A PhD student argues industrialized paper production is hollowing out doctoral education
tianyin_xu · x · 2026-11-02
An article written by a current PhD student argues that the doctoral system may be heading toward a fundamental restructuring.
The core irony it identifies: we use an industrialized paper-production system to train people who should be exploring the unknown — research training goals (publishing, hitting graduation metrics) have diverged from the essence of research.
The author writes from a first-hand, in-program perspective, with the full argument in the linked long-form article.
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