Yeah – a bitter truth that one. I scored my second D in my MBA, it happened to be in my last submission – the final project (the so called dissertation as per the whims of my erstwhile Dean). My first D came in my first subject, Financial Accounting - so much so for synchronous scoring pattern.
It left me fuming at my Dean – he was the one who was supposed to evaluate the project. For all that hard work – it certainly didn’t deserve a D. I had even worked on formatting the entire document along with my other project members (yeah – have a laugh, our so-called dissertation had team members – it was our brilliant Dean’s idea). Now before you wonder what is the big deal in formatting a document – well, yours truly has always managed to ignore such innocuous work – leaving it for the toppers to do. After all, the matter inside is what makes the work important, isn’t it? And there lies the fundamental issue. Our dissertation had enough worthwhile material to get a score above D. For all the copy-paste from a zillion web pages – it was a good enough assorted work – at the end of the day, you have to make sense of all those web pages, and utilize only the relevant information.
I was against the idea of a “dissertation” in the first place – and even had a long argument with the Dean. Do notice – I mentioned “long” argument – that is because I exchanged 2 pager mails with him. Don’t ask me why such lengthy mails – that’s because he loves doing things that way. The length of his mails – and his speeches when he just has to say “hello” are atypical of his character. A character which reminds me of “Charlie Chaplin” thanks to his moustache. And a character who loves blabbing – and ensures he holds his sway over certain students because of his sweet talk. That I didn’t like him from the start is a different story – his audacity in changing the course curriculum on his whims almost propelled me to write a piece on his satanic manners with a subject line – A meeting with the Devil. I have always been a rebellious kind – without showcasing it much. But I like to say things as they are – and it still disappoints me that people do not respond in a similar manner.
After having multiple discussions with him – I arrived at a conclusion of sorts. Here was an academic who wanted to prove his mettle at the helm of an MBA course. He listened patiently to suggestions, and acted on none. He wanted to prove that industry plays second fiddle in the world of academics and they have lesser priority even in an MBA. He proves this when he wants a dissertation to be done in 5 months time, in a group of students, which preferably is a study not related to any company or organization, and is based on secondary data as time is at a premium. While people work on dissertations on a longer frame of time – I fail to understand the importance of one in a shortened 1 year course (10 months actually). There is so much research that is required for such a work, and 5 months is simply not ample enough for the work to be anything more than a document whose content is a selective amalgamation of many others. My Dean’s credentials are worthwhile – and he is a master of his own subject. However his attitude reminds of a saying - there are different horses for different courses. With scant respect for the industry in an MBA curriculum, he is probably a pony in a world of stallions.
It left me fuming at my Dean – he was the one who was supposed to evaluate the project. For all that hard work – it certainly didn’t deserve a D. I had even worked on formatting the entire document along with my other project members (yeah – have a laugh, our so-called dissertation had team members – it was our brilliant Dean’s idea). Now before you wonder what is the big deal in formatting a document – well, yours truly has always managed to ignore such innocuous work – leaving it for the toppers to do. After all, the matter inside is what makes the work important, isn’t it? And there lies the fundamental issue. Our dissertation had enough worthwhile material to get a score above D. For all the copy-paste from a zillion web pages – it was a good enough assorted work – at the end of the day, you have to make sense of all those web pages, and utilize only the relevant information.
I was against the idea of a “dissertation” in the first place – and even had a long argument with the Dean. Do notice – I mentioned “long” argument – that is because I exchanged 2 pager mails with him. Don’t ask me why such lengthy mails – that’s because he loves doing things that way. The length of his mails – and his speeches when he just has to say “hello” are atypical of his character. A character which reminds me of “Charlie Chaplin” thanks to his moustache. And a character who loves blabbing – and ensures he holds his sway over certain students because of his sweet talk. That I didn’t like him from the start is a different story – his audacity in changing the course curriculum on his whims almost propelled me to write a piece on his satanic manners with a subject line – A meeting with the Devil. I have always been a rebellious kind – without showcasing it much. But I like to say things as they are – and it still disappoints me that people do not respond in a similar manner.
After having multiple discussions with him – I arrived at a conclusion of sorts. Here was an academic who wanted to prove his mettle at the helm of an MBA course. He listened patiently to suggestions, and acted on none. He wanted to prove that industry plays second fiddle in the world of academics and they have lesser priority even in an MBA. He proves this when he wants a dissertation to be done in 5 months time, in a group of students, which preferably is a study not related to any company or organization, and is based on secondary data as time is at a premium. While people work on dissertations on a longer frame of time – I fail to understand the importance of one in a shortened 1 year course (10 months actually). There is so much research that is required for such a work, and 5 months is simply not ample enough for the work to be anything more than a document whose content is a selective amalgamation of many others. My Dean’s credentials are worthwhile – and he is a master of his own subject. However his attitude reminds of a saying - there are different horses for different courses. With scant respect for the industry in an MBA curriculum, he is probably a pony in a world of stallions.
Did this story of mine sound like a case of grapes turned sour? It might, but I also think it is the same with my Dean – no wonder he remains an academic and not an industry person.
