Just started a Twitter storm with the extraordinary mllea following my tweet yesterday evening to investigate all PhDs with the same scrutiny and dedication that Mr. zu Guttenberg has been subjected to:
I don’t support zu Guttenberg and I think what he did is simply wrong. But there is another aspect in this story that is being wholly ignored: the role of the German uni system and the blatant incompetence of many, many professors and researchers to communicate “wissenschaftliches Arbeiten”.
My MBA law professor said:
“A pancake can never be so thin, that it doesn´t have 2 sides to it”
So before you condemn, please consider the other side. An underfunded, outdated university setup with many faculty members that have little to no didactic training/skills and low motivation.
Coming from Malawi where education and the teaching profession is highly regarded, I was shocked.
And compared to my recent MBA experience at a US state university, there is a world of difference.
Coincidently another friend commented on my tweet saying: if you check them, the Bundestag will be empty.
In the end I managed to get thru my German university because there are dedicated, thoughtful professors that care. And I would always hire somebody with a Magister in Humanities from a German university because I know they are self-starters with excellent research skills that don’t give up easily. It is a good learning experience.
