a PhD but worked with me as a grad student in the same lab). Then in the next paragraph I thank my friends and most of them have doctorates also but I’d just put their first names only. It kind of makes sense to me but the inconsistency bothers me. Most importantly, would it be rude to do this? Because in the same sentence I am referring to someone as a doctor and the other as not when both have doctorates purely based on my personal relationship.
On the other hand, I have read an acknowledgment that included titles in front of every single name (including Mr. and Ms.) and it bothered me a lot.
And no, I cannot just leave out the titles altogether because it’s something not culturally acceptable at my institution.
I have seen similar questions here before but none of them were directly applicable to my situation.

If you wanted to be a little sillier, you could say "I thank my friends, the now-Drs. Leslie and Bob"

I'd suggest that if a person has a doctorate that you should give the title, even if they are your friends. It honors their achievement.
Your dissertation will be read by others, possibly many others if it is published.

Use their professional titles if they helped you professionally
during your dissertation.
Use first names of friends if they supported you along the way, but did not contribute to your academic achievement.
A helpful way to draw the division: If one of your friends was an accountant (or any other professional degree unrelated to your degree program), you would not write "CPA" after their name. For the same reason, there is no need to write a professional title for your friends (who may have titles in your field) if their role was helping you as a friend.

I feel like there's a bit of giddiness and excitement around the earning of a PhD; while there's no need for strict title assignment in an acknowledgement like this, I think it's both fun and respectful to include titles for those "fellow new doctors", even if they were "merely" supportive as friends, not out of any obligation but out of genuine pride and shared excitement.

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text:
Should I explain my grades in my application to grad school?
First, some general information about me. I am studying in an integrated bachelor's and master's program majoring in biology at a top-20 institute in India. In most aspects, my application (in my opinion) is pretty strong. I have worked in three labs at my home institution working on my own projects (i.e. hypothesis-guided research as opposed to technician-type work), and one of these projects has recently led to a preprint on which I am an author. I have been conducting my master's thesis in the US at an Ivy for the past few months. My recommendation letters will come from all profs that I have directly worked under, and I know that they will be extremely positive. Thus I know that I will handle a research environment really well and am a perfect fit for competitive schools. I will be applying to graduate programs in neuroscience in the US this year, including the program at the same uni where I am currently doing my thesis.
The reason for my worry is that I have a very average GPA. Converted to the US 4.0 scale it is 3.2, and 3.4 considering only courses from my major. My GPA has been greatly brought down by a handful of C and D grades in courses not relevant to my research interest, and overall my school has a strict no-inflation policy which has reduced my grades in courses, even those where I performed well.
Should I explain my overall low GPA in my SOP or in a separate document in my applications? My main reasons are not due to any particular hardships like health or financial issues, I was just disinterested in the courses after a few months and I spent more time in the lab than on the coursework. Would being honest about my situation as being purely self-inflicted be appreciated by admissions committees? Or should I not explain my transcript and let the rest of the application do the talking? I am mainly concerned about being filtered out at the very start (as some programs anecdotally appear to do) before my application is even read in its entirety and given a fair chance.

Frankly, I wouldn't waste time and words on this in an otherwise strong application, which you seem to have. In the US, letters of recommendation are especially important. What you might say could be interpreted as just "giving excuses" or whining. It is different, however, if one of your letter writers suggests that your low grades in some courses aren't indicative of your likelihood of success. It will be believed if others say it.
Be prepared, however, to answer questions asked of you.
Note, however, that some institutions, especially those that get a huge number of applications, will have a cutoff GPA for further consideration. I don't know how you overcome that other than with personal contact between your professors and those of an institution with such a policy. Even that is rare. But explanations from yourself are unlikely to help in those cases.
If the courses with poor grades are important to your field you have a bigger problem, otherwise not so much.
But the best way to avoid the problem overall is to cast a wide net of applications, not just places like the Ivy League schools or other "top" institutions. Being rejected from one place is probably pretty highly correlated with being rejected from other similar places.
It would probably also be useful to have a conversation with one or two of your professors about how to best present yourself. This is probably best done with those having actual experience in the educational system of the US or other places you are applying to.


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contacting potential coadvisors?
I am currently applying for PhD scholarships using the following strategy:

Contact the potential supervisor via email (75% very positive replies so far).
Apply via the official way.

So far there was always only one supervisor listed for the projects I was interested in. Now, however, I came across an advert with 4 cosupervisors listed as well. What would be the proper etiquette for my first email? Should I put the cosupervisors in CC, write separate emails for them or leave them out entirely?
The university in question is in Prague in case this is relevant.

I'm going to guess that different cultures have different ideas about what is correct. But, I am also going to guess, university professors seeking international applicants will be reasonably forgiving if you make an effort. Try to be polite and respectful. You will almost certainly be forgiven if you make minor mistakes.

I emailed the main advisor today, putting the coadvisors in Cc. He wrote me a very positive response on the same day, also putting the coadvisors in Cc. So, at least in that part of the world, this seems to be the correct way to introduce yourself.


text:
A paper was published with material from my thesis without my knowledge: Correction or Retraction?
I have completed M.tech and submitted my thesis. A year later I realized my thesis was used to publish an article which was a replica of a section of the thesis. Even the values were the same. I was shocked and contacted my supervisor/Guide and the other author to which they responded that it was not a preplanned act. I requested a correction as it was my work. Still, they were unwilling and told me that they won't. I contacted the editor and requested for addition and provided proof(thesis). The journal editors withdrew the article.
I then published a book based on my thesis. Again after a year, I found out that they had published two more articles merely taken from my thesis as such! All this while they didn't even bother to add me as the author.
I feel this is highly unethical and despite the fact that it was my work they didn't add my name at all! One of the journals replied that they agree that the article was taken from my thesis and there was significant overlap, they can provide a correction in the author list or retract the article.
I am confused should I accept the correction as suggested or go for retraction? If I go for correction will they continue this? Should I retract? will it affect them badly?
SORRY for making it lengthy, please forgive and thanks for reading guys. Please advise.
edit:
 If I chose to retract but still want to publish papers (from the thesis with reference to the pre-published book) will this retraction affect my publication?
edit2:
These papers were published by a pHD student(1st author) & my supervisor/guide as the second author. Thanks for the replies, As of now the article is not yet retracted. The Journal editors suggest to either opt for correction or retraction. They told will inform Institute if I chose to retract.
edit3:
Thank you all for the answers the paper had been retracted but unfortunately, another paper had been published by the same authors with the same issue. Hoping I could get the strength to continue this fight, which is going on like forever!!
requested for plagiarism check of new one

If I correctly understand the question, these people published papers that were entirely plagiarized from your thesis. I don't see any reasonable correction of that; the papers should be retracted.

Hmmm. Was this actually your advisor who did this? Or is the title now incorrect? If it was your advisor, I might need to re-think my answer.

@Buffy What's the difference between an advisor plagiarising and someone else?

@Buffy "I contacted my supervisor/Guide and the other author" implies that the advisor was one of the authors.

@user2768, ethically, nothing, but advisors have some power over you that adds considerations of personal/career safety. Accusing an advisor of misconduct can be a career killer.

@lighthousekeeper, actually, it does not imply that. It implies only that two people were contacted. I think the phrasing is ambiguous, hence my question, but I think you made an assumption beyond the evidence.

@Buffy To me it seems unambiguous, since the only subject to whom the word "other" could refer to seems to be the advisor.

@lighthousekeeper, I prefer the OP to disambiguate it. I drew a different conclusion from the same text. Sorry, but we are not the judges of meaning here.

@Buffy I still don't see why any disambiguation is required, since there only seems to be one logical interpretation of the word "other" here. But I will revise the title in a way that avoids this question while still being reasonably specific.

Sorry for the confusion, "the other "I referred to was a phd student under my guide

@lighthousekeeper, Is the title correct now as the advisor is just the second author in this case?

The title is still correct, but based on your clarification, consider @Buffy's announcement that he might have to re-think his answer.

In addition to the advice being offered to retract (rather than correct) the journal article, I suggest that you contact the officials at the university where you did the thesis. I imagine that the legal office at the university will be especially interested to learn about violations of copyright by their faculty. Should such information become "public knowledge", the faculty, department, and perhaps even the university may be put on record officially or by unofficial word of mouth that they should be held ineligible for external funding. Indeed, when your thesis was supported by a national funding agency in the US, I believe such violations of copyright could even lead to requests for a return of the sponsor's funds.
Your first contact with the legal offices should be to summarize your case and ask for insights on how they would handle it going forward.

And even if the officials don't care so much about the copyright part, they should definitely care about staff members/PhD students blatantly plagiarizing a thesis and publishing. In the end this reflects badly on the university and they will most likely want to act on this.

Unless it hits the media, the university is likely to do nothing at all. I recommend contacting retraction watch (https://retractionwatch.com/). They are very vocal and can place significant pressure on the publisher and the university.

@MoHossny Whether we agree or not on the likely outcome, prejudging what the university offices are or are not likely to do should not be part of the factors weighing in a decision to contact them. Retraction watch is a good reference point.

@JeffreyJWeimer Good point.

See note and caveat at the end.
I suggest that you have a retraction done. You didn't participate directly in the preparation of the offending paper, so adding you as an author is a bit fishy. Moreover, adding you would connect you to people who seem to have no ethical boundaries. I'd guess that you don't want that association.
If the retraction is issued, especially with an explanation, it will be a warning to the others not to continue to abuse you and your work.
Once retracted, you should be free to use your own work in any (legal) way you choose. Especially since any copyright assignment by the others would be cancelled as well, since they had no right to issue it.

When I wrote the above, my assumption was that the "other" authors here were not personally known to the OP. Clarification has made that assumption false.
So, let me add, primarily for others who might, in future, wind up in a similar situation that it can be extremely dangerous to one's career to accuse your advisor of wrongdoing. My normal advice in such situations is to try to work with the advisor long enough and politely enough so that you can get away and out from under any influence they might have over your career. The exceptions might be for the case in which the transgression is extremely blatant and for the case in which the person has already developed an independent career. The first case is still dangerous, of course, but necessity may require it. In that case, however, you need allies so that you don't become the focus of hate directed by a powerful person. Another way to say it is to take a long view about your career. Any given paper is only a small pert of your reputation. Optimize for the future, not necessarily for the present.
I think the OP here, however, is already in the second situation, having shown independence and development past the degree. I'll therefore leave my original answer in place.
Note that the ethics is the same, whether the transgressions are by people known to you or not. But self preservation is often necessary for a young researcher until that certain level of independence is achieved.

@JeffreyJWeimer, I don't think the OP is proposing to re-do the retracted articles.

@JeffreyJWeimer, I don't understand. I don't have any rights to grant. But the OP seems unencumbered by the improper actions of others. If someone else improperly tried to give up copyright, then no rights were yielded by the OP. The OP can't, of course, publish the work of the other author(s) whatever it is. But they have given up no rights to their own work.

Without editing your excellent synopsis, the gist of the closing statement as I would prefer would say: Regardless of whether the article is or is not retracted, you are always free to use your own work in any way that you choose within the conventions of any existing copyright that you own on it.

I am not proposing to re-do the articles as its already published as a book. But some of the data and analysis(from the thesis) may be used for making a new paper. of course by giving citation to the book.

I did not participate in the writing of the last two papers. But the first paper they published was the one I submitted to my guide during Mtech, for which I requested them to add me as the first author (which they refused to add & replied that they may consider adding in future).I requested the phd fellow not to use the thesis without my consent through email, they published two more papers afterwards. I don't want to collaborate with them after all this.

@neha I do not question your lack of interest to collaborate with your previous colleagues. My statement is this: Should you publish any of the previous work, especially in full, you are most likely bound at a minimum to contact your previous colleagues and ask them whether they will participate or decline to participate in the publication. I believe that you cannot just "[give] citation to the book". I would also question whether the latter practice appears just to be duplicating the same work again, which itself can be taken by some journals as a violation of their policies.

@JeffreyJWeimer I have no plan to publish previous work(since its already published) but I can work on it and develop new and further advance with the topic. Reproducing the same material is not what I was referring to. The previous work was not a collaborative one.

If your own supervisor is plagiarizing your work, then that's a major ethics violation. Get the article retracted, and inform the Head of Department, or higher up, in writing of your concerns.

Head of the department was informed after the first case, but he said it was unfortunate but nothing can be done now as its published. so I never contacted again.

@neha As this has happened more than once, you have cause to revisit the subject with him. As said: put it in writing. If there's a record that you've flagged it, then he will have to act to cover his back.

I have only contacted the HOD over the phone. But I have sent an email to my supervisor requesting not to allow such misuse of the thesis without my consent just after the first case. I sent him because I couldn't believe he could allow all this.

once I opt for retraction the journal editors informed they need to inform the Institute regarding the issue before retraction. Meanwhile, the author's admitted to the editors that my contribution was substantial. The editors agreed that there was significant overlap.

Get it done. Your work is all you have. If someone else is taking credit for it, that's appalling. That it's your own supervisor makes it shockingly unprofessional.

These kind of situations are always critical. Ethics gives us rules of conduct that in same cases we realistically neglect.
I have no idea about what the boss and the at that time PhD student can do and cast on your current career. But as you already correctly have interphered with their plot of publishing the work of others under their names, go ahead and prompt the retraction of all papers involved.
There might be a good portion of their papers resulting as plagiarism, if this was they normal conduct.
I would even check if the same has happened to other thesis as well.
Note that I would have been more cautious without the previous retraction.

As of now two of the publications, one was withdrawn and other was removed from the website. The current one is going on so can correct or retract

Be consistent and retract. But again, I don't know the situation in detail, namely the current supervisor conduct and their influence on your career, direct or indirect.


text:
Letter of Recommendation from English Teacher for Math Ph.D. program?
I am a Japanese undergraduate junior student who is thinking of applying to graduate programs in Mathematics in the U.S. and the biggest problem for me is the Letter of Recommendation. I am planning to ask a teacher of my English class for one of my LOR because my senior who went for a grad school(Engineering) in the U.S. did so.
My intention is that she can prove that I have sufficient English skills to study in the U.S.
However, from what I have seen on the Internet, no one seemed to do so and all of LORs have to be from people in relevant fields. Is getting a LOR from an English teacher for Math Ph.D. program good or bad?

I don't have the experience to write an authoritative answer. That said, based on your question your English is quite good, and it can't hurt for a prospective thesis advisor to know that. If you're allowed multiple letters of recommendation one from your English teacher might be useful. Better still, write a literate cover letter.

20 years ago, when I chaired my department's graduate admissions committee, we required applicants from non-English-speaking countries to provide a letter, from a native speaker of English, attesting to the applicant's ability to speak English. This letter was in addition to the usual letters of recommendation about the applicant's mathematical ability.  (I don't see this requirement on the department's current web site; maybe the requirement has been dropped, or maybe the web site has been damaged by administrative beautification.)

Knowledge of the English language is often a hit-or-miss requirement, i.e., either you have a recognized English qualification (TOEFL, IELTS...) and you can study there, or you do not have it and you cannot study there. In many institutions, this is checked by administrative personnel, independently of the selection committee.
Having better English knowledge than other applicants who also have the qualification will in most cases not give you any advantage over them. The selection committee (or the prospective PhD professor, depending on the location) will almost exclusively consider your qualifications in your research field when deciding whether to admit you.
I would recommend trying to obtain recommendation letters from people that can say good things about your skills in your field.

The assertions in this answer are not universally correct...

I agree with this answer. You only have a few letters of recommendation to give, use them on people who can speak to your mathematical abilities. You will have to document your English language abilities using your TOEFL anyway.

@paulgarrett they are not, that is why I tried to qualify every statement with "often", "in most cases", etc. My concluding recommendation still stands though.

Ask the professors who know you very well and can speak of your ability to succeed in the program.
P.S. I got into the grad program I wanted. I had 2 LoR from the field and 1 from non-field. The strongest letter would come from my non-field professor who knows very well about my work ethic and passion, and what I can bring into the program.


text:
What are the ethical implications of lying to get into a course?
I attend a small liberal arts college in the US. Through the cross-registration program, we are permitted to take classes at a large state university at no extra cost to us. However, we are only allowed to enroll in one course at a time; the system will not allow us to take two during the same semester.
Next semester, I am interested in taking two courses at the university. The will both be very small; certainly under 15 students each. Both professors have told me I cannot attend their class without being officially enrolled (I asked both individually). I have been considering attending both classes and asking both professors to fill out the cross-registration form that would allow me to enroll in their class, but only turning in one professor's form. From my previous experience at this university, the registration takes 4-6 weeks to come through, but professors, of course, let you attend class before that happens, so they may forget about awaiting the registration during that time. Even if they ended up finding out that I never turned it in, I would still have received a month of instruction before that happens, which I find valuable.
I am curious about the ethical concerns about this from the standpoint of the professors. Obviously by being there I am giving them more work, but they are not paid according to the number of students attending their classes. On the other hand, I know that class enrollment is really important to directors of departments and higher-ups in the university, so they are doing the work of teaching me without getting the benefit of one more student in their enrollment numbers. And from a personal standpoint, I would feel absolutely terrible about developing a good relationship with a professor and having them find out I lied to them.
I am not asking to be told what to do (it's probably not a very good idea), I would just like to know if there are any other concerns with lying to get into this course that I am not considering.
edit/update: Wow, I was not expecting to get so many responses. I'm not going to respond to comments and answers individually but I appreciate all your feedback, even though a few of you are a bit rude. I definitely will not be attempting to take both courses. Unfortunately, the program doesn't allow audits, so I am going to choose one of the two courses and stick with it. Thanks again for sharing all of your perspectives.

State universities often allow people to take courses, even if they are not in a degree program at the university, by paying tuition on a per-course or per-credit basis.  Have you considered doing something like this to take the second course?  If the instruction is so valuable to you, maybe it's worth paying for...

"Even if they ended up finding out that I never turned it in..." They obviously will.  If nothing else, when they go to submit grades at the end of the semester, they will discover they can't submit a grade for you because you are not on the course roster.  So besides being unethical, it's also dumb, because you are all but guaranteed to be caught and (as StrongBad says) punished.

Can you clarify what exactly you want to know? To me your question reads something along the lines of “I am interested in the ethics of lying to get something I want but am not entitled to get honestly. Discuss.” That’s too vague for me to bother trying to answer, and besides that you obviously understand perfectly well that your idea is unethical and that you will probably get into trouble if you get caught, so it’s not clear to me what more needs to be said. Anyway, if you clarify the question I‘ll see if I have any other thoughts to suggest.

Should the question be edited to be about practical rather than ethical implications?

The concern about lying should be that it would make you a liar.  Isn't that enough?

The main ethical concern is that you lied. Oh, Scott beat me to it ;-).

Since your approach won't give you a proper grade (since you didn't register), you may as well just ask for permission to audit one of the courses.  If necessary, the professor can decline to grade your assignments, reducing the burden of this request.  I'll note that colleges will often be especially accommodating of students who are primarily seeking understanding (i.e., rather than seeking certification/transcript).

If you are more interested in the benefit/value of the instruction than the credits toward your degree, why would you not audit the course?  It is usually cheaper than paying for a full enrollment, and many professors seem to really appreciate their audit students for their focus on the inherent value of the knowledge.

Both professors have told me I cannot attend their class without being officially enrolled (I asked both individually) Game over. That's really the only information you need.

Is one of the courses on ethics?

Can you spell expulsion? Can you deal with it?

You asked for the ethical concerns, but obviously you already know that it is extremely unethical.  Did you really mean to ask about the consequences (which are rather serious)?  Most of the answers address the consequences.

Do you want to take it for credit, or just audit (no credit, possibly no transcript)? Is it appropriate to attend a class one is not registered for? - depends on the country and whether the univ is public or private. Based on what I've been told about US public universities, members of the general public have the right to audit a class. So please restate your question and delete all the references to 'lying' - which would suggest lying about your credentials for admission

Based on what you wrote, you're merely asking to audit one extra course, not take it for-credit. "Both professors have told me I cannot attend their class without being officially enrolled" Maybe they misunderstood and thought you meant "take it for-credit"; because in the US, "take a course" generally means "take for-credit" vs "audit a course" means "audit". Go check the regulations about auditing, find out how to apply, and henceforth use the word "audit" instead of "take". All this sidebar about 'deception' is a red herring.

Also related: What does “auditing a course” mean?

In many jurisdictions in the US, this would not just be unethical; it would be criminal. Specifically, it's fraud, which is commonly defined as obtaining something of value (which can be a physical thing or something intangible) by providing false information when you would not have been able to obtain it had you not provided the false information. A) attending class has value (i.e. people pay tuition for that). B) It's clear that you would not be permitted to attend without actively providing the false information. So, what you are proposing fulfills both parts.

The ethical concern is that you are lying.

@user207421: Yours are the ethics of the rich.

@gingin: Do you (realistically) have the option of paying some fee for taking the one extra course?

@einpoklum-reinstateMonica Maybe? They do have a program to enroll in classes for a per-credit fee without applying but it says that students can't participate in multiple concurrent programs in one term, so I don't know if it's allowed. Also, it's expensive (~3k for the one class) and I can't really justify it to myself since I'm already paying full-time tuition at another school

3K makes it unrealistic. So effectively the answer is "no". And for a state-funded university, too... shameful.

gingin: I wasn't aware that you were simply trying to attend the course without paying at all. People are beating up on my answer.

If I found out I was intentionally deceived by a student after telling them they could not take my class, I would alert my dean (I would go beyond the department chair) that said student was violating the rules and spirit of the exchange program. At a minimum I would expect that student to no longer be able to take advantage of the exchange and have their grade withheld from the other class. I would hope the home university would also punish this student for academic misconduct.

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

Another point to consider is that cross-registration programs like this exist only by mutual agreement between the two institutions.  If the large university starts to feel that the program is being abused by tricks like yours, or is otherwise more trouble than it's worth, they could pull out.  This would deprive your fellow Small College students of this educational benefit, and it would be (at least partly) your fault.

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

Easy answer: it's clearly unethical. Moreover it violates school policy and can lead to disciplinary action when discovered.
You might try politely to arrange an exception to the policy. Check with the professors to make sure that would be acceptable to them. (It will be if what they are doing, correctly, is following the rules. It might not be if they think for some reason that you should not be taking both courses.) With the professors' willingness in hand, talk to your academic advisor, or someone in student services who might know how to ask for a waiver.

Easy answer, and easily wrong one: It is clearly ethical. Regardless of what school policy is.

Do you want to take it for credit, or just audit (no credit, and possibly no transcript)? Is it appropriate to attend a class one is not registered for? - depends on the country and whether the univ is public or private. Based on what I've been told about US public universities, members of the general public have the right to audit a class (at a public university; as long as they're not disruptive and know the prerequisites, e.g. linear algebra). So please restate your question and delete all the references to 'lying' - which would suggest lying about your credentials for admission, or transcript, or nationality or visa status, which would indeed be a much more serious thing.
Based on what you wrote, you're merely asking to audit one extra course, not take it for-credit. "Both professors have told me I cannot attend their class without being officially enrolled" So? Possibly they misunderstood and thought you meant "take it for-credit"; because in the US, "take a course" generally means "take for-credit" vs "audit a course" means "audit". Maybe the professors have never had an audit student before and are unfamiliar. Maybe the whole college has never had an audit student. So: do your homework, ask around.
Go check the regulations about auditing, whether it's allowed, find out how to apply (there may or may not be a form and a deadline, or maybe email permssion is enough; also whether it appears on your transcript (showing 'Audit')), and henceforth use the word "audit" instead of "take". You may well need to check with the dept secretary, also the dean of external students, the student union. All this sidebar about 'deception' and 'misconduct' is a red herring. Your title needs restating.
EDIT: after I wrote my answer, OP subsequently posted that they are simply trying to attend the course without paying at all, that that the course doesn't allow audits, and yes intentionally lying about having registered. Kindly don't beat up on me for the sake of the OP. This answer is still a useful resource for people who do want to follow the rules.

At any university in the US I am familiar with, "auditing" is not just showing up for class, it means registering for that class as an auditing attendee and includes paying for the class. Both enrolled and non-enrolled students can potentially register, and there is typically a reduced rate (often quite reasonable) if the course is not taken as part of a degree program.

@BryanKrause: yes, me too, my point is that it's well-established for over a century that some process for 'auditing' is legally allowed, at least at US public universities. I told the OP to check the regulations (with college, not just the professors, who apparently haven't heard the word 'audit'). The fee for auditing may be nominal and is generally much lower than the regular tuition fee. All the sidebars about 'lying', 'misconduct' and 'expulsion' are making an off-topic mess out of this question and its answers. It's not like OP claiming they have a medical degree or BSCS or whatever.

@MorganRodgers: It was said to me by grad students here in California. Here's a review of auditing at some US colleges. Here's an answer distinguishing between 'formal audit' (appears on transcript) vs 'informal audit'. Here's Harvard's policy on auditing in arts and ...

...Harvard law

@MorganRodgers: not clear. The OP didn't understand how to ask for approval, and neither the instructor nor the college seem to be clear whether they have a policy on auditing, or what it is. Seems constructive to actually tell the OP the right language to make their request, not just wildly accusing them of things.

I believe it's obvious OP wants the second option.

Auditing courses generally isn't free, and it's clear OP has no intention of paying, so I'm not sure the point of this answer. There is no legal right in the USA to audit any course you like for free.

@MorganRodgers: after I wrote my answer, OP posted that they are simply trying to attend the course without paying at all, and yes apparently lying about having registered. Also that the course doesn't allow audits. I wasn't aware of this and I have nothing to do with it, so kindly stop beating up on my answer. My answer is still a useful resource for people who do want to follow the rules.

@MorganRodgers: there is no direct law (in the US) saying auditing is a right, even for registered students not just the general public, I researched it a little. But there are antidiscrimination laws at least for public universities, and it is a historic right enshrined by many colleges, at least for introductory or general-interest courses (if you register and pay the fee); didn't know exchange programs forbid it. Anyway what happened here is like answering "How do I drive a car in a hurry..." without the context "...away from a bank, at high speed, avoiding all those people behind me"

None of this applied to OP, but I'll provide a bit of extra detail.  Many colleges bill by semester or by year.  For such colleges, auditing 1-2 courses is often possible at no additional cost, either because it is included or because the provided course allotment is intentionally slightly higher than the intended course load.

I strongly recommend that you write back to both professors and explain your situation and that you are really interested to learn from them and ask whether there is a way for you to sit in for their classes, even if you don't get any grades or feedback on homework. All it takes is for one of those professors to agree, and you have a legal, ethical and officially approved solution! In the unlikely case that both professors refuse to help you, you can still write into your university administration and ask for special permission to officially audit one of the courses (so you do not violate the one-course-per-semester rule).

Students taking unpopular classes are pretty much certain to really want to learn what's being taught, wouldn't you say? ... Still, not a bad suggestion; it might work. +1.

@einpoklum: Unpopular classes, yea. But even popular classes... I knew some students who were from arts majors who wanted to take core mathematics classes out of interest, and I cannot think of any other reasonable reason than "they want to learn what's being taught there". =)

(I'll leave aside the obvious ethics concerns of lying and possibly fraud, and the consequences as others have explained that already)

 Next semester, I am interested in taking two courses at the university.
we are only allowed to enroll in one course at a time

Is at least one of those courses run regularly? I.e. could you take it a semester or a year later? => that would be the obvious, ethical and otherwise correct solution.
If this is not possible, e.g.

because the courses are one-off offers, or
you already know that your schedule at your "home college" later on will not permit you to attend the course

I'd talk to administration (of the exchange program) whether under these specific circumstances you may be allowed you to enroll for both courses now, and in turn not enroll in any course via the exchange program in the next semester.
In my experience (which is not in the US academic system, though), being friendly, open and honest often gets one a very long way.

Because this is a program that lets you take ONE class at no extra cost, it is possible this could be considered fraud. If various authorities in the various institutions wanted to push it, you could find yourself charged with fraud in the amount of the tuition for the class you falsely entered. That could, again if they wanted to push it hard enough, lead to a criminal conviction. The penalties for that would depend on the amount of the tuition.

Institutions, departments, and individual lecturers differ on their attitudes towards people attending lectures without having enrolled at the institution and/or for the specific lecture-course. In general, there are three categories of person:

students enrolled at the institution and enrolled on the specific lecture-course;
students enrolled at the institution but not on the specific lecture-course; and
other.

(whether the OP counts as §2 or §3 is a matter for debate, but I am assuming that §3 would apply)
For seminars and highly interactive teaching, attendance may be restricted to §1.
For lectures (as opposed to seminars or highly interactive teaching), many institutions have a policy of allowing §1 and §2 as a matter of entitlement. As for §3, it varies enormously: some institutions explicitly permit anyone (including the general public) to attend lectures (whether the lecturer likes it or not), whilst others may be more restrictive.
Where institutions do not provide entitlement to §3 to attend lectures, it may still be possible. Many lecturers are actually quite permissive, even if institutional policies may oblige them to say that §3 are not permitted (because university managements want to protect their enrolment income). So, if you are in §3, go to the lectures, but ensure you:

sit at the back;
do not draw attention to yourself (e.g.: by asking off-topic questions);
do not record the lecture (because it would be copyright infringement and a violation of privacy -- students should feel comfortable asking questions, and lecturers should feel able to speak candidly, without worrying that a comment may be taken out of context and published all over the www); and
do not expect any individual feedback from the lecturer.

Some lecturers would expect you to obtain permission in advance, but many lecturers would not be bothered at all (when I give lectures, I do not even bother checking whether everyone in the room is in §1 or §2; to be honest, I am flattered when there are people wanting to come to my lectures just out of interest in the subject, rather than because they want "credits").

Obviously by being there I am giving them more work, but they are not paid according to the number of students attending their classes. On the other hand, I know that class enrollment is really important to directors of departments and higher-ups in the university, so they are doing the work of teaching me without getting the benefit of one more student in their enrollment numbers.

They are not paid according to the number of students attending their classes, but they are also paid to grade work ONLY by enrolled students. It would be wrong for you to turn in any work for a professor to grade if you are not enrolled (often professors are explicitly barred by contract from grading un-enrolled work).
While you may "get away" (for a bit) with sitting in the lectures, you would not be able to have your work assessed and therefore would not really be getting the benefits of the course. There's no really good reason to do this, especially considering...

And from a personal standpoint, I would feel absolutely terrible about developing a good relationship with a professor and having them find out I lied to them.

There's no "even if" here. The professor will find out, and they will know something fishy is going on. The outcome of that will depend on the dispositions of that person, but don't hold the illusion that they won't find out about it and that they won't realize you put them in a difficult position.

"you would not be able to have your work assessed and therefore would not really be getting the benefits of the course" it is not obvious to me that one cannot get the benefits of a course if one does not get examined/assessed. In many cases, the lectures themselves are valuable for learning the content. Of course, it depends strongly on the type and content of the course.

Dulce et decorum est pro educatione mentiri.

Both professors have told me I cannot attend their class without being officially enrolled (I asked both individually)... I am curious about the ethical concerns about this from the standpoint of the professors.

Your concern is well-placed: It is quite unethical for the Professors to refuse to let you sit their class if you're not enrolled, when you are not actually preventing any other students from doing the same.
Teaching the public is a duty of the academic - and registration, enrollment or payment are wholly secondary considerations. To deny someone schooling is unacceptable. Shame on them. They would certainly have no moral standing to impeach your ethics in this situation. (Of course, that's not to say that they wouldn't).

This does not answer the OP's question.

@Aventinus: I believe it does, but - edited slightly to clarify how.

You can have whatever opinions you like regarding the ethics of capitalism, but we live in the real world. Who would pay for a college education if they knew they could just attend and demand one for free? If you think university education is a basic right, you should be championing the cause politically, not encouraging strangers to lie to their professors.

@Chris: 1. In many countries, university education is gratis anyway. 2. In most (?) other countries, you can always attend classes for free - and yet somehow there is no dearth of students registering. So, it is you who needs to champion the cause of throwing people out of class because they haven't paid. Good luck with that though.

@einpoklum-reinstateMonica What is true in "many" or "most" countries is irrelevant- OP makes it very clear that they are in the US, where university education is not gratis, and there is no standard at universities to allow anybody to attend classes for free.

@Chris: OP is in the US, but academic ethics are not US-specific. And allowing anybody to attend classes for free is an ethical standard. Of course not all standard are observed universally.

I would assume if two professors both said a student cannot sit in on their classes that there is something bigger going on. To suggest a professor who may be following university guidelines is unethical seems highly unfair. In the US lots of classes are limited in size based on lab equipment and/or beliefs about small class sizes being beneficial.

@StrongBad: "To suggest a professor who may be following university guidelines is unethical seems highly unfair" <- Until some point, university guidelines in many/most countries prevented women from enrolling.

Larger institution will support Masters and PhD students by offering part-time employment (known as Tutors or Teaching Assistants) to assist the Professors who deliver the lectures. These students are likely to grade assignments and mark exams. By lying to get into a course you are increasing the workload of these students without compensation. They will have less time for their own studies. As your actions can penalise other students lying would be unethical.

Enroll in the state college and take whatever classes you want. (Kinda joking)
It’s your education: if you think both classes will help achieve your goal, then do whatever is in your best interest.
I’ll give an example from my time in school. I wanted to go into the cyber security field, but the college I lived around didn’t offer that degree - only computer science. I took most of the intro computer science classes till I was far enough along to start taking elective classes. I took all the classes I could think of that would pertain to cyber security. After I had a lot of knowledge under my belt from taking the elective classes I started applying for cyber security jobs. Once I got a job I dropped out of school altogether and only finishing about half of the computer science degree. I worked at that job for about a year then I started taking online classes to finish my computer science degree (at a different school, I might add). I finished my BS in Computer Science while I’m still working in the cyber field. So I now have almost 3 years experience and a BS in computer science vs most people that come out of school only taking the classes they were told to take with no experience in any field and only a degree which everyone else has also.
The point is that the school doesn’t have you in mind, they have your money in mind. If you know what you want to do when you get out of school, then hack the system to your benefit and don’t worry about the school. It’s your time and money; always have your self in mind first.

If the class is limited to 15 students then there are going to be 15 chairs in the room that is alloted for the class. If you don't turn in your form you are going to show up for class and make someone have to stand. It is going to be known that you are a cheat.
Edit:
For as many down votes as I am getting some people should explain their reasoning.
The universities and colleges I have been at are broke down into schools and then into majors/departments.
Each school has control over a certain number of buildings that they then allot to each department.
Each building is not the soul use of the department. There are common areas, janitorial, maintenance, etc. Of what is left over, about 1/4 is usually dedicated to the specific department in the form of class labs, and upper level course classes seating ~25 students. 1/4 are larger classes that seat ~35-50 student. This 1/4 has to be shared with all other departments across all the schools as needed. 1/2 of the space is dedicated to each of the professors labs.
There is a certain amount of space set aside by each school for the base classes that everyone has to take. These are rooms that can hold 75 to +100. Think Cal1, Physics 1,
All of the classes that ares 50 or less seats have a cap set at the seat count level. I have never seen the cap set at a seat count level less than the seats available. Rarely are we able to move a class to a larger place. At most, if we see demand, we can add classes to be held in the smaller rooms at times they are not being used. It is cheap to have salaried professors teach another class, grad students teach, or add Grad/Undergrad TAs.
I have had many times when seat have to be brought into a class when there is a special speaker during a class and there is demand that we allow more students in for that one time.
Again, for those commenting and down voting. It would be nice for a more factual elaboration.

They will be found out, but not because of the number of chairs in the room...

In most schools the limiting factor for how many students can be alloted to a class is number of seats. \

Number of seats? In a university? Does someone rearange the seats between rooms in the breaks?

@Mayou36 That would explain where all the money is going

@NDEthos What are you talking about? The limiting factor is almost never the number of physical chairs. If the class gets close to being that crowded, they get moved to a larger classroom.

@GregSchmit-ReinstateMonica Depends on the class. If it's hands-on pottery or electronics lab, there may be a physical limit to the number of work stations, with no other lab to move to.

@Greg Schmit - Reinstate Monica Cant move to what you don't have. If a class is sitting empty then that is an un-utilized revenue stream.

@NDEthos I have never once seen a class be completely filled so that 0 seats are available. They don't do that.

@TheGreatDuck this is extremely common in my department.

@The Great Duck Every Senior level class I took was maxed out with no seats left. Every Grad level class I took was maxed out with no seats left. My Call 1 class, physics 1 labs, chem 1 class and labs. All had no seats left. Comp 1 had no seats left.This was across two universities and 1 community college. I personally spoke with and worked for the two universities to try to get into classes, classes moved, or classes added when space was not available.


text:
Manuscript status is in "Revise and Resubmit" with only 1 reviewer's comment
Manuscript submitted in an elsevier journal is now in "Revise and Resubmit" status. Journal editor provided only one reviewer's comments. The comments suggested some minor changes only and revision time is given 2 weeks.
What do you guys think? What's the possibility of getting rejected?

I'm well aware of the publication process, I'm just confused with the single reviewer's comment & short time given for revision. Will the manuscript be rejected anyway?

This is not a confusing or unusual situation.  Maybe not typical, but not unusual.

From what you say, it seems likely that the paper will be accepted.

@GEdgar, actually such a assumption is unwarranted. It could still be rejected for any reason or no reason at all. All you can safely conclude is that the process continues. But the feedback is encouraging, at least.

@Buffy i second that. It just says that changes are necessary. Revise and resubmit could be closer to a rejection than to an acceptance. It depends on the journals' policy (which categories they have)

@Buffy Balderdash. No sane editor forwards reviewer comments asking for nothing but minor revisions if he actually thinks the paper is bad and should be rejected.

@Karl, Balderdash back atcha. The editor will make a judgement on the final version. And only on the final version and will make it in relationship to other things they have.

Chances of rejection are almost not existing. Unless you ruin the paper by minor revising it :))


text:
What would be the correct response if a teacher gives you their own answer without explaining or giving any indication that you are wrong?
It's not the first time that it has happened to me, but I think many times, tons of times. I'm a bachelor's student with Physics as the major. Let me tell you about today's incident:
So we were taking this elective class online on Modern physics. The topic was Tensor. The teacher asked, "Tell me about tensor and try to tell in one sentence" (which I think I find kind of ridiculous in itself). In any case, I said,

Tensors, like vectors, are objects that transform under rotation of coordinate according to some specific rule.

I couldn't tell the rule as I have only one sentence.

The teacher says I will say, Tensors are a generalization of vectors.

And I kind of find it to be the same thing. But I get out of my mind (it might be my fault) when someone does that, that is, giving their own explanation without explaining or even commenting on my answer. They just say, Well Well I'll say......
What should be my reaction to this? Should I just listen and let it go? Or should I ask what's wrong with my definition or my explanation (my thinking)?

In modern mathematical terms, the definition of tensor (and also that of vector) you gave is wrong, or somehow obsolete. I discussed (briefly) the various definitions of tensors, from a physicist and mathematician's point of view, here.

What I had said is mention by the OP? So Is it wrong? In any case, I'm not concerned with definitions here.

I think the example really detracts from the question, here.

@YoungKindaichi I understand that the definition is not of concern here, and in fact mine was just a comment, but maybe you can find useful for your studies a broader perspective.

There are various reasons why teachers (and people more broadly) do this. In most cases, they think your answer sounds wrong, and want to give you the textbook answer, but in addition:

They may not feel confident pinning down precisely what's wrong with your answer.

They may be feeling lazy and not want to engage with your answer.

They may not be feeling particularly lazy, but your answer may be so confusing/confused/oddly worded that they can't face trying to engage with it.

They may not want to get bogged down in dissecting your answer, for time reasons.

Basically, if they'd wanted to engage with your answer, they probably would have done. You ask whether you should try to cajole them into answering you anyway. I would argue that it depends on why you think they haven't engaged with your answer, and what result you're after.

If they haven't engaged with your answer because they don't understand it, then trying to cajole them may force them to admit that, which they may not like (depending on their personality).

If they haven't engaged with it because they're feeling lazy, they might engage with it if cajoled, perhaps.

If they haven't engaged with it because they think it's confused, they might attack the answer, if you irritate them.

If they haven't engaged with it because there's no time, they might tell you that and possibly ask you to talk to them at the end.

So it depends on what you want to achieve, ultimately. Arguably they should have engaged with your answer, if it was understandable. But if they didn't, and you force the issue, you run the risk of annoying them (whether that's fair or not). It's up to you to judge the situation at the time, I think.
For what it's worth, I've been on both sides of this, as a student and as a teacher. From a student's perspective, it's very annoying if a teacher isn't perfect. From a teacher's perspective, it's easy to feel bad for not being perfect (which is impossible actually), and to wish students could empathise a bit more. The reality is that most students wish their teachers could be some kind of all-knowing Yoda figure, and that sadly most teachers aren't, and can't be. The older you get, the more empathy you develop for your former teachers, I find.


text:
Is it fine to inform my professor that I'm not able to follow his class?
I'm a student in an Integrated Ph.D. course in Physical Science (Physics). Currently, I'm in the first year of this course where I'm taking core courses. I'm doing this course on Fundamentals of Astrophysics which is my first formal exposure to this area of physics. I find several problems with this class.
First, I'm not able to synchronize with the professor. I'm not able to follow his English speaking accent either, I suspect because he comes from a different region of the country. I don't understand anything and get nothing out of this class. Moreover, his class bores me, and makes the subject boring for me. The classes are online so it make it worse still. Due to network glitches, its breaks at points. And now not everyone can ask him to repeat again and again.
But when I read a book, I find the subject to be interesting. I don't find any difficulty. But the problem is, we are loaded with work. I can afford to read one book but it looks like he gives assignments and teaches from various places (even from topics he didn't cover.). Sometimes he goes outside the prerequisites of the course. If I go about reading different sections of different books, I find it hard because directly jumping to some section is not possible, since the authors then talk about previous sections or previous chapters.
I didn't find the suggested books to be useful for his assignment. I don't care about marks very much but due to reasons, I have to obtain decent marks. Can I just explain to him my situation and ask him for a solution? I think it's hard to make changes with the speaking accent or even the teaching style. I can request him to suggest a text from where I can do problems to follow his assignment and can continue to make the subject interesting. Is it alright to ask this?

Edit : The suggestion is based on a friend, Is this sound constructive? To me, it is.
Dear Sir,
(I am ....intro) and I am taking your "Fundamental of Astrophysics" course this semester. I am writing this to inform you about the difficulties I am facing in following the course and lectures,
especially the topics that I have not read anytime before.
Sir, there are several topics you cover that I did not found in the prescribed book i.e.
'Astrophysics for physicist'. Like you taught about the neutrino oscillation . It is not in this book. In a different textbook, it talks about two-level neutrino oscillation, I got the fact but I feel like this only adds to my knowledge but does not add anything to my understanding, as I cannot answer any related question or can even
ask. There are several topics that I could not follow due to which the assignments are seeming difficult, I follow another book but directly jumping in between doesn't much help and the following two books would be pretty loaded, as we always have assignments lined up.
Sir, Please let me know what should I do when I am unable to understand problems in assignments?
Also, it is a request to please provide the references of the lectures and topics that are not in the prescribed book, it will be helpful in following up with the course, understand and do the assignment problems.
Thank you

I have added a short note. Do you find it  constructive?

Difficult to know what you would like to accomplish, your instructor to change so as to cater to you? Have you availed yourself of his or her office hours? I imagine you have, so I wish you best of luck in your future endeavors!

@Aruralreader This is my first semester and it's online. The classes are working remotely from home. It's a late semester so usually where you the semester runs for 5 months apart from exams, Here you get four months with the same amount of work. This overloads us with lots of work. Online is not very efficient as you know.

Caveat I am from the US, so some advice may not transfer perfectly to India.
I think it's a good idea to meet, but it's important to think about what you want to say, and manage your expectations about what the outcomes will be.
Things not to say (because they aren't things the professor can or should change)

I need a good grade in this course.
Your accent is hard to understand.
The books are better than the lectures.
The homework is too hard.

Things you could say

There are frequent network problems when I watch the lectures online. Can these be fixed or can you help me find someone to talk to about fixing this?
I am having difficulty relating the homework problems to the lectures and suggested texts. Do you have time to discuss the problems in office hours? Can you suggest resources that are more appropriate for the problems, or help me understand how to use the resources you recommended in the syllabus?
I don't have a strong background in astronomy. Can you suggest some more basic resources to help me fill in any gaps?

Expectations

You shouldn't expect the professor to change the way they are teaching or grading the course. A good professor will take feedback to heart and adjust their teaching style based on feedback from students, but you shouldn't expect everyone will do this.
You shouldn't expect the homeworks to get easier. However, you can hopefully expect that you can get guidance on how to get started on the problems so you aren't wasting a lot of time getting started.
You should expect some reasonable attempt can be made to fix glaring technical problems with online lectures. However, it might not lead to a perfect solution. Even if the technical problem can't be fixed, the professor can at least be aware it is happening and account for it in their presentation style, for example if the lecture is broadcast live, they could take breaks to ask if any content was missed due to a technical issue.
Most importantly, you can expect that going to a professor and talking through your issues with the course in a professional way will mean the professor will remember you, and if they are a good professor they will appreciate that you were professional and communicative before major problems arose. In addition to being the right thing to do in some abstract sense, this can help you later on in "soft" ways. If you do poorly on an assignment, for example, it gives you more latitude to go into the professor and talk over what you can do better next time; I think people tend not to like it when someone shows up to their office only after failing an exam, but if you have been making an effort and underperform on a key assignment or exam, they may be more willing to try to help you figure out how to do better.

"There are frequent network problems when I watch the lectures online. Can these be fixed or can you help me find someone to talk to about fixing this?"
Or, given that it is an online class, "Would it be possible for you to make recordings of the lectures available?"

Is it OK, If I ask him to help me proceed with the problem where I'm stuck? This problem may belong to the assignment.

@YoungKindaichi Yes, absolutely!! I can't imagine any scenario where a professor would not be thrilled to see a student show up to office hours, explain their approach to the problem, and show where they are stuck and ask for guidance. That's what office hours are for!

Great answer @Andrew

@Andrew This is what he say, when I show  him my calculation and the point where I'm stuck on. "as this is a problem set, which carries grades I cannot give you direct answer, that will be unfair for others. You do whatever you deem fit. We will see. All the best."

@YoungKindaichi Well... that's not a great response. Not all professors are very good. You could try setting up a meeting to talk in more high-level, conceptual terms about where you are stuck instead of tying it to a specific problem. In this meeting you could also try bringing up the network issues ad ask for resources that cover more basic material. But this person might just not want to be helpful. Maybe something to try is reaching out to some classmates to form a study group where you can help each other.

@Andrew That wasn't a direct question. It's something like this; the problem was asking for the density function of the Sun. I was asking, Is it possible that the Sun has a non-zero density at the outer layer? That was pretty indirect. What more, on asking for resources? He suggested that I should better follow his lecture. He offered few texts, but these are to the rigor that I can not get into. Thank you for your advice on making a group, though.

@YoungKindaichi :-/ Yeah, unfortunately there's not much I can do as an internet stranger to help deal with an unhelpful professor other than offer sympathy. I've been in similar situations before and it's not fun. The only advice I can really give is to try to make the best of the situation. The good news is that semesters end, and after you finish this course you can try to avoid working with this person again.

It sounds like your complaints are

A physics professor has poor English skills.
A graduate level course covers a lot of material and requires a lot of background study.

These are normal things.  While they are uncomfortable, you should not complain about them.
You can ask for help.  Try to be specific about what you need help with.


text:
Does an institution commit misconduct if it gives a low-quality online course to its graduate students?
I'm a graduate student in Physics. The past semester was online due to the current situation. We had a particular course named "Workshop course" which is about the metal shop where usually they teach about how to use essential equipment for various purposes. This course, like others, was online. It hasn't been any online classes, no doubt classes, etc. They just sent five youtube videos to watch, and that's it. We had to write a report about the two topics given in the final examination. One of the topics wasn't even in these videos.
Most students have used online material to write the report and plagiarized. Now I admit this to be misconduct. The instructor warned everyone about that and postponed the exam for the same reason.
I'm sure what everyone has done is wrong. But by what means, the course and its organization wasn't a misconduct. How could they expect someone to come up with something original?        We aren't engineering students, and we don't have any background in this. I wanted to ask if the course was misconduct by the institute. Shall I ask the instructor to organize the course with proper classes (physical)?

Edit: It seems everyone thinks that our plagiarism is justified by the way course organization was done. But I'm not saying that. The only purpose for me to mention is that the institute does care about a good research in their domain. Hence they consider it to be very big misconduct. Therefore, after submitting everyone's report, it is given X grade to everyone, which means this examination will be conducted again after some time. Considering the institute cares about a good research, how do they justify their own organization, of course? Isn't that misconduct also? Isn't it a contradiction?
Also, just to add, I haven't plagiarized.

That's a lot of questions and some of them unanswerable I'd say. Also some things are not clear to me: There was a final examination, but then the instructor postponed the exam? I don't understand what was going on.

@Dirk After the report submission, We have been told that most of the student have plagiarized the report and hence the exam will again been conducted after some duration of time.

Ah, ok, thanks for clarification.

This seems like an instance of the tu quoque logical fallacy. You admit that "most students" committed plagiarism, and that plagiarism is wrong. But you try to mitigate their culpability by pointing out unrelated ethical shortcomings on the university's part. This is indeed a logical fallacy; even if it is true that the university committed misconduct, that does not make it OK for students to commit misconduct.
I would also suggest that outrage at the poor course design is rather opportunistic. I suspect that if this plagiarism had not been detected and you had gotten an easy A, the students' outrage would be minimal.
At any rate, to your questions:

But by what means the course and its organization wasn't a misconduct....I wanted to ask if "The course was misconduct by the institute".

A poorly-designed course is not misconduct. You might feel "ripped off" if you were paying money for an expensive course that turned out to be some Youtube videos. But such things are not actionable (and you are presumably not paying tuition in any case).

How could they expect someone to come up with something original? We aren't engineering students and we don't have any background in this.

Sorry, I really have no sympathy for those who commit plagiarism. Did they attend (virtual) office hours? E-mail the professor to ask for help? Look for relevant books or videos? Grad students in physics should be well capable of finding ways to solve difficult problems without committing academic misconduct.
Moreover, they should be well catechized in how serious plagiarism is by now. If they had been transparent about the origin of the ideas they presented, they might have gotten a bad grade -- or maybe not, maybe the professor wasn't expecting original work and would have been happy with a pro forma summarization of something they read. But trying to argue that your professor's poor teaching somehow "entrapped" them into committing plagiarism is nonsensical.

Shall I ask the instructor to organize the course with proper classes (Physical)?

You can ask, but presumably the department has already had extensive discussions about what is possible given the "current situation" (as you put it). As should be clear by now, trying to imply that plagiarism was somehow a reasonable reaction to the virtual courses would not reflect well on you.

Please don't use "you". I haven't mentioned but I haven't plagiarised by any means.  I have always cited the sources whenever used them and given credit to the original author. I have added few details, you can have look on the edit of the question.

Yes, the question has changed significantly now. I have changed the pronouns only.

To some extent, yes. You pay money to attend classes, and the institution commits to teaching you. If they don't do that, then you have a legitimate grievance. In this case the "standard" thing to do is file a complaint with your university. This could ultimately lead to the university paying you your money back. If your complaint fails, you could involve the courts (see this).
If you do file a complaint, you'll probably have to deal with the perception that you're complaining because you were caught plagiarizing - i.e. if the teacher hadn't caught you and you passed the course, then you wouldn't think the teaching is poor.

Shall I ask the instructor to organize the course with proper classes (Physical)?

You could, although if the reason you're doing remote learning is because of COVID, it's unlikely the instructor will be able to conduct physical classes.

I have written a little bit of detail in the question. You can have a look. Furthermore, The semester was online in the last same only, now we are returning to physical mode.