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Part of my MA thesis or empirical paper for PhD writing sample? None seem to fit the criteria
I am applying to PhD programs in educational sciences and they sometimes ask for a writing sample. I am undecided about sending part of my MA thesis or an empirical paper that is in preparation. Each has its own limitations.
MA thesis: It is not recent (I defended it in 2014) and its sections are usually longer than the required page number or word limit. Breaking up these sections to make them fit the requirements doesn't feel right either.
Empirical paper: It is still in preparation and is sometimes shorter than the required length.
I should also mention that I have a first-author publication with two other co-authors, but I keep reading that I should not send it as my writing sample.
So how should I proceed?
Do I have to exactly meet the length requirements? Should my writing sample be on a recent topic? Is the published article or the paper in preparation a better choice?

Some thoughts that might help you decide.

You want to submit good writing that's easy to read. Consider how a
random person in your field might react to your prose. The source of
the text (thesis, published paper, work in progress) probably does
not matter.
Submitting somewhat less than the suggested amount might please
readers processing many applications. Definitely don't provide more.
Consider a small part of the thesis and the introduction or abstract
and conclusion of the paper, with a brief note explaining that
choice.


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Senior professional admissions for a PhD
I am an MSc of urban planning with more than 25 years of professional practice. Can someone please tell me if age is in any way negative for being considered by a top university in the USA or UK for a PhD, especially for international applicants?

No, so far as I can tell, age is not a negative for application to graduate school in the US.  But you will have to explain your reasons for wanting to do a PhD and provide some evidence of your interest and ability to do research and that could be harder for you.  Admissions committees like to see published papers and letters of reference from academics in a position to comment on your research skills.  If you've spent your career in industry, it could be difficult providing that kind of evidence.

+1. Just reinforcing this. You have spent your career in the practice of your profession, not, likely, its theory. The doctorate will be theory based and you will want to assure any admissions committee that you are current in the basic skills that are expected of entering students now, not as they were 25 years ago. In some, rapidly changing, fields that may take some work. In theory, theory is the same as practice. But not in practice.

+1...just to pile on, in some STEM fields, the first 1-2 years involve problem-solving classes (incldg. homework, tests, etc.) at a very high level of difficulty. Passing these classes is often not strongly correlated with success in research; nonetheless, you'll need to convince the committee that you won't fail the classes (because failing them enough will lead to expulsion)

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PhD dropping out and funding reimbursement
What happens if one has a PhD scholarship and drops out in the second year of the PhD program? Should he pay back the money that he got in his first doctoral year?

This depends entirely on your agreement, as Corey979 said, but I would be astonished if it was required. It feels very unethical, as it effectively means that students without an independant income (or rich parents, or whatever) are "locked in" to their program and can't leave.

Which country? In any case, I doubt that, in a decent legal climate, the studentship for the first year must be paid back if the student has worked in the first year in good faith.

@Flyto you are 100% right !

This will depend on many things including local law and the details of anything signed. In the absence of some rule, it is unlikely that there is any need to repay. In particular, many funding agencies have no real way to accept money paid back. The reason that the person dropped out may be very complex, and actually a shared issue with the institution.
But this can differ widely. Read the fine print if any.

"But this can differ widely."  Really?  I have never heard of a student who successfully completed year N having to pay back a scholarship awarded in year N.  Have you?

@PeteL.Clark, no, I don't have personal experience, but some students are funded under contractual agreements and I've noticed some questions here that talk about requirements for publishing. I don't know the laws everywhere, but have to allow for it. To say that it never happens would possibly be misleading.

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Applying for PhD with a 3.2 GPA - Do I even stand a chance?
I just read an incredibly disheartening post on reddit about Grad School admissions in the Biological sciences. The post basically makes it sound like I have no chance of getting into a good PhD program.
I graduated from UC Berkeley with a Degree in Biochemistry in 2012. While in school I worked as an undergraduate researcher for 3.5 years. Post graduation I've been working in Biotech Research for close to 3 years now.
I graduated Berkeley with somewhere in the range of a 3.2-3.3 GPA. The average GPA for my major at Cal is a 2.8 . Does the rigor of my undergraduate institution matter? Berkeley's grade deflation is pretty notorious but will that matter?
From what I read in the post it sounds like most schools won't even look at my application. I'm starting to wonder if its worth it for me to apply at all.
I've attached a link to the thread on reddit. Your honest opinions would be much appreciated.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GradSchool/comments/25gj24/a_somewhat_notgentle_guide_to_getting_into_grad/

I feel like this post you're flagging doesn't answer my question about how or if my undergraduate institution will play a role in my prospects.

Depends on what program you're applying for. If you're going for a program at Harvard, then you're probably competing against loads of other candidates from Stanford, MIT, etc. who have 4.0s. If you're applying to a lower tier university, then you might have a better chance.

I see what you mean. I have a ton of research experience and I have industry experience so I think I'm a unique candidate who has proven that my GPA is not reflective of my ability to succeed in research. I just don't know if my application will get weeded out based off of GPA before anyone gets a chance to see that.

From the accepted answer to henning's linked question: When admissions committees consider the GPA they are considering a number of factors including the grades, the strength of the school and major (emph mine).

I honestly suspect the only true answer to your question is "no one can say for sure". If you apply and get rejected from everywhere, well then there you go, you've got your answer and you can continue on to Plan B. And if you get in, the probability is then 1 because you got in and it doesn't matter what your a priori odds were. I don't think anyone can say your chance is 0, so then effectively all that is left is: is it worth it to you to try to apply and see what happens? Apply broadly, to top R1 programs and those not so top (but that you'd still be honored to attend), and who knows!

It depends. Different schools, programs, and faculty have different ways of looking at applicants. Based on my limited experience, a 3.30 GPA from an R1 will likely count for more than a 3.30 from a less reputable institution. However, if you are applying to top-tier programs, you may be competing with students who have higher GPAs, also from R1s.
The reddit link that you posted is from one single professor at one institution. Without knowing the specific institution, program, and/or faculty member you are applying to, it is impossible to say what will be weighed, as there are not standardized admission formulas.
Some faculty are looking for students who match their research agenda and have research experience (i.e., they are proficient enough at research so they won't suck the faculty member's time). Others may prioritize GPA, and some might place more emphasis on quantitative GRE scores.
The link that you posted and the link from @henning both have good advice for tailoring applications to fit the department, institution, or faculty member.
If you are uncertain about applying, it might not hurt to contact a faculty member you are interested in working with to ask if they would consider your application. Even better, you could find a common contact/reference (maybe your undergrad advisor/professor/? knows someone in the Ph.D. department you want to apply to?) who can introduce you.
You might also want to check out college/graduate school/institution GPA policies to see what the minimum GPA for doctoral study is at your prospective institutions. If you have to maintain a 3.0 as a doc student, some faculty may question your ability to succeed at a more rigorous level.
To summarize: Ask the faculty member you are interested in working with what they consider when selecting doctoral applicants.

Thanks SB for you well thought out answer. Do you think I could get into an R1 institution at all? I know schools like MIT, Berkeley, and Harvard are a long shot for me but I would be equally happy at places like UW Madison, or University of Washington Seattle. Basically I know I want to go to graduate school the only thing that holds me back is fear that schools will look at me as a mediocre candidate due to my GPA and chuck my app in trash.

No chance at MIT, berkeley, harvard, etc.

@Cole2790 I was a graduate student in a biological science at UW Madison. Your GPA would definitely be on the low side in my program and might bar you from consideration as an at-large candidate, though it isn't completely disqualifying. Note that at schools like UW, some specific programs are top 5 or top 3 and rank above those more famous names. A better path might be to take a research job in an academic lab (this will mean a big pay cut), letting your PI know that you are interested in grad school in the future.

@Cole2790 I can't speak for Biology in particular, but I know people with lower GPAs who have been admitted to R1 PhD programs.

My husband had a shitty GPA and great letters. He applied to like 10 places for chemical/bio science/engineering and only got into the worst-ranked one and the best-ranked one. I think the explanation is that if you are an unusual candidate, you have to apply to a bunch of places and hope that at one you are the right kind of unusual!

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How do I properly cite during an exam?
So during exams and as of late, I started to informally cite scholars sometimes and as much as possible to backup the written ideas, however and due to the very nature of exams, I am facing the below issues:

Sometimes I memorize ideas almost word-by-word from the textbook or course book, and as a result of answering the exam question, I almost write everything as it is and without paraphrasing or even citing, is that plagiarism? The doctor would definitely identify my answer as being from the book we learned...
Other times, I get some ideas from outside the book and I do cite them in that case, however I do not paraphrase as I am learning by heart the thoughts in order to answer a specific question in the exam, is that plagiarism? (e.g. lack of paraphrasing)
And lastly, since I am memorizing by heart, I sometimes misspell the name of an author or even change a bit of details in his or her idea, is that a bad thing?

Why not learn to express ideas in your own words? Memorization alone will only get you so far.

Nobody asks for exact bibliographies in exams.

I do not think it is necessary to cite or give exact bibliographical information during a written exam. Even in publications, textbook knowledge does not have to be equipped with references.
In more detail:

I almost write everything as it is and without paraphrasing or even citing, is that plagiarism?
I get some ideas from outside the book and I do cite them in that case, however I do not paraphrase as I am learning by heart the thoughts in order to answer a specific question in the exam, is that plagiarism?

What troubles me here is not that you do not cite correctly, but that you just reproduce the exact wording from the textbook. To the examiner, this does only show that you are able to find the relevant section of the textbook to the question, but not that you understood the subject sufficiently to explain it in your own words. With this approach, you are completely lost in essay questions, and later in your thesis.

And lastly, since I am memorizing by heart, I sometimes misspell the name of an author or even change a bit of details in his or her idea, is that a bad thing?

Misspelling the name is certainly not a problem. Changing the ideas depends on what exactly changes, but I think this is a problem that arises from learning by heart instead of learning the theory, facts, and connections therein.

I almost write everything as it is and without paraphrasing or even citing, is that plagiarism?

Yup -- submitting work created by somebody else (the author of the textbook or course book) without crediting them is absolutely plagiarism. The solution, as you point out, is to cite them.
More worryingly for your educator, reading someone else's content -- even if properly cited -- makes it hard to evaluate whether you've understood the material. If the question is "How does pigeon domestication support the theory of natural selection?", you could quote directly from Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, chapter 1 --- but all that does is show that Darwin understood the connection! It's not clear if you understand the connection and, if I was grading your work, I'd want to know if there's evidence that you understand natural selection well enough to find a connection.

Other times, I get some ideas from outside the book and I do cite them in that case, however I do not paraphrase as I am learning by heart the thoughts in order to answer a specific question in the exam, is that plagiarism? (e.g. lack of paraphrasing)

Direct quotation isn't plagiarism as long as its properly cited; however, as I pointed out earlier, saying "Darwin (1859) believes that the connection between domestic pigeons and natural selection is ..." doesn't tell your evaluator much about whether you understand the connection, which is what they're trying to evaluate.

And lastly, since I am memorizing by heart, I sometimes misspell the name of an author or even change a bit of details in his or her idea, is that a bad thing?

For a closed book exam, definitely not -- it's understandable that you can't cite a work that isn't in front of you. For an open book exam, it would depend on your subject area: I teach biology, and I routinely overlook grammatical, spelling and minor mathematical errors as long as it's clear the student understands the biology they're describing.

I am pretty sure that the amount of text that someone can memorize for an exam would fall within fair use (never mind the fact it is being used on an exam, which is almost by definition fair use).

"(...) is absolutely plagiarism. The solution, as you point out, is to cite them." - I think this claim is absurd. In an exam, it is the expected outcome that knowledge gathered from someone else's work (often, a textbook) is repeated one way or another. As such, it is completely clear from context that citation - literal or otherwise - is happening. I agree asking students to use their own words has advantages, but then, the reason for that request should certainly not be a perceived "copyright violation". Note that exam answers aren't meant to be published (which would make things ...

... indeed copyright-relevant), while non-publicly copying parts in the process of learning is (if that is one's learning technique) the entire purpose of the book. I think even pro-restrictive-copyright lobbyists would have a hard time making a case here.

@StrongBad Fair point, especially since you're not making money on it either! I meant the reference to copyright facetiously; I've removed it from my answer since it wasn't really relevant to the rest of the answer.

@O.R.Mapper I think that if someone represents an exact quotation from a book as their own work, that absolutely is plagiarism. To me, the key word in your response is "knowledge gathered": students should be gathering knowledge and building on it, not repeating content verbatim. Sorry about the copyright stuff, which clearly distracted from my main point -- I've removed it now!

@Gaurav: I guess that's the point then - I do not consider the assumption that exam answers are the student's "own work" in the sense of "entirely the result of their own creative thinking" valid. In my opinion (at least when considering things based on a CS background), the key objective of an exam is to have students show that they understand how to choose or develop the right solution for a given problem, not to have them learn by heart which exact sokutions or descriptions thereof have appeared before and which ones haven't. Accordingly, I do not see memorizing lists of possible ...

... citations as a worthwhile goal for an exam.

@O.R.Mapper Yup! I wanted to stress that repeating verbatim from a textbook is plagiarism; it isn't plagiarism if you're clear that the content came from somewhere else, even without an exact citation. In your example: for the question "Describe how you would store a list of values if insertions occur frequently", responding with the verbatim definition of a linked list from any uncited source is plagiarism. Making it clear that this isn't their own definition but from the textbook, they're no longer claiming it as their own work, so it's not plagiarism, but not likely to get full marks.

We should really move this to chat, but I have no idea how :-P Sorry!

@Gaurav: Ok; I'd disagree the example you describe could be considered plagiarism, as in my opinion, exam answers cannot be expected to definitely not come from a textbook (or any other source used for learning) in the first place. If the answer is correct in the sense of the question, I would also consider it unwarranted to not give students full marks for it, just because it matches what is said in a textbook. Like that, you are forcing them to memorize the exact wording from the textbook, so they can know which way of putting the answer to steer clear of. Instead, I think exams ...

... should aim at understanding and application of the topics, so exam answers can be evaluated based on the correctness of their contents compared to what was asked for, not based on their equality (or lack thereof) to specific wordings in teaching materials, but maybe preferences are subfield-specific.

The first part of this answer is missing an important clause: Submitting work created by someone else in a scenario where you're expected to submit your own work is plagiarism. In an exam where students' answers are supposed to come from material learned in the course, there is no expectation of originality and no requirement of citing the textbook or other course materials.

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Coming from Europe, can I work while doing a Master Thesis in USA?
I understand this question is not strictly academic, but what I hope to find here is some feedback from someone who already had similar experience.
I live and study Electronics Engineering in Parma, a small town in northern Italy. I'm considering to move in order to get my Master Thesis done.
Now, as far as I understand, in USA the masters are somewhat different from what we have here in Europe. To the point that "Master Thesis" is not even a thing there, in fact I'm not able to find proposals online.
That said, I have friends who have done "gradated level" work there and validated it as a thesis back in Europe. So let's just assume I can get a place somewhere and be able to go there.
I immediately understand I will have to pay for my staying and the chances to get a salary are really narrow.
So, as per the title: can I work there (like weekend jobs) while studying?
Any help would be appreciated.

Check your visa...

Most often, visitors to the US study under an F1 visa.
F1 visas do not permit off-campus work during the first year, and after the first year off-campus work is limited to work related to the degree; on-campus work is allowed but limited to 20 hours per week.
Schools you apply to will be familiar with having international students attending; you should direct questions about employment opportunities to the programs and schools you may apply for; any larger institution likely has a dedicated office for international student needs and questions.

Slight segue, but practical advice.  Consider to do a Ph.D. instead.  You would get the degree paid for and a stipend (at most competitive schools, large state schools as a floor, MIT as a ceiling).  You can always bail part way through with a masters.  Or maybe you find you like it and just persist and get the union card.
If time spent is an issue for you (and it SHOULD BE) than do some shopping around to find the departments or advisors that tend to the "old school" 4 year expectation rather than the modern bloat to 7 years.  Despite what Anonymous Phys says, there are some available like that if you shop around (I went to one).


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Guest Lecturer title
I am IT Director of a Company and I'm regularly invited by Italian universities to do lectures on Innovation or Information Systems, usually 5/6 lectures per year. Can I claim University Guest Lecturer title in my CV?

I pretty strongly suggest that you don't claim a title of any kind unless it is formally conferred. That is, if you want your CV to be credible.
But there is a difference between "University Guest Lecturer" and "university guest lecturer". The first seems to be a title, but the latter is just descriptive. You can certainly describe what you do in a CV without making any claim to hold a position that the university hasn't actually conferred.
Caution is best, I think, in all such situations.

tl;dr: You can claim a title if and only if the university actually gives you a title.

A "lecturer" is usually considered an academic title. So if you are just giving an invited talk, that would usually be considered a seminar; if you are invited to teach an occasional 6-week long course, then maybe it could be justified to call yourself a "guest lecturer" for that period.
Whether or not you "can" do this is somewhat subjective. You do occasionally give lectures as a guest, so you are not technically lying. But I would suspect that if someone called you on this and you had to explain yourself, it would not look especially flattering.

Thx in effect i deliver Seminars so how i should call it? :)

If you regularly give seminars, you probably have contact to one or more members of that department. I would ask them. That way any questions about whether you correctly use that title probably never come up, and if they do, you have a perfectly reasonable answer.

Are your lecturing with a formal contract, or is it just a volunteer activity? Does your name appear on the course syllabus and on the university website?
If yes, that would fall into the case of "professore a contratto" (even if just for a part of a course), and I would endorse the translation as as guest lectures.
Otherwise, it would seem like an abuse of the title.


text:
I am (likely) being accused of cheating by my professor, what do I do?
I took my final last Wednesday (it’s Monday) and on Friday I received an email from my professor asking to meet to discuss my performance on the final. I got a little stressed but was more worried about if I failed the exam and have to retake the course. There was one other person I knew that got this email and he had the meeting today. The professor basically just said that there is proof of him cheating and said that he was on Moodle looking at the other tests while taking the final exam. This person said he did not and the professor just said he will have to fill out a form saying he did or did not and has to attend a hearing about it.
I have my meeting with the professor tomorrow and am EXTREMELY worried now. Being upfront, I did not cheat, I had Moodle open on my laptop in a minimized window but was not actively looking at it. I also have a full ride that would definitely disappear if I had something like this. What do I do?
PS: the professor already said to my friend that even if Moodle was open on a minimized window, the site wouldn’t give the report of accessing materials during the final exam.
Edit: grammar in PS section.

it wouldn’t give that report --- What does the second "it" refer to? professor? friend? Moodle? None of these make sense. Also, "give that report" seems misworded -- if your professor isn't giving the report, then what is the concern?

What is the full ride?

@user111388 "Full ride" refers to a scholarship covering all education cost including tuition and (sometimes) room and board.

@Dave L Renfro my apologies, I meant to say Moodle wouldn’t give the report of accessing materials during the exam.

Then perhaps you mean something like this? "The professor told my friend that if Moodle was open, but on a minimized window, then the evidence the professor is basing the claim on would not exist." (The original use of "even" seems misplaced, since one would expect a condition more likely to set off a cheating alarm to follow "even", not a condition that seems less likely of setting off a cheating alarm.)

Would access to an open Moodle give you an advantage in the exam?

"What should I do" is not a question. Also a duplicate of many other "accused by AI of cheating during online exam" questions.

Were there instructions to have certain software or all software except XYZ closed during the exam? If so, there might not be much defense to having software open against the instructions, even if this is a relatively poor way of detecting cheating. Much like for athletes who test positive for diuretics.

First, don't assume that the concerns about one person are necessarily the same as concerns about another. It may just be coincidence.
Second, the history is what it is. If there is some "evidence" that you did something wrong you will just have to explain it as best you can and live with the consequences.
It may well be that the monitoring system gets a report of open windows/apps but can't distinguish what is visible to the user from what is not.
Explain your actions. I suggest honestly. If you didn't cheat, then insist on that and don't agree to "lesser penalties" if you admit to something you didn't do.

Also note that statements about what automated systems do or don't do can be checked experimentally and/or by contacting the vendor.

This is a good answer. And next time don't leave your moodle window open during an exam (even minimized). It is like having a cheat sheet on your desk during the exam and saying: "but I did not look at it, honestly!"

@DanielHatton, clauses like that can be overcome in a court of law should OP choose to carry it that far. The software is effectively a witness against them which could be made to show how it came to focus on them. This would be an expensive endeavor.

@DanielHatton. software used for grading and, especially sanctioning students, needs to be transparent in its operation. If it isn't then it shouldn't be used. But testing the validity of a system doesn't necessarily imply reverse engineering.

@DanielHatton, see this Washington Post article.

@DanielHatton, yes, sadly, their model is intended for subscribers only. The article was widely discussed elsewhere, so perhaps you can find a review of it that is open. I finally gave in and subscribed since their news is fairly comprehensive.

@DanielHatton and Buffy, many times you can find Washington Post in electronic form through your library (public or academic). As this is academia.SE, probably your institution has access through ProQuest or EBSCO or Gale.


text:
Master's degree after Bachelor in Liberal Arts and Humanities
I have a question regarding a futher education after obtaining Bachelor degree in Liberal Arts and humanities. Is it feasible/possible/widespread to obtain Master's in some other specialization? Particularly I am interested in Master's in archeology or antropology (preferably in Europe).
Thank you in advance for your help.

From modern linguistics to archeology - difficult. From history to archeology - possible. You would have to check the admission criteria of the individual programs you're targeting, though.

Often times the shift from Bachelor's programs to Master's programs has more to do with thinking skills than it has to do with content (or knowledge of facts). Master's programs aim to teach students underlying thinking skills through intensive reading and discussion. For that reason there is less need for facts than one would normally expect and therefore you may be able to handle a change of discipline.  In fact coming from a different background may give you an advantage (if you know how to use it).


text:
How do I acquire research experience for a PhD in Computer Science after I've started working in industry?
Here is my background: I was a high school teacher that transitioned into data science about 4 years ago. I've been a data scientist and software engineer for the past 3-4 years and made a pretty good career out of it, and am now managing a small team of analysts, data scientists, and data engineers myself. However, I'm realizing I'd like to do research, specifically within computer science and natural language processing for the rest of my career. It's something I'm constantly drawn to and passionate about, and something I spend my weekends doing reading textbooks anyways, and I feel like I've hit my limits within industry. I'd like to actually contribute new algorithms and architectures, specifically within NLP (natural language processing).
Here is my problem: I don't have formal research experience- no published papers, no internships at research labs. My BA was in History over 10 years ago. I've done research projects for my work as a data scientist and deployed machine learning models into production as a result of different statistical tests I've performed, but I'm pretty sure the academic world does not consider this "real research". I do have a Masters in Computer Science from Syracuse (and graduated with the top GPA from the program) and an MBA from UCLA, and have many research papers I wrote for my classes, but were never submitted for publishing and have ended up as more or less repositories on my Github profile. Even though I was in the business school at UCLA, I've taken almost a minors-worth of graduate and senior-level coursework in CS, and done pretty well grade-wise. I also moonlight as an adjunct professor teaching a graduate level NLP and text analytics course at a top 25 university. But no research experience. I know I can do research, because I've never been so passionate about interested in this topic - and at worst, if I can't actually do it, I need to find out.
Here's what I need help with: I've seen lots of posts on different forums asking "is research required for a top X program, etc." This is not one of them. I know I have to pay my dues. I know people put in countless hours of sweat and toil in research labs to earn the privilege to be admitted to a PhD program. I'm not asking to cut the line because somehow I have some random industry experience. I've saved up enough money to quit my job (if I need to) and self fund myself for an internship or volunteer position at a research lab somewhere. I just don't know where to start - how does a 32 year old begin to acquire research experience? Do I just start picking professors from websites that have similar interests to mine and cold emailing them asking if they have volunteeer opportunities? Do I look for some sort of post-bac program? Do I try to find some research opportunities at work and document those projects really well?
Any perspectives or advice would be extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I'm not in computer science so commenting rather than answering, but have you considered applying to some PhD programmes already, without waiting to get research experience? A summer in a lab is important for an undergraduate who might be unsure about what they want to do; less important for someone like you who has already switched careers to pursue their subject and is clearly well up to speed.

Agreed with @buffy that you’re almost certainly qualified to get a PhD position - go ahead and apply! Talking to some profs first is always a good idea, as you’ll be working closely with them for a few years. Alternatively, you might try looking elsewhere in industry where they do real cutting edge NLP research: google, Amazon, etc. https://www.amazon.science/conversational-ai-natural-language-processing

Actually, you probably already have more "research experience" than many (most?) students entering a doctoral CS program in the US. I doubt that you need anything else. I'm also wondering if you have misconceptions about the purpose of doctoral education. This is where you get a "first" significant research experience and show the world that you can do that.
It isn't a place where you go to prove that you don't need to be there.
If you have an MS from a good place (yes, you do) then you have the necessary background and more to enter PhD studies in the US. Just make a few applications to some places that support the specific sorts of research you are interested in. Get accepted. Find an advisor. Discuss mutual research interests.
But, absent an advisor with "mutual research interests", the way to proceed as an independent would be to try to find some collaborative relationship with someone who (like an advisor) will work with you and already has some experience. You might be able to find some such person(s) through work contacts or visits to university departments, but it seems to me to be just spinning your wheels when it is admission to a program being what you really need.
Most US applicants to doctoral programs hold only a BS/BA and not many of them have significant research experience. And almost always that will have been guided by some professor.
Ignore your age. It isn't relevant. But make sure that you are able to spend three years (or so) with vastly reduced income.
But if you want it - Do It.

Thanks. My delay in responding was because I've been busy writing my statement of purpose and reading research papers. Your answer was the nudge I needed to pull the trigger. I do want it, so I applied to about 6-7 schools that have faculty active in my research area. I picked professors in my statement of purpose who have research papers on topics that I care about and explained how I would continue that path of research. We'll see what happens. I've put my best foot forward.


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What is the smallest reasonable amount of time needed to prepare lectures?
What is the smallest reasonable amount of time needed to prepare lectures?
I have recently learned that professors at my university (in UK) don't know who is going to teach one of the new modules starting in October. They say they sometimes aren't allocated until a few weeks before the semester starts. It shows.
I think it should take a couple of months to write lecture notes and prepare everything. I think this explain why so many lecturers use so much poor quality half-cooked material (typos, non-sequiturs) and I can't always blame them.
Is this normal? Are all universities like this? Shouldn't professors refuse to accept a module if they haven't been given a sufficient amount of time to prepare?

Please focus on one question.

In my corner of the world, one doesn't typically need to prepare lecture notes for a class. So, this reduces the time needed to prepare a class. And with a bit of experience, a few days of advance can be enough.

Could you argue a little more on "new module"? Is this a course that has never been taught before at your university? Is it one for which standard teaching material is already available?

@MassimoOrtolano What do you mean "doesn't need to prepare lecture notes"? Do you mean something to give to the class to follow along with? Do you not need slides?

@AzorAhai-him- I interpret lecture notes as  a text to be given to the class, something less cleaned up than a book, but still a text. I wouldn't consider this necessary for a class, as I wouldn't consider slides necessary either: blackboards or graphic tablets can well be used without the need of having slides in advance.

@AzorAhai-him-: To expand on Massimo Ortolano's comment: in my corner of the world (which is a few hundred kilometers away from his) it is completely common to give, for instance, maths lectures on blackboards. Some lecturers have typed lectures notes which they give to the students, others don't. Giving a maths lecture on a topic which you know very well and only using the blackboard does not require particularly much preparation for experienced lecturers.

Frankly, I don't understand the necessity of lecture notes.  Isn't the point of textbooks to provide written material for students to read?

I'd say 5 minutes is not reasonable, and neither is 10 years, but I'm not sure we will agree on what is least reasonable.

@alexanderwoo depends on the field. In my field, if its in a textbook, its considered far too out of date for degree level.

@AlexanderWoo it is common that a suitable textbook does not exist. Either because its not availabe in the language needed, is outdated or never created in firtsplace. This would neccesitate collecting data form several different books, articles and papers. So there are indeed entire countries where the written notes are the modus operandi.

Unversities arent schools in similar sense everywhere. You have to understand that there isnt a school for university teachers. This is it this is as far as the ladders go. So your situation is that you are potentially being taught by people who have no more subject matter experience than you will have in 3 years from now, and no more pedagogical sensibilities. So you are much better of viewing your teaching staff as peer than some deep institutional knowledge pool.

Regarding the last question: Refusing to teach is basically the only thing short of an actual criminal offence that even a tenured professor can and will get fired for. And finding a new university job after doing that might be close to impossible. So don't expect people to go through with that until the situation is so bad that leaving academia forever is preferable to teaching a badly prepared class.

Least reasonable time is - 'Go to the lecture room now' if the subject is known, particularly if it's been lectured on before. Complete unknown subjects will take considerably longer!

True story: One of my colleagues, whom I'll call X, is looking for summer teaching work at a nearby college during his graduate studies. He walks into the department to inquire. The chair says "Come with me", takes him to a classroom full of students, says to the students "Here is professor X who will teach your class", and walks out. (And, in this story, X is his first name).

@AlexanderWoo this assumes you can find a good match for the material you want to teach at the level of your students in a single book.  Indeed is such a perfect textbook existed there would not be so many new textbooks published every year.

When I was an adjunct (part-time) lecturer, I've had as few as 2 days lead time. (Which is not right, obv., but colleges do it if they can get away with it.)

In practice, never enough.

Many academics in the UK believe that the workload allocation models applied in many universities are broken and do not reflect the true time required to perform academic duties, forcing staff to work evenings and weekends to stay on top of their marking and preparation of lectures. This is one of four fights in a dispute between the Universities UK (representing employers) and the University and College Union (representing staff). The dispute has been ongoing for several years now and has resulted in quite a few strikes and actions short of striking, such as assessment boycotts, etc.
In some universities in the UK where I worked, the amount of time allocated to create teaching materials was about 2 hours of preparation per 1 contact hour of teaching. Modules typically have ~30 contact hours, so you get 60 hours (1.5 weeks) to prepare everything for your students. This includes typeset lecture notes, problem sheets and answers to them, mock exam questions and fully worked out solutions.  Everything needs to be provided via some online system, and departments usually monitor the quality of teaching materials. Unlike in some EU countries, in the UK students typically expect learning materials to be provided to enable them to learn even without attending some (or all) of the classes. You can deliver a blackboard lecture, but you will be asked to provide typeset lecture notes afterwards.
For me, personally, it usually takes about 3 months to prepare the first draft of the materials which I am not completely ashamed of.
The inadequate workload allocation models put a very severe pressure on academic staff. Some better departments manage it by giving the same modules to the same academics for several years in a row, making it possible to maintain and improve materials little by little. Some less organised departments suffer from high staff turnover and (re)allocate modules at the last moment each year, as you described in your question. In this case academics have no motivation to put extra time to prepare good materials, because next year they may be given a completely new module again. Students complain, managers react by putting more pressure on staff, academics burn out and leave, turnover increases and the process spirals down.

Is this normal?

Disorganised departments and poor admin practices in academia are not normal, but also not uncommon in the UK, as evidenced by the UCU dispute ongoing for several years all across the UK.

Are all universities like this?

No, there are still quite a few good ones. The marketization of higher education in the UK continues though.

Shouldn't professors refuse to accept a module if they haven't been given a sufficient amount of time to prepare?

Some may try to cause trouble, but this is not going to be popular with their Heads of Departments. However, academics can't refuse to teach a module or to take an admin role if it is within their "capacity" as per the workload model approved for use in their Department / University. Needless to say, the people who approve this model are mostly administrators and managers, not common professors and lecturers. Many professors do not agree with the workload model approved by admin/managers in their University, as evidenced by the ongoing national dispute.

Some places will double the time available if its a new module (so 4 hours per 1 hour contact). Its also worth noting that many places will expect that 4 hours is little enough time that if you are teaching 2 or 3 times a week, it will be expected that you can create the material as you go, so zero notice is required.

@IanSudbery that of course is true, but it implicitly assumes that mapping the syllabus (such as it is) onto the available lecture slots, taking into account preliminary material, is and instantaneous process - and certainly not an iterative one. By iterative I mean that you realise you need to insert some more material earlier in the course so the students can understand a key section; you may also be waiting on confirmation of whether they've been taught it before

I try reading through reading lists during summer because I may not find the time to read everything during the term. I think I should have the right to do this because it shows initiative and we don't have a lot of that in education.

@ChrisH I didn't say it was right, I said its what the expectation of you was.

@SomeStudent If you want that, you need to complain the people who decide our schedules for us.

@IanSudbery yes, sorry, I didn't mean it was your assumption but the system's - and a flawed one

"...in the UK students typically expect learning materials to be provided to enable them to learn even without attending some (or all) of the classes.": It is worth noting that some institutions interpretations of the UK Disabilities Act, as applied to universities, is that it's a legal requirement to provide the material in advance. Some places would say "in advance" means "before the start of the semester". Depending on the power of these interpretations in a particular institution, the flexibility to iterate or modify material as you go can be significantly reduced.

'you get 60 hours to prepare everything' - Well, you get told that you should find 60 hours to prepare everything; nobody will help you clear your diary!

There really isn't a minimal time. Things happen. Solutions are needed. People resign, get sick, die. Courses are required. Someone has to cover. It isn't ideal, but it is common enough.
Getting as long as a semester/term of prior notice is quite good and probably the target aimed for most places, but picking up a course in the middle of a term also happens.
In tight cases the notes and such of the last person to teach the course may be available for a quick start. But new courses also come along. Hopefully some advance planning is done in that case.
The first time a person teaches a course they might do so day to day and week to week. It isn't ideal. But, even in the case in which you have lead time, the first run of a course can be painful for everyone. Professors can/will misunderstand the proper level of understanding of entering students. They will pitch the lectures to the wrong level. Require too much or too little. But then, the first time you do lots of things you are likely to be less than perfect at it.
This can be further compounded if teaching isn't the first priority of an institution or a professor.
So, a certain amount of muddling through is expected, but it is also expected that things will improve. It is also best if professors are flexible in how they do things, what they require, and how they assess student work.
It isn't quite as chaotic as the above might imply. Most professors tend to teach the same courses year after year, relying on past experience. Or a couple/few of professors will swap off courses to get a bit of variety, but still with a lot of experience backing it up.
In my experience, the number of people who have a course completely "in the can" for the first offering are pretty rare. I've known one, I think.
For someone who has to teach a course for the first time with little lead time, I recommend that they first focus on student tasks, assignments, projects, exam coverage. Then fit other things to enable student success in those things primarily. Save time in daily schedules for student questions so that you can zero in on the appropriate level.

As newfound manager of an academic unit I can fully support this answer. Nobody thinks it's ideal to assign a course without at least a few months of advance notice, but stuff happens (more than you would imagine) and then the problem needs to be resolved somehow.

Not as long an answer as some of the others, just a point to keep in mind: When you've taught a course a number of times, the time necessary to prepare for a class is not particularly large. I can now roll out of bed, take a five-minute look at my notes for the next class period of my Partial Differential Equations course, and be in my classroom at 8am knowing what I'm going to talk about for the next 75 minutes -- and nobody would know that 5 minutes is all that it took to prepare. Of course that's because I've taught this course or a variation a good half dozen times over the past decade.

The amount of time you'll need to prepare depends on whether it's a class you've taught before and on whether it comes with some existing course materials including lecture slides and assignments used in previous terms.  That's four combinations and I've done the three that make sense. (If you've taught it before, we can assume you still have your materials.)
If I have a lecture in the afternoon for a a class I've taught several times, I'll likely still spend most of the morning leisurely preparing.  I'm always looking for ways to improve my slides and it's easy and pleasant to keep polishing.
If it's a class I've never taught (often called a new start) and I'm given some existing materials, I will watch videos of previous lectures if available and I will likely edit the slides for style or to improve the graphics, but I'm going to hold off making serious changes to the content until the next time, when my opinion might be backed by some experience with the course. I'm probably going to need to do some research on some points raised in the lectures that are new to me.  I'm very likely to need to do all the homework assignments and read the textbook so I'm prepared for office hours.  For me, this could be about a day of preparation per lecture, plus the weekend for the homework and reading.  It's a lot more work.
If it's a new start and there are no existing materials, this is consuming! There are simply not enough hours in the day to do this really well the first time, so you will just have to do your best.  It's helpful if you can pick a textbook that comes with instructor materials, but often those are very rough, just the images or tables in the book, not usually a set of finished lecture slides.
If you don't even have a text with some instructor materials and you're simply creating the course from thin air as you go, wow!  The first time I taught my search engine class at University of Michigan, where students worked in teams of 6 to build a whole internet search engine in C++, I needed to create and deliver two two-hour lectures every week.  All I had going in was a two-page syllabus I'd written, so it was like a death march.  I got through it and so did my students, and the course got better each time after that.  But the first time took every waking moment.

Least reasonable time to prepare for a lecture will depend on many variables such as your level of experience teaching that subject, what subject it is, what you plan to include in your presentation (slides, writing on whiteboard, online-could involve quizzes, etc) and your audience (1st, 2nd, 3rd yr, postgrad, etc).
I delivered university lectures online and face-to-face for the first time over the pandemic  using zoom to a group of masters students. The subject was in the biological sciences and involved a combination of formal lectures with slides (lots of pictures), online quizzes and some group tasks. It took me between 4-7hrs to prepare as I was starting from scratch. If I was to deliver the same lecture now, I would only have to glance through the slides for a few minutes and I'll be ok.
If the subject was mathematics, it could take just as long or even longer to prepare as I would have to ensure I've gone through the calculations before attempting it in front of a class.
I would imagine most professors are very experienced lecturers and perhaps won't need that much time to prepare provided its a course they're familiar with.
I have to say that teaching generally doesn't get the attention and priority that it deserves amongst UK universities (I'm not sure about elsewhere). From my experience of being a student and now a lecturer, not every lecturer has received formal training in teaching/lecturing and certainly not every academic has the aptitude to be a good lecturer. Academics are overwhelmed with work and this may reflect on the quality of teaching.

I inherited a computer science class (US community college), so I had a general outline of the topics, but wrote my lectures and labs from scratch. Lectures were 10-30 minutes and labs were 2-4 hours for my students (once per week). The first semester I was spending 10-15 hours just on creating the content, not to mention grading/creating midterms/office hours. Second semester I had to spend ~1 hour revising my labs based on feedback from the year before. Third semester I could roll out of bed and teach it no problem.


text:
Is being shy a sufficient reason to avoid in-person meetings?
Suppose, hypothetically there is a group project. We can either meet in person or online. The choice is not democratic though because according to the university guidelines, everybody must agree on meeting in-person but if just one person feels too shy and intimidated by meeting real people, we must do it online. This is year 3 undergraduate. We're all in our twenties so technically, we're all adults.
This has nothing to do with COVID. If you're timid, you can hide and never leave the house. I don't know if I chose the right place to ask this but we're not allowed to discuss this subject becuase it's perceived as tantamount to harassment. Is university not the place where people should overcome such personal hindrances?
And I hate online meetings, I think the world is split in this regard but if you want to meet online just to avoid stress then what makes you think you're qualified to obtain a university degree?
And good-luck trying to produce a publishable report in these conditions.
Am I being too harsh? If you get stressed easily, you will never improve if you always run away from it.
EDIT: I didn't mention that I am slightly autistic. I have aspergers. I've been struggling all my life. But I won't let my autism hinder me. Nor should anyone. I would like to apologise to the people I offended. Noone should be forced. You should force yourselves. I forced myself and I discover new worlds. (For example I was afraid but went to university nevertheless).
Not a single person agreed with me though. I'm confused.

What is your goal with this question? Do you want to validate your own feelings, or try and change university policy? Is it an option to meet in person with the people that want to, and have the people that do not want to be there join digitally for the meeting?

I am 95% sure that your university policy, if it really is like you say, is not about people being "shy", but due to past incidents of harassment, bullying, or assault.

Is this a real policy or a hypothetical question? It's the first time I'm hearing this.

It's the rules. Some people are shy and we must accomodate them. Stay indoors and never leave the house. Here is a fact from real life: employers dont care about your issues. You'll be expected to do the job or be fired. That's why I  disagree with this policy.

And some people want to tell others what to do, but we don't have to accommodate them.

@Peter very true, employers don’t care about your issues. This isn’t the last organizational policy you’ll find yourself disagreeing with. You’ll be expected to comply (and respect the decisions of others who comply in a way you disagree with) or be fired.

@JonCuster Surely people who would agree with me don't waste their lives on internet forums.

@Peter - thats not actaully true. Employers are required, by law, to make reasonsble adjustments for people. I can definately see that an employer could be required to allow an employee with social anxiety disorder to do things remotely if the work could be done efficiently and to a high standard that way. Seconly the point of universities to to teach each person science/engineering/history/english as the best extent that is possible, not test their suitability for current workplace practices.

It's ironic that you pontificate about others stepping out of their comfort zone while choosing not to do so yourself (overcoming your dislike of online meetings).

"This has nothing to do with COVID." You're sure? It has been around for a while now, and is valid, non-shyness-related reason to avoid real life meetings.

While I broadly agree that, for most people, introversion or shyness shouldn't be a reason to avoid all meetings, I think you're focussing on the wrong thing. The rules for your course are what they are, and from your description of the situation it doesn't sound like they're going to change.
What you should focus on instead is that here is an opportunity for you to overcome a "personal hindrance". You appear to think that it is impossible to execute a project to a high standard when meeting only online, as you write:

And good-luck trying to produce a publishable report in these conditions.

But, as the large amount of remote work done by many people in the last two years demonstrates, it is in fact possible. The fact you think this to be impossible, despite evidence to the contrary, suggests you simply don't know how to do it. So here is your opportunity to learn a very useful skill.

Making judgements about other's reasons and intentions isn't a positive trait. Trying to coerce people into changing their decisions is even worse.
While I'm a big advocate of having shy (introverted, say) people learn how to come out and act in public without denying who and what they are, external coercion isn't going to "solve" any problems for them. It is a long and difficult process as I know from personal experience.
People might have a lot of reasons for avoiding in person meetings. Extreme reluctance in the face of a pandemic is rational, actually. There can be other reasons that you don't know about. Don't assume what you don't have evidence for.
The rule that you shouldn't discuss it among yourselves is probably wise to avoid any hint of coercion.

Is university not the place where people should overcome such personal
hindrances?

No. University is the place where you can work to obtain a degree or other higher qualification. While for many it's an opportunity (expected or not) to grow as a person, this isn't a pre-requisite for earning a degree.

And I hate online meetings, I think the world is split in this regard
but if you want to meet online just to avoid stress then what makes
you think you're qualified to obtain a university degree?

A person's competency in their chosen subject has nothing to do with how they choose to manage their stress. Let me use a concrete example: Alexei Starobinsky is a famous physicist who has made many contributions to the field of cosmology. However, he almost never attends conferences because he speaks with a stammer and finds giving talks and interacting with others verbally to be very stressful. This does not diminish his contributions to the field in any way.
Furthermore, someone may actually work more effectively when they have taken steps to look after their health -- for example, choosing to work from home during a pandemic -- than if they are forced to work in stressful conditions. And a situation which may be fun or relaxing for one person may be very stressful for another. It's not up to us to debate other people's personal boundaries.
Lastly, why do you think it's impossible to "produce a publishable report" while staying at home? The vast majority of researchers managed to do exactly that over the past two years.

Am I being too harsh? If you get stressed easily, you will never
improve if you always run away from it.

I agree that to increase one's comfort zone one has to step outside it from time to time. But again, it's not up to us to force another person to do this. They have to come to this realisation on their own and take their own steps. For example, perhaps the person you are talking about is already working to improve, perhaps by having a friend over to their house or meeting a single person outside. Maybe in a few months they will be comfortable having a group meeting in person. Or maybe they won't be. Either way, as Buffy says, you should try to be supportive rather than coercive.

Actually, let me disagree a bit about one comment. University can, in fact, be a good place for an introverted person to learn to act in public effectively. There are many opportunities if you decide to take advantage of them, that won't occur later. Counseling is available to learn ways to speak out even when you don't really want to. In my undergraduate (math) program a speech course was required IIRC. Not appearing shy is a skill that even shy people can master and the university environment might be  a great place to practice. But you need to recognize the need, of course.

The purpose of any assessment or exercise is to learn knowledge and skills that are associated with the degree/module program. To the best extent possible, the assessement should base its grade on ability in those skills/items of knowledge alone. In pedogogical terms, we call this "constructive alignment".
A person with either a mental health issue or simply a personality trait that makes this difficult may get lower grades, or even fail, for reasons that are related to the nature of the assessment, rather than any lack of ability at what is supposed to be being assessed.
So, if the aim of the assessment to to assess an indeviduals ability to research things from the literature, or write reports, then to base a grade on their ability to interact face to face is clearly not properly following the precinciples of constructive alignment.
Now, if an ability to work with a face to face team is an explicit stated goal of the course, then it is fair to assess this. There are situations where this is appropriate. But more often group excercises are set for other reasons, like they encourage active rather than passive leanring, they encourage students to interact with primary sources/research, and they are much less work to grade for the professor ;). In these situations, it is not fair to grade on the basis of ability to interact.
This is no different to allowing dyspraxic people to type exam answers, blind people to use screen readers, and providing transcripts/subtitles to deaf people. What one person calls "shyness" could be a debilitating social axiety disorder (diagnosed or undiagnosed), and the idea that such people can just "get over it" is simplistic.

If face-to-face interaction is a programme-level outcome, it should also be an outcome of  at least some modules. I know that when we had our accreditation, it was exactly this sort of thing the accreditation assessors were examining.


text:
Is it appropriate for professors to use the f*** word during lectures?
This has happened a few times. The university is an average, good university in UK. One professor said lately "I'm so sick of this f****** pandemic." Another time another lecturer said "When you find yourself in a situation when you feel like: how do I solve this f****** problem? You should just relax and...". These are verbatim quotes. In each case it had a humorous tone to it and the students laughed. Is this acceptable behaviour? Because I was confused.
I find it very inappropriate but that might be because I come from a more conservative country where you'd be embarrassing yourself if you used vulgarities in a situation like this.
There were other examples over the years but I can't remember them exactly. So it's fairly common. Do universities in general allow that?
EDIT:
Thank you for all your input. I just wanted to add that it was never my intention to report anything. I just found it unusual and was curious if this is common.

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Sorry, I don't understand why you keep removing the tag "united-kingdom": could you please explain before I reinstate it?

@MassimoOrtolano I think this is relevant to any English speaking country, not just UK.

As noted in some answers, this kind of things vary a lot by country, so not all English-speaking countries are the same for what concerns the possible reactions (and note that every country, regardless of the language, has likely an f-word equivalent). The tag just gives an indication to the answerers that this is happening in the UK, and also allows the tag followers to be alerted that there is a question of interest, but it doesn't strictly limit to UK the possible answers.

You're in a place where swearing, especially when not directed at another person or used as abuse/slur/bullying/etc, just isn't that big of a deal among adults, so I do think this is mostly a cultural difference between you and the professor.
I don't think anything should be done to confront this professor (or report them to administration or anything), as long as the language is not directed at another person, used as a slur, etc, in which case it also doesn't particularly matter if the word itself was profane, as many non-profane words are used in those circumstances. It doesn't seem to me like they've done anything wrong.
It's a bit less than the strictest standards of professionalism to swear, though, and I'd generally recommend against it. I think it's a bit cheap as humor. So I'd answer your title question "no" if you were a professor asking me and were truly uncertain. However, I do think most of us are in some way or another quite ****ing sick of this pandemic, and I can't find fault with anyone who chooses to use sufficiently strong language to express that sentiment.

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This is just British culture for you. Consider it part of your learning experience.
British people are generally polite and patient, sometimes even exceedingly so, but will from time to time emphasise their feelings of frustration through swearing. It really isn't a big deal, typically it is just a way of showing that, under all that veneer of repressed civility, they are, indeed, human, and have their limits.
In a way, it is a form of self-deprecatory humour (something British people love to indulge in). They are aware that using swear words "lowers" them a bit (makes them look less perfect and in control), and they do it on purpose, to emphasise their own weakness, as a form of ice-breaking.
It's actually (when used in the way you describe) an attempt at creating a closer bond with their interlocutor, in a "we're all in the same sh*t together, aren't we?" kind of way.
However, the same word used aggressively against another human being (e.g. "wipe that f*cking smile off your face!") would be entirely inappropriate in a work context, University or otherwise.

A good analysis and observation. Not thought about it that way before.

It's always worth noting that there are many things that you (and I) do without thinking that would probably horrify other people in other cultures.

This also feeds into the general British concept of "banter". If a Brit greets you with "how are you?", they're being polite. If they greet you with "how are you, you wanker?", they consider you a close friend because both you both know that the insult is banter. :) That would be overstepping the mark for a teacher and their students, of course, but that's further along the depth of friendship from "I feel comfortable to swear occasionally" which is an indicator that we don't need to be completely formal with each other.

@Graham we have a professor here who has been known to use "fuck off" as a friendly greeting to other staff  It's completely in character and of no concern to those of us on the receiving end - but does cause some surprise among others

To answer your question "Do universities in general allow that?": I am not aware of any university in Europe which has rules about the use of swear words in teaching, or any other form of communication, except for general rules about non-discriminatory, harrassement-free etc. language and behavior.

For a university in the UK, this isn't a big deal.  The assumption at a university is that you are dealing exclusively with adults, and they are capable of hearing profanity while learning.  Professionalism generally entails limiting profanity to a lower level than might be appropriate while at the pub, but it is considered acceptable to use it sparingly.  I've dropped an occasional S-bomb or F-bomb while lecturing, just to stress an important point or add a bit of humour.  Profanity should not be used as a means of deriding or bullying a person, but it is acceptable for a lecturer to use if for emphasis of important points, so long as they don't go overboard.  (Academics have a great deal of freedom and discretion in setting the tone of their own lectures, so even if some go overboard with profanity, this might be considered to be part of their "academic freedom".)  This is probably a cultural difference between Western countries and certain more conservative countries; you'll get used to it.  I'm in Australia, where profanity in professional settings is probably even more common than in the UK, and certain conversations in professional settings are indistinguishable from banter at the pub.
In relation to this issue, you might also be interested to note that we've had some questions on this site about whether or not lecturers should use racial slurs when quoting texts (or censor these slurs), either in scholarly research or while lecturing (see e.g., here and here).  Even in this case there is a fairly large contingent of academics who think it is appropriate to state the racial slurs verbatim in discussion (there is also a fairly large contingent who don't like this).  So even when dealing with some pretty nasty racial slurs, there is an expectation that adult students can hear these words in class in an appropriate context and remain composed.  (Obviously the distinction here is that your lecturer is adding "fuck" to the conversation organically to emphasise a point, instead of quoting it from a relevant text under discussion; it would not be acceptable to use racial slurs for the same purpose.)

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It's not exactly workplace-professional conduct, but it's not unusual, and it's not particularly frowned upon in my experience.
In my own university course, several of my lecturers were quite comfortable with the use of swearing in their conversations.
No more than is normal in day-to-day life, but they didn't filter themselves.
There was a basic assumption that "we're all adults here" and normal adult rules apply.
The general attitude of not coddling children was pretty pervasive in fact, one lecturer went out of his way to tell us that he wasn't required to pass anybody. If someone was here to goof off, or wasn't going to take it seriously, he'd rather they just left.
I think the unfiltered language was a deliberate choice to hammer home that we're not in school anymore.
University is for adults who chose to be there and choose to learn, and if we can't handle things like an adult, we don't belong there.

Idk why everybody being adults makes rudeness acceptable? Are people only civil when there is children around? I don't see how age matters.

@neil I think the expectation is that adults won't copy behaviours they see verbatim in situations where it wouldn't be appropriate for them to do so. I swear in front of a kid and they repeat it to the vicar. I do it in front of an adult and they think about it and choose how they feel about that language.

Interesting question. I myself generally refrain from profanities and use moderated and controlled vocabulary in class to try and maintain a professional environment.
However when teaching comparative computer languages and esoteric languages in particular it becomes difficult. The esoteric language designed by Urban Müller in 1993* can cause one to pause. Being professional, one just uses the language's name without blinking, but it can shock some of the more delicate students in the room.
So, in some subjects, profane words are part of the subject and are included in the course; but I would not use them for shock effect unless it was needed for pedagogic purposes.

* You can look it up yourself. However my favourite variants are Ook! and Whitespace....

JSF**k is another fun one which raises the same issue.

The behaviour you describe sounds rather unprofessional, but will likely be tolerated since most students and staff will not have a problem with it these days. Those who do not approve of such language will, as a result, feel out of place objecting.
My experience of this from studying at three different Russell Group universities in the UK has ranged from small workshops where the organiser asked in advance if anyone 'has any serious objection to swearing' (no-one did) to one of my lecturers apparently telling 'dirty jokes' to an audience of about 300 first-year undergraduates.
They know that they are being unprofessional and would likely stop if someone objected, but then start again the moment that person is out of the room. Most people just don't care though.

"Does anyone have any serious objection to swearing?"  In that situation, even if someone did, she would probably remain quiet.

@GEdgar Yes, definitely. I think he realised this and was not being very sincere

Just because nobody objects is hardly an justification. You think if somebody gave me written permission to murder them that I'm not going to jail?

I think that some of these answers are probably missing some subtleties. The first thing to realize, is that when it comes to things like this, there isn't really a single homogenous "British Culture", and attitudes to swearing will differ from local to local, between social classes, backgrounds, political groupings etc. It can be difficult for even a British person to work out the correct acceptable language is in any given situation.
The second thing is that not all swear words are equal. This is fairly obvious, but what is less obvious is that the relative offensiveness of a given word varies from country to country, and sometimes between groups within a country. So s**t is generally regarded as mild, f**k is stronger, and will shock some, but not that many, where as c**t is generally reserved for situations where offense is intended. Unless you are in Scotland, when c**t is far more acceptable.
In the UK, blasphemy is not really even regarded as swearing. Words that refer to bodily functions are somewhere in-between, and then words that refer to a persons innate characteristics are the worst. If a lecturer is using the N word, or any other racist epithet, words that refer dismissively to homosexuals, words that refer to phyiscally or mentally disabled people etc, then I probably would complain, unless they themselves possessed that characteristic (A gay person is allowed to use the term p**f, but others aren't).
All this makes for a very complex situation. Our jobs as educators is to give people the best chance of learning. Sometimes emphasis and humor can help with this, but it can just as easily impede it. So while I swear frequently in the pub, I generally avoid swearing in a lecture or other formal didactic instruction situation. However, one-on-one or in small groups where I am able to assess how people might respond, I will tailor my speech to what I think the other person believes to be appropriate.

Ian, I assume you meant ("fucking"?) "subtleties" in your first line... :)

@paulgarrett yeah

This is an interesting situation and has never happened to me although I have attended hundreds and hundreds of hours of mathematics lectures.
It did happen once that a lecturer swore under his breath once or twice because the software for giving virtual talks was so useless, but it was more of a humorous moment and everyone understood his frustration. In that case, it was more out of frustration, and not for actual deliberate emphasis, which seems unprofessional and which I have not encountered even after attending several hundreds of hours of lectures.

The Covid outburst just sounded like a very frustrated person which is understandable.

Unlike many swear words, the F-word is sexual. A case could be made for saying that its use constitutes sexual harassment.  The primary meaning of the F-word is sexual, so blurting it out in a lecture hall -- which presumably contains a handful of young women -- is not appropriate.  If any of them feel uncomfortable, they could make the prof's life pretty miserable: "I really can't attend class where the professor is continually talking about sex!!"

If you do the maths, it turns out that women engage in sexual activities on average as many times as men, give or take a few percent.

@pipe  ...but not with creepy old professors.

Glad to see you back. I think you raise a valid point, but some of your language choices raised concern. I have suggested an edit that will hopefully satisfy all parties. Cheers!

Seriously, I expect any female student in the UK to ask you "what are you f___ing on about?". And today, but not 20 years ago, a few might say to you "what a f___ing c___".


text:
Explanation about the CS Ph.D. programs in Canada
Could somebody explain how CS Ph.D. programs are structured in Canada, is there courses to sit for ? if yes, how many. Also what's the typical duration to complete one and what's the possible funding opportunities sources ? are they always depending on the supervisor ?
Thanks

In Canada, there are some PhD programs with courses and some without courses. The numbers of courses can vary. It could be 0, 2，5 or more, for example. In some program, you can do the courses in one or two semesters while for other programs it can be more. The length of the PhD program is usually at least 3 years in CS. I have seen some programs where it was at least 4 years and half (e.g. for my PhD). And if you do the PhD part-time, you may have to add a few more years.
And all of this depends on the university and the research area. But in any case, the real length of a PhD depends on your research progress. I have seen some people finishing the PhD after 10 years due to some slow research progress and doing it part-time!
As for funding, the supervisor may pay you some money, the department or university may have some money for students, you may get some jobs like teaching some course or being a TA, and some province also have scholarships (depends on the province) and the national government may also have some scholarships. But some scholarships are only for Canadians or permanent residents so some international students may not receive them. Also, there are some government programs to support those doing a PhD with the industry (such as MITACS). Generally, to find funding, the first step is to talk with your potential supervisor to see if he has some funding and to read the university website to see if they suggest some funding sources.  Some university have some online calculator to let you estimate the cost of life for your studies so you can do some planning.
Also, you need to know that Canada has several provinces and unviersities in different provinces follow some different systems, and the cost for the PhD program can be quite different from one province to another (e.g. universities in Quebec follow a slightly different system from Ontario, and the tuition fees are quite different).

Are you saying that funding is usually partly and that many fundings should cover the fees and life costs while a PhD student ? Also is there PhD programs with 0 courses to sit for ? also in Quebec it is cheaper than Ontario or the opposite ?

Many supervisors dont have enough funding to fully pay a PhD student.  If you have a chance to do a PhD as part of an industrial project, you can be well paid, or maybe if you work for some famous professor. If you are permanent resident/canadian, the government has some good scholarships too for those among the best. Otherwise, you may combine different sources of funding such as getting a few thousands dollars from the supervisors, teaching some course, getting some scholarship from university maybe etc.

To my knowledge, Quebec is in general cheaper than Ontario for tuituion fee. But it depends on your status.  If you live in Quebec for at least 2 years (or something like that - cannot remember) and are a permanent resident/Canadian or you have French citizenship, you get very low tuition fee (e.g. as a Quebecer paid maybe 1000$ or less per semester, while in Ontario i would have paid at least double if i remember). But if you are an international student, the story is different. The tuition fee could be much higher.

Yes, I think you should be able to find PhD programs with zero course, or otherwise they may have 1 or 2.  That should be the normal case (0-2).

By the way, i forgot to mention in my answer that some provinces do have a "loan and bursury" program. That means that under some conditions like being a permanent resident or Canadian, the governement can  lend some money to students that they can pay back later after the PhD. This is what some students are using also to get some money for their university education (from my experience in Quebec).

Lets take the case where i am an international student who happen to complete a 2 years master's and got a permanent resident status, in Quebec how much do i have to pay per year in the PhD program ?

It depends on the university. So if we take McGill University as example (an English speaking University), there is a calculator: https://www.mcgill.ca/student-accounts/tuition-charges/fallwinter-term-tuition-and-fees/graduate-fees. A resident of Quebec would pay 2000-2600 $ CAD/ semester, while an international around 8000-10,000 CAD$. Two semesters per year to be paid, so around 4600$ per year for a resident and 18k $ per year for an international PhD full time.

If you have status of resident of Quebec, then, I think you would pay the fee of around 4600$ / year  rather than the 18k $ per year for regular international students. But I just check this quickly for you. You may read the website of specific universities to get more details

By the way, province of Quebec has special rules.  To be considered resident of Quebec, you may have to stay there for a while, even if you are permanent resident of Canada (something to be verified - these rules are not clear to me)

ok thanks, but what about postdoc positions when someone has a phd from abroad ? are postdocs positions frequent in Ontario for example ?

There are some post-doc positions but not so many...  The problem is that a professor needs money to pay a postdoc and the government dont give much funding to researchers.  However, the government has a good supporting platform (MITACS) for doing a post-doc in colalboration with a company (not so hard to get it). And if you are a permanent resident and want to do a post-doc you can apply for scholarships of provincial or national government. If you have a good profile, you may get it. For example, as a Canadian, I got a scholarship that fully paid my postdoc that I did outside Canada.

The important is work hard during your PhD, try to get some good papers, get collaboration and get to know the people... It may help you to find some post-doc opportunity. And if you have a good profile, you may be successful with postdoc scholarships.  Generally, people may be interested to hire you for the post-doc if you have shown that you are good at research during your PhD.

If you want to see some examples of job posting for post-docs you can search through this website:  https://www.universityaffairs.ca/search-job/  which is the main website to look for academic jobs.  Some post-doc positions will clearly mention that Canadians and permanent residents have priority when applying for some post-doc position. For example: "All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents are given priority. Canadians and permanent residents should indicate their citizenship status in their application.".

Alright, and does a foreign PhD qualify for assistant professors positions ?

A PhD is enough for applying for an assistant professor position or lecturer position. The PhD can be foreign or it can be obtained in Canada. That does not make much difference.  However, what can make a difference is if you are a permanent resident or Canadian citizen as some universities may give priority to permanent resident or citizen over other people.  This answer is for CS.  If you were in some other field like medicine, then maybe a PhD abroad would maybe not be reconigzed in Canada. But for CS, a foreign PhD is OK.


text:
I was graded unfairly on a group project
We had a group project that involved 4 people. 3 of us worked really hard. Personally, I feel I did about 1/2 the work. We had a Viva at the end of the project. I got nervous and did quite badly. When the grades were out I got a B, same as the guy who didn't really do much. I'm wondering if it's a good idea to ask the professor to consider re-evaluating my grade.

I have seen far more outrageous imbalances, to be honest, and, for a bad presentation, a B is not too bad an outcome. After all you yourself noticed that the presentation didn't go well. What basis does the lecturer have to give you a better mark?

Did the professor make any effort to determine the individual contribution of each group member?

It is a good idea to ask. But you probably won't get a change in grade.
The "ask", however, should be about why the grade is lower than you thought it should be. Learn, if you don't already know, what the grading criteria was and how much each element contributed. The professor should be able and willing to answer these sorts of questions.
But it should also have been clear before the project started what the grading criteria should be and how important would be the evaluation of each part. It is possible that half the grade was assigned on the presentation.
Learning what happened gives you the chance to work on those things in which you were judged lower than the others. That is the real reason for asking.
If you really want the grade changed then get your teammates to advocate for it based on your contribution to the other part. But that will have to come from them, not just your claim of doing "half".

Surely the grade for the project should be based on the quality, not just who did the most?

Yes, @SolarMike, but the rules may permit bonuses or exceptions in some cases. Not all systems specify that students all get the same grade for a joint project. Not all systems are zero-sum. But, also ask, as I said, so that you know where improvement is needed.

@Buffy “not all systems are zero-sum” Some of them are negative-sum instead- no bonuses for doing more work than your teammates, but penalties if you slack off and don’t contribute.

Sounds like you probably got a good grade for the project work and your poor presentation performance dragged your final result down.
Your colleague may have a poor project grade but the presentation grade pulled him up...
Without the detail of exactly what was required, the marking scheme and the precise results, not much more can be said.
You can choose to chase this, or not, but I don’t think you have a big problem here.

I think what happened was that the team as a whole had a B before the Viva. I'm guessing the Viva was used to determine individual performance and I didn't do as well as I could have. Although, I feel I deserve a better grade, I chose not to ask him, because I couldn't perform when it mattered.

One aspect of group projects that students sometime overlook, is that work is sometime set as a group activity so that students can experience group activity and team working and also be assessed on how  they perform as a group.
Many employment (and research) tasks take  place in groups and learning to work in and then  being judged as a group is something that needs working on as part of the educational process. It is often something that employers and professional bodies expect degree courses to include.
Going through the stages of group development often has to be experienced. (Tuckman, 1965)
So how team members interact and perform in total is  often as important as what an individual contributes. I try to explain to my students that when one feels strongly that their personal contribution has been overlooked that this is an indication that they have not fully embraced the teamworking dynamic and should be focussing on the final deliverable and not their individual fraction. This might be the feedback you get if you asked for a re-grade. Asking for a re-grade could just be confirmation that you were not fully cognizant of the grading criteria.
Without knowing about the details of the assessment scheme we cannot know what factors were taken into account to form an individual's grade, but I suspect it is more than just an individual's labour.

The thing with group projects in a classroom setting is that nobody is particularly glad to be in them. Group projects are just something that need to be done sometimes to grow as a person. However, the best advice I have heard about working as a group is that you need to take responsibility for the outcome of your group. If your group does bad, so do you. If a teammate is lagging, so do you. If everyone is performing at their best, so do you. While you might have gotten a lower grade, you just need to reflect on what you could have done to be better and how you could have brought your team along with you. Groups will always have weak members, but if you’re part of the group then you share in both the fruits and spoils of the group.


text:
Citation of Reports from Environmental Agency
I need to cite a report from different Agencies. I have never cited a report before, and on the Internet, I only found how to cite papers, books, or theses. Can anyone give me a good example or help me with my one? This is the way I cited them:

(1) USEPA. Guidance for Assessing Pesticide Risks to BeesU.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) and California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Off. Pestic. Programs USEPA, Heal. Canada PMRA, CDPR 2014
(2) European Food Safety Authority. Evaluation of the Data on Clothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam for the Updated Risk Assessment to Bees for Seed Treatments and Granules in the EU; 2018; Vol. 15.

But for me, it looks a little bit strange. I know there are a lot of ways to cite. This is the normal way I cite my papers:

(3) Zhao, J.; Long, L.; Weng, G.; Li, J.; Zhu, J.; Zhao, J. W. Multi-Branch Au/Ag Bimetallic Core-Shell-Satellite Nanoparticles as a Versatile SERS Substrate: The Effect of Au Branches in a Mesoporous Silica Interlayer. J. Mater. Chem. C 2017, 5 (48), 12678–12687

Your citation style will depend upon where you are publishing. Journals have their own style that range from including government reports in the reference section to treating them as in line references because the reports are usually not peer reviewed. Thesis or dissertation will depend upon your school and advisor

Most citation styles follow the basic principle of: Who-When-What-Where, or Author-Date-Title-Source. Your "normal way" of citing follows a variant of this.
Based on this principle, the APA manual (to name but one example) shows how to cite a governmental report:

National Cancer Institute. (2019). Taking time: Support for people
with cancer (NIH Publication No. 18-2059). U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.
https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/takingtime.pdf

The manual tells us: "The specific agency responsible for the report appears as the author. The names of parent agencies not present in the group author name appear in the source element as the publisher. This creates concise in-text citations and complete reference list entries."

Applied to your case, I would suggest your reference to be as the follolwing (in APA style, but you can change the format - such as the position of the year of publication - according to your needs):

Environmental Protection Agency. (2014). Guidance for Assessing Pesticide Risks to Bees. Federal Government of the United States. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-06/documents/pollinator_risk_assessment_guidance_06_19_14.pdf

and:

European Food Safety Authority. (2018). Evaluation of the Data on Clothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam for the Updated Risk Assessment to Bees for Seed Treatments and Granules in the Eu. European Union. https://doi.org/10.2903/sp.efsa.2018.EN-1378


text:
Interview for masters program including two minute scientific presentation
Yesterday I received an email that I have to give a two minute scientific presentation as part of an interview for a masters program on this coming Monday. Now I am really struggling whether I have to include scientific data in my presentation or that I can explain a concept. My time is very limited. The email just states: "You are requested to give a 2 minutes (max. 7 slides) scientific presentation about a topic of your own choice". What do you advise me to do?

My advice would be not to use 7 slides in a 2 minute talk.

Good lord, my current rate is 1 slide every 30 minutes!

@DanielR.Collins Then I'd have to say that you have way too much information on each slide!

@DanielR.Collins Well, your use case is obviously not suitable for the OP either. I'll delete my comments, if you delete your "db-y" one.

There is not much that you can explain in two minutes; therefore, the key is to choose a topic that you can do justice to in such a short time. Choose a topic that you are interested in and confident about. Additionally, make sure that the topic is relevant to the course you are applying for. Create an interesting PowerPoint presentation of 4-5 slides. Check out some short scientific presentations online to get some ideas.

Short scientific presentations are about 10-15 minutes :'). I feel like I have to pitch now. Thank you for the tips!

I think in 2 minutes you could pull off a mini-review. Define: a topic, one exploratory direction within that topic, 1-2 recent efforts (papers) in that exploration, a question that still remains, and a way to tackle that question.

First of all congratulations on receiving an interview for a master's program. As part of your application, "you are requested to give a 2 minute presentation about a topic of your own choice." Since your question is quite broad "What do you guys advice me to do?", the best answer possible is to stick to the fundamentals of a good speech and be sure to give a relevant presentation in a clear and concise manner. This is only one step in the application process, so do not overthink it too much.

Thank you for your advice! It is an interview via Skype-call, making it even harder to get the message across


text:
To whom should the letter of motivation be addressed?
I am applying for a Phd position advertised by the university. Should I address my letter of motivation to the potential supervisor? Please help me out.

Usually, you address your letter to the contact mentioned in the advertisement.
As last resort, you can always used an undetermined Sir, Madam.

To whom it may concern

Really, don't loose any time on the header of the letter, keep your focus on the rest, that is the part they are actually going to read.


text:
How to edit citation style in CSL? or What citation style is this?
What Style is this?
I'm trying to work on a bibliography for a paper that has to conform to an unspecified citation style. It's basically the CEEA2016 style:

I saw this great link when googling which seems awesome [CLS]. The problem is that the closest I could get was IEEE with URL which is close in many respects one of the major issues is that the citation style I need uses full names and the IEEE style uses Initials and Last names (Sarah Jane vs S. Jane). Is there a style that is closer to what I'm looking for?
How do I make this style?
Alternatively is there any way to edit the IEEE with URL style to give me full names? I've tried listening to webinars and none of them seem to get into that in my scrubbing and I've even found this primer which seemed to hint towards it but then completely dropped the topic of author names in favor of authorship dates (presumably because it's a heading for citation not bibliography as I would eventually figure out).

I was able to find part of the answer
Out of Editor
Here are lines 81-96 or the original IEEE with URL csl file. I was unable to find out how to do it in the visual editor but I was digging around in the XML file itself and saw this:
  <macro name="author">
    <names variable="author">
      <name initialize-with=". " delimiter=", " and="text"/>
      <label form="short" prefix=", " text-case="capitalize-first"/>
      <substitute>
        <names variable="editor"/>
        <names variable="translator"/>
      </substitute>
    </names>
  </macro>
  <macro name="editor">
    <names variable="editor">
      <name initialize-with=". " delimiter=", " and="text"/>
      <label form="short" prefix=", " text-case="capitalize-first"/>
    </names>
  </macro>

removing the initialize-with=". " seems to have given me full names. After this it looks like the only aspects I would like to change is adding URL at the end. Workable for now but I would like to know how to edit the CSL file as it would be enormously helpful and faster than what I'm going to have to do with REGEX.
In Editor
Knowing what I was looking for and knowing the way programmers like to think I was able to find a similar setting in the visual editor

Bibliography > Layout > author (macro) > Names > Name
In the name section below is the "Initialize with" option.