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From: chapman@fornax.uucp
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Who does pay for education?
Message-ID: <227@fornax.uucp>
Date: Fri, 6-Mar-87 02:20:06 EST
Article-I.D.: fornax.227
Posted: Fri Mar  6 02:20:06 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Mar-87 23:46:56 EST
Distribution: can
Organization: School of Computing Science, SFU, Burnaby, B.C. Canada
Lines: 33

> don't take the loan, or repay it afterward.  As a number of rational people
> on the west coast have said, the government is not, and should not be,
> required to pay for the educations of those from whom the society gains no
> benefit (ie, those who leave).
> 
> As a graduate student, I think the hypothetical system needs some
> modifications.  Because I am already contributing to society in terms of
> research and teaching assistance, this time ought to count for any
> residency requirements.  Unfortunately, this is a very difficult line to
> draw; what about undergrads who do valuable research?  What about grads who
> don't?
> 

This is good question to raise.  Graduate students do need supervision
however the current system seems to be one where graduate students are
directed (an active verb) - they have become a source of cheap research
power.  There is a discrepancy between what a graduate student would
need to do in order to demonstrate worthiness for a particular degree
and what (most) graduate students are made to do to actually aquire a
degree.  I think anyone who has been a graduate student will recognize
the different existence compared to an undergraduate.  Curiously most
undergraduates percieve graduates to be far better off yet in most
respects undergrads get more real respect (as opposed to lip service),
have more actual freedom, and have a more well defined set of requirements
to meet.  Graduate students on the other hand contribute far more in the
way of teaching and research.  Graduate students are to all intents and
purposes apprentice faculty members  with the goal of being promoted
to full membership in the guild - although they may also be fired (fail
to get the desired degree).  Perhaps they should be payed as such on
a scale commeasurate with their experience and prior education - a sort
of "learn while you earn" scheme, or vice versa.  It might also be
interesting to know what portion of a department's research is conducted
by graduate students, on average.