Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rchristo10]

Hypothetical situation:

You have friend who is a hard-working international (non-Korean) grad student (starting her thesis) who was offered all the luxuries of an academic pleasure box: free housing, expense paid monthly academic tours in Europe, raw data for the thesis and the like. Then find out that in essence that the professor was perhaps looking for an indentured servant, had no data, and basically ruined her chances of graduating on time (particularly because of the data lie/ problem/ fix?). And she's low on cash and already living in said professor's pad.

Would you risk it all by going to the Ombudsman or school officials to "tell on" said professor, figure out some way of communicating your problem to the professor, or just end it all with a bullet...hmmm...Korea...a plane ticket out? Or consider some other method?

****
I really do want to help such a friend and honestly don't know what to say (at all...which is even surprising for me since i'm always blah blah blah this and blah blah blah that ).

[Seoulman69]

I'm not sure I totally understand the situation. Your friend came here to do/finish a Phd? Who provided the free housing and trips to Europe? What did the other professor do, exactly? Why is she living with the other professor?
It seems a very odd situation.

[liveinkorea316]

That's how the system works in Korea. I could have told your friend that before he/she started.

[rchristo10]

Sorry, for clarification:

The friend came here to do a masters degree. She finished her classes with great scores, and a retired professor offered all these amenities to her with the prospects of doing research/ work together in the future. Her original advisor (who is the former student, now professor, of the retired prof) "gave her away" to the other professor trusting that said professor would help her, which he didn't. Now she's stuck living in the professor's accommodations, got no help with her thesis, and basically has to start from scratch and clueless as to what to do.

She's kinda bugging out and I don't know what to tell her to do. If she leaves, she forfeits everything she came here for. If she stays, she's afraid she won't be able to focus cuz of her living arrangements. She's low on cash and really doesn't have the ability to move at the moment. She's applied for Ph.D. and if she doesn't graduate this semester that's retroactively cancelled and her chances of getting recommendations from the same teachers is likely nil.

Good thing is, from what I know, she's on scholarship and can look to some money coming in. But I mean...I've been here for years and really have clue AT ALL what she should do.

[Keeper]

[Seoulman69]

I think I'm starting to understand now. So what did the retired professor do? Did he promise data but never supplied it, or is he trying to steal her work and claim it as his own?

[zombiedog]

I would never trust my graduate studies in a country like Korea that is corrupt to the bone. You want a grad degree (in Korean studies) do it in Oregon.

Best advice: sit down and write. Finish it in a couple months. Or, go back to the states and try again at a real university.

[tardisrider]

You say that her original adviser "gave her away" to the retired professor--that's not uncommon, but the funding/planning should always be officially in place and worked out beforehand through the department or program. It seems unfortunate that it hasn't been worked out like that beforehand. If your friend is truly a "top-rated international grad student" she will probably have no difficulty getting into a program somewhere else, but everything up until now might have to be written off.

[coralreefer_1]

As someone doing a second grad degree here and have more than a few years in the Korean University system from the student perspective, I have to wonder..why would she rely on data given by a professor rather than finding her own data? As I have always understood it both form my masters studies in the US, and here in Korea as well, doing the research to actually get the data is just as important as analyzing it and writing out the findings. Considering she is "top-rated" I would have expected no less (I don't mean that as an insult to the person in question)

Tough situation for your friend, but i don't see why she couldn't delay a semester, take the time to get the data herself and write, and enter the PhD program a later. It was mentioned about professors perhaps not signing a second recommendation letter, for entry into a PhD program but she could simply tell the truth...that her data is not sufficient to do the work she and the university feels are up to standards, and would like more time to turn in a complete and thorough thesis. In a case like this, I cant imagine professors would refuse to sign a recommendation letter a semester later.

I would advise against calling out the school or professor publicly. As we all know, causing someone to lose face, or even a university to lose face, is a big issue. It may be ok to discuss it with the professor, but I would highly recommend she find some other living arrangement, even if its living in a jimjilbang for a few weeks until something else comes along.

[rchristo10]

[Hugo85]

She will indeed have problem changing advisor and this is the case anywhere.

But she can get "a second advisor" who will give her "another point of view crucial in deepening the score of the research" or "help to develop another aspect of the methodology in order to strengthen the validity of the method" or any other jargon that doesn't really mean anything.

The point is the first guy is still also her advisor in theory, but in practice isn't. Then she can also rave about how it was "multidisciplinary" and how great the "teamwork" was.

[Seoulman69]

I would start from scratch and ask for an extension. It seems that Korea is different in its approach to writing a thesis. I have always been told that I have to accumulate my own data and then analyze it. I would suggest your friend start again and get her own data.

[rchristo10]

[Hugo85]

Cant she use data from another study even if its from another country? Or raw data from another country. I assune the data is mostly to prove the validity of the methodology. Heck, she could.probably submit without such a case study and make it.clear that her supervisor was not able to provide the required data.

[StudentInKorea]

This situation seems to be quite common here in Korea. From what I understand, your friend is a girl and of Chinese ethnicity? I think that makes her easier for Korean professors to bully around. I have seen countless examples of female SE Asian PhD students being used as slaves, much less so for white males. You simply have to be firm with your professor without being (too) disrespectful.

My uni is trying to reduce the problem by making it easier to switch advisor instead of actually trying to change the professors behaviour. Since international students are more vulnerable to these kind of problems, the administration team for international students at my uni tries to help in these kind of situations and would be the first people to talk with. I don't know if they would be able to give any meaningful help, but it would be a place to start at least. I wouldn't give up quite yet. It might be too late to graduate this semester, but it shouldn't be unrealistic to graduate next semester even if she can't use most of what she has done.

Other than that, I also like the idea of having a different professor as a co-advisor. I did the same thing for my masters. Actually, my main advisor had absolutely nothing to do with my master thesis except for writing his signature 2-3 places.