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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that a university student should be doing their own research for a dissertation?

98 replies

ivykaty44 · 30/10/2011 11:49

Not your parent?

This parent is telephoning relevant places on behalf the student to ask whether they have the material needed - surely the student should be using a telephone and calling these places.

AIBU

OP posts:
rhondajean · 30/10/2011 12:39

Hmmm depends on the extent of the phone calls IMO. DH is in final year of his degree; Ive quite often found him contacts from my own list, or signposted him to books, or brought home materials I though might be useful.

I dont read - analysie - write up anything ; the thought processes are entirely his own. I also tell him how and where I found the information so that he is learning how to do that part of it. I will without doubt do the same for my children later on if I can help.

rhondajean · 30/10/2011 12:39

Oh yeah, I proof read too.

southeastastra · 30/10/2011 12:41

proof reading isn't the same as actually calling up for research is it.

will look crap if person is also going for work in that field and they employer would remember their mummy's calling for help Grin

isn't a dissertation done in the last year?

Salmotrutta · 30/10/2011 12:45

YANBU at all - there's a lot of it about these days.
It often starts at the interview stage for courses like medicine. Parents accompany their children and sit "hand-holding" or following them around during Open Days.
Or phoning up to discuss exam results with tutors/lecturers.
Not that they get very far with querying results because the students are adults by that stage and such things are confidential between the student and the university.

EllaDee · 30/10/2011 12:45

It just seems worth saying that proofreading is a whole different story! Grin

hardboiledpossum · 30/10/2011 12:47

I think proof reading could actually be worse. Ringing up a few places isn't doing any of the intellectual work, just the time consuming stuff. Reading through an essay and pointing out which bit they need to expand on is intellectual help and will probable impact on the grade.

EllaDee · 30/10/2011 12:48

IMO that isn't proofreading hard, is it? Proofreading is for spellin and grammar.

motherinferior · 30/10/2011 12:49

I'm amazed, naively, at all of this. Back in the day when I did a degree, no way would you have involved any relatives for help. Mind you, dinosaurs regularly roamed past at that time...

Salmotrutta · 30/10/2011 12:50

Proof reading for spelling and grammar - fair enough. Anything else is overstepping the bounds of what is the student's own work.

ovenchips · 30/10/2011 12:51

And if a parent doesn't help their grown up child in that scenario it really does not automatically follow that it's because they don't give a shit.

Salmotrutta · 30/10/2011 12:52

I agree motherinferior - none of my generation dragged parents into anything. Even if they wanted to help they were usually kept firmly at arm's length! Grin

EllaDee · 30/10/2011 12:52

spelling* and grammar. I swear that was an honest mistake! Grin

Salmotrutta · 30/10/2011 12:53
Grin
hardboiledpossum · 30/10/2011 12:54

ImperialBlether would tell her daughter if an argument was developed thoroughly. Presumably her daughter would then act on that and change things, thus gaining her more marks. Pluse there are mark for spelling and grammar.

I imagine when the mother in the OP is calling around places she wouldn't be getting any different info than if the daughter had done it herself, so it's not really effecting her grade.

PHD students have assistants to help them gather info

motherinferior · 30/10/2011 12:54

Even spelling and grammar a bit odd, imo. But then mine was an English degree, so spelling and grammar were a bit fundamental to the dissertation, really.

southeastastra · 30/10/2011 12:56

yeah but they don't teach grammar like they used to do innit

Sirzy · 30/10/2011 12:57

Motherinferior. I am doing a degree at present and we are actively encouraged to get someone to proof read for us to check spelling and grammar. In my case my mum is the best person I know for that so she does it!

motherinferior · 30/10/2011 12:57

None of this is exactly conducive to intellectual rigour, I must say. Quite apart from Life Skills, ability to function independently, and so on.

laptopdancer · 30/10/2011 12:57

I have a dissertation student who's mother is doing this (wonder if its the same one).Its not a problem for me as the mother has contacts and is using them wisely.

akaemwahahahafrost · 30/10/2011 13:00

Well I think it is up to the parent and the student and not really anyone elses business.

laptopdancer · 30/10/2011 13:01

Its is completely out of the parent's field of work its odd but if, for example, the parents works in the area in question it can actually help.

EllaDee · 30/10/2011 13:01

Cor, can I have one of them assistants then hard? Wink

I tell my students to proofread for each other as an exercise. It works well. Yes, there are marks for it, but there are also dictionaries made available. The idea is not to be perfect without trying, it's to learn how to spot mistakes - with the awareness no-one will do it for you in the exam.

I think, btw, that the idea anyone can spot where an argument needs developing is pretty patronizing to your adult children, unless you are a specialist in the same area, in which case it's simply unfair and detrimental to their learning process.

A student I had last year had a boyfriend doing the MA (ie. two years ahead of her in his studies). She was very open about it. However, it was extremely obvious when he'd misguidedly told her where the mistakes in her argument lay. She'd come up with an essay that was a patchwork of inappropriately MA-style argument, bits elaborated where I knew she did not have the skill to do so, and a poor understanding of how the whole thing might possibly fit together. She was better writing on her own and just discussing the topic with him, I suspect. Could be wrong though as you never quite know how someone works in private.

laptopdancer · 30/10/2011 13:03

Im showing my phd draft to my dad. I am 46 lol

crystalglasses · 30/10/2011 13:03

hardboiledpossum - PhD students do not have assistants to help them gather info.

hardboiledpossum · 30/10/2011 13:03

Is the problem that people just think it's teaching the student to be lazy? Or that it's putting the student at an unfair advantage?

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