Small reflection

In 2022 I did one semester abroad in Spain, and had I been smarter and more attentive, I would foresee what I am now writing in this train to Nürnberg, in a conference travel, the first conference in which I will be a presenting author.

Master’s Degree

Starting my Master’s degree in Europe was a mild cultural shock, to be honest. People here usually do not do research since they are undergrads, or have 5 years Bacherlor’s degrees like it is the case in Brazil for courses like Computer Science, Geology, Medicine and Physics. I came here and people were focusing on, and only on, finishing their degree. You talk to them and the only type of response you can get is that exams are hard and that they are taking a course X and Y. And yes, you read taking and not “I am studying Z or alpha”, or “I am interested in gamma and phi”. Even less “I am doing this project”. And last, you will hardly hear “I am researching X”.

Research? That’s for Master’s thesis, right?

Writing papers and publishing? People do that on their PhD.

And this is why I, with 2 journal publications before finishing my Bachelor’s, suffered so much with the studying culture. People will discredit you because students before having their master’s are basically seen as animals that dont clean their buttholes after pooping. Like you have no skills for doing research, for conducting a study, for reporting your findings. You are not supposed to have freedom.

Then it comes to the “Master’s Thesis” topic. People just go with the flow and that’s it. Too little motivation in my opinion, too much comfort, but a bad comfort sadly.

The title of this post is actually misleading. You cannot force people into research, otherwise they will become bad researchers, trust me. So why are so many people in higher education, and specifically, continuing their degree?

How to solve it?

“Forcing students” already starts wrong. Why are things the way they are? No idea. More reflecion from my side is needed, honestly, but I have some suggestions:

• More salary equality: people seek higher education just because they think they will make mopre money;
• Culture: people that do not have a higher education degree are seen as inferior. Culture does not value the “hard” worker.

Crisis of professionals?

I think that we are close to the point where we have too many specialists and too few basic professionals for demanding tasks.

I was very critic in those last paragraphs, I am quite aware of it. It’s like I am totally disregarding everything else that is not the Higher Education. And we need lot of workers to conduct jobs that require other types of abilites. Who is going to weld the ships that will carry the “bananas” that are brought in Antwerp’s ports[AW]?

There might be a reason why this system happens. Everyone is seeking higher education because of money and not because they like it or have desires.

References

1. Antwerp drugs