Abused in academia: A cautionary tale

Between December 2016 and December 2019, I was a postdoctoral fellow at a university that shall remain nameless. I was recruited to work on a project researching the “institutional culture” of the university itself, commissioned by the deputy vice-chancellor: academic .

I also suggested she shouldn’t have access to interview recordings or transcripts until they had been anonymised. Her response was: “You could do that but I’ll know who they are anyway.” I was relieved to be “poached” because my relationship with the DVC was reaching a dead end. Then the new professor proposed that perhaps we could also take the institutional culture project to her centre.

I spent several days in torment about this but then she reinstated it, and I ended up moving to her centre — essentially jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Still, I did the job diligently, consoling myself that, by the end, I’d have my first completed PhD supervision under my belt. This is a career milestone and a requirement when applying for some academic jobs.

I was being replaced. This made me livid. I’d spent my time doing the professor’s work, supervising her student, for two years, and now would have nothing to show for it. So, I replied, asking either to be reinstated as supervisor or else reimbursed financially. She refused.

This issue is reminiscent of the apartheid era university life of aspirant undergraduates who were boldly told by Afrikaner lectures that only a handful of students will make it through to graduation,especially in the sciences' degrees,which unfortunately happened!

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