How to opt out of the Karma System

[Calandale]

Well as long as you publish a paper now and then, you can pretty much be a bum after you get your PhD. Personally if I go for one myself i would like to have finished it in my mid twenties.

Not if you want a decent position.
You really do have to keep working
away pretty hard, for a while.

[Lucifer]

Do you want a Phd so badly though... Is it an excuse to avoid getting a job for you?

But of course.

Eh, I don't know if I want one all that much.
I just rather like the school atmosphere.
And I THOUGHT that I'd be able to fall
in love with research - but I kinda think not.

I'll probably just wind up a bum again.

Well as long as you publish a paper now and then, you can pretty much be a bum after you get your PhD. Personally if I go for one myself i would like to have finished it in my mid twenties.

no chance.  not with the changes in the HE system.  it did used to be like that, but not any more.

[Christopher McCandless]

Do you want a Phd so badly though... Is it an excuse to avoid getting a job for you?

But of course.

Eh, I don't know if I want one all that much.
I just rather like the school atmosphere.
And I THOUGHT that I'd be able to fall
in love with research - but I kinda think not.

I'll probably just wind up a bum again.

Well as long as you publish a paper now and then, you can pretty much be a bum after you get your PhD. Personally if I go for one myself i would like to have finished it in my mid twenties.

no chance.  not with the changes in the HE system.  it did used to be like that, but not any more.

In the UK you are right, but if you move abroad you can still get permanent tenure. Plus they pay you more elsewhere, in the UK everything is chronically underfunded, which translates in to academics having to do more work. If you overspecialise, you can still get tenure for a few things here I think.

[The_Chosen_One]

There should be tenure for lecturers and teachers, otherwise you get people who aren't committed to their jobs.