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H-ASIA August 21, 2013 Advice requested regarding highly motivated student~response ********** 1) From: Naomi Standen In UK universities we are now meant to encourage students to do this [consider the potential job market] at every turn ("rather than guiding folk to exercise their own judgement in the light of their own experience"!) And my heart sinks every time. Universities are not training colleges for employers, even though in Britain universities are now under the same govt dept as business and industry. How much passion and creativity is being suppressed in the name of "employability"? And on the side of pragmatism, how many "next big things" - whether in pure or applied fields - are being lost as a result? And how much does this encourage instrumentalism, gaming the system, appeals and litigation, and a sense of entitlement among students? I'm glad to say that many students continue to resist these siren calls, but if you have one with a passion and personal enthusiasm, then I would say to them: they have time (one thing the modern world has given us, because we are so much healthier and long-lived), and I would encourage them to take the time, and to follow what they love. As already pointed out, there will need to be tweaks and realism about the shape and direction of the research itself, but if there is a real love for the subject, then I say worry about the jobs later - not least because by the time any PhD student graduates, the job market will be different in ways that it would have been impossible to predict at the start of the PhD. A PhD who doesn't work in academia still has the PhD, and in any case, smart, foreign-trained Chinese-speakers with PhDs that have present-day application have no trouble getting jobs in today's China - not necessarily in academia - and in numerous other countries as well. Naomi Standen -- Professor of Medieval History School of History and Cultures University of Birmingham, UK ********************************************************************* To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: <H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu> For holidays or short absences send post to: <listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: <http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/> --
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