PhD stipend cut in half. Harsh reaction from the academic environment against the Government, but also professorial silence

When an academic title becomes a currency and the professional community is silent, then it is only a matter of time until its value collapses, explains Dorin Dobrincu, researcher at the History Institute “AD Xenopol” in Iasi, in an opinion article. He criticizes the Government, but also highlights the convenience of academia, which has often been silent in the face of imposture.

• The researcher's reaction in Contributors comes in the context where the Government wants to cut the allowance for the doctorate in half, that is to 500 gross lei per month.

Education and research are not priorities of the Romanian governors. I would be tempted to say that they never really were. Some politicians, who are our fellow citizens, cannot even find the baccalaureate degree they claim to have, others have plagiarized their doctoral theses, from prime ministers to ministers of justice, defense or public order, and a chorus of praise minimizes the seriousness of the theft.

paradox

Our society doesn't seem too interested in education either. However, a paradox was registered. The country has been flooded with PhDs over the past three decades, and a significant portion of these titles have been obtained formally or fraudulently.

I sense that fewer than would be normal/healthy did their thesis “for real”, working hard, bringing something extra to knowledge, from engineering and life sciences to the humanities and social sciences. Most often you find these people in the education system and in research. Some have done their work correctly, but for various reasons are no longer practicing in the field for which they proved they were prepared at the time. Others, on the other hand, scumbags, either achieved doctorates at the level of more developed student reports, or shamelessly plagiarized their theses, with the agreement of the coordinators and with the evaluation, attestation, etc. committees turning a blind eye.

In higher education and research, obtaining a doctorate is a must. You have nothing to look for there if you don't have the PhD (at least from a certain level onwards). Unfortunately, some of those who populate universities or institutes also obtained their undeserved doctorates. Some have been proven to be plagiarists, others add nothing to knowledge. Elsewhere in our society, especially among politicians, civil servants, law enforcement personnel, etc., the doctorate has been seen either as a panache or as a form of easy promotion and a way to round off income. Because anyone who obtained the patalamaua received the doctorate increase (some apparently restrictive provisions were easy to cheat).

“The complicities were so extensive that silence around the thief was rather the rule”

There were integrity whistleblowers in institutions – universities, the Academy, etc. – but many, not only the heads of institutions, preferred to put the handkerchief on the drum.

The reasons were easy to understand: because I don't know which professor or academician, PhD coordinator, was involved in obtaining the title, another was a colleague, a friend of my father, my brother, I don't know what common acquaintance, etc.; other aspirants to the noble paper had contributed the pig and the demi-glass of wine or strength placed in the trunk of the cars of those who had a little power. When a case of plagiarism came to light, many relativized the matter or defended the person, either out of interest or ignorance.

The reality behind many PhDs is socially known but rarely sanctioned.

“Bulky measure”, no impact study

Therefore, the measure of drastic reduction of this increase is easy to sell publicly outside the educational and research system. It was an easy measure to apply, without CCR intervention, without institutional blockages. There is not even an impact study, it is a measure taken by a bunch of people who did not think much. In addition, in Education and Research there is no leadership that understands things, that takes action accordingly. In fact, there is not a minister there, a man who takes severe but fair measures.

The reduction of the doctorate allowance will have the consequence that a teacher who chisels brains or a researcher who innovates, therefore who give society something out of their mind, will have their doctorate allowance reduced just like the unrepentant plagiarist who is at the head of a ministry, sleeps in Parliament or in an administrative office. In the case of young researchers and professors, who are at the bottom of the pyramid and who hold the title of doctor, the effects will be felt even more strongly. Because instead of having decent salaries, they were given a fluctuating increase, which can be taken away or reduced at any time. Just like it's happening now.

But I return to the idea that if there was less tolerance for theft in our society, including intellectual theft, if the institutions did their job – and the faculties, and the universities, and the institutes, and the academies, and the ministerial commissions – we would have a somewhat more meritocratic environment. And the politicians would have had little reason to introduce measures like the one mentioned.

“In Romania, the doctorate was too often treated as a privilege”

When an academic title becomes a currency, it's only a matter of time before its value collapses. In Romania, the doctorate was too often treated as a privilege, not as a responsibility. And today, instead of correcting fraud where it exists, we choose the convenient solution: collective sanction.

In short, the reduction of the PhD allowance is not the cause of the problem, but its symptom. For years, imposture was tolerated, intellectual theft was relativized and the quiet complicity was preferred instead of meritocratic demands.

Today, the price of this indulgence is paid in droves, with no distinction between those who honestly constructed knowledge and those who imitated it. When standards are allowed to erode, corrections come brutally and unfairly. And unless we understand that integrity is not an academic fad, but the foundation of social trust, we will continue to alternate between imposture and collective sanctions, without ever building a truly solid system.

The opinion article was originally published on the Contributors.ro platform